Abstract:
Restrictions imposed by the Government of India on the
emigration of women in ‘unskilled’ categories such as domestic work
are framed as measures intended to protect women from exploitation.
Special protection for certain categories of emigrant women workers
makes way for gendered conceptions of citizenship and sovereignty
through the use of gender to assert control over space in ways that
curtail women’s access to mobility and emigrant work opportunities.
However, restrictions have directed potential migrants to the use of
informal / illegal processes in connivance with state agencies. Whereas,
intermediaries, including recruiting agents and government officials,
profit from the use of informal / illegal processes by prospective emigrants
and hence they have an interest in rendering these more effective than
formal processes established by the state, we argue that the gender
politics around movement provides an enabling condition for both state
restrictions and the burgeoning of informal / illegal processes. To spell
out the implications of state policy on emigrant women domestic
workers, the paper compares their position and experience of migration
with that of emigrant nurses on the one hand and outmigrant fish
processing workers on the other. It also explores the nature of women’s
agency involved when domestic workers resist state policy and social
norms to emigrate through informal / illegal means.
