Can Money Buy Them Power? A Re-Evaluation of Women's Transnational Labor Migration and Their Household Empowerment in Sri Lanka

Transnational migration, changing care arrangements and left-behind children's responses in South-east Asia

“…They also serve as essential substitute carers when left-behind fathers fail in their caregiving roles (Senaratna 2012 ). Nevertheless, the limited studies on grandparent-carers in Asia hint at an arrangement that is potentially fraught with tensions and negotiations, sometimes leading to a restructuring or weakening of ties, and estranged relationships between the older generation, their migrant adult children and their left-behind grandchildren (Bruijn et al 1992 ; Gamburd 2000 ; Handapangoda 2012 ; Hoang, Yeoh, and Wattie 2012 ; Hugo 2002 ). As evidenced in Gamburd's ( 2000 ) study in Sri Lanka, conflicts between migrants and their own parents or parents-in-law often arise when remittances are disrupted or there are disputes over differences in caring practices between the generations.…”

Labor Migration and Gender Empowerment: A Case Study of Housemaids

“…Given the complex nature of the issue, a concise definition of women empowerment in a household is not possible. Therefore, the definition (Note 4) of the United Nations Population Information Network is adopted for this study which considers following points while measuring women's empowerment; women's relative monetary contribution to the household and ownership over their earnings, improved role in household decision-making, and their perceived status within the household (Handapangoda, 2012). Since the study is about migrant unskilled workers, we ignored many factors of women empowerment which other researchers ( Malik & Courtney, 2011;Pitt, Khandker and Cartwright, 2003) studied such as controlling savings and loans, political awareness, etc.…”