Back and forth with hopes and fears: Sri Lankan men's narratives on gender and mobility in transnational livelihoods

Although in the past Sri Lanka has had a higher number of women migrant workers, recent statistics show that the gap between the percentages of female and male migrants is decreasing. Since 2007, male migrants have outnumbered female migrants. The article explores how Sri Lankan men have responded to the increased economic needs of their families and lack of proper income-generating activities within the country by engaging in transnational livelihoods, as well as how their roles and identities are contested and negotiated through labour migration. The study is based on men's narratives on their reasons for migration and their experiences of transnational labour migration. The concepts of hope and life course are used to analyse the intertwined relationships of gender and mobility in transnational livelihoods. The author identifies that men's mobility is motivated by their hopes of fulfilling traditional gender norms as providers and protectors of their families in combination with their new identity as successful men. Further, the study provides evidence that men's mobility is not only gendered but also a repeated act during their life course. The study contributes to strengthen research on mobility and gender by adding men's perspectives on transnational labour migration.     

Asian Labor Recruitment and the World Wide Web

International labor migration is produced and patterned through the activities of government and private institutions, such as labor recruiters and government officials. Recently, labor recruitment agencies have utilized the World Wide Web as a means of facilitating the procurement of foreign employment contracts. The purpose of this research is to examine the institutional usage of the Web as a means to facilitate the global flow of labor. Based on a qualitative assessment of 27 recruitment-related Web sites, I suggest that Web-based recruitment reinforces global patterns of gendered, racial, and occupational segregation. Moreover, Web-based recruitment offers the potential for revolutionizing patterns and processes of international labor migration.     

劳动市场中介对上海外来女性劳动力就业的影响

在中国的城市化进程中,女性如男性一样大量地流向经济发达城市寻求就业。在劳动力资源配置的市场化改革中,劳动中介已广泛地存在于城市的劳动力市场上,影响着劳动者的就业和劳动力市场的运行状况。因此,考察和明确城市劳动中介机构对外来女性劳动者就业的影响,无论对提高其劳动市场产出还是对政府制定有针对性的就业服务政策都是十分必要的。本文在描述上海劳动市场中介机构现状的基础上,利用2006年对外来人口的调查数据,分析了上海外来女性劳动者的劳动中介使用特征以及中介使用对其工资水平、工作条件等就业质量的影响。结果显示,外来女性对本地中介机构的使用频率比较低,而且本地中介机构的使用会降低她们的劳动市场产出;原因可能在于正规就业服务的不足和大量不良劳动中介机构的存在。     

Female migration to Taipei: process and adaptation

Women form an increasing proportion of migrants and of the non-agricultural labor force in Taiwan. However, many questions regarding female migration in Taiwan have remained unanswered since the focus of the migration literature in the past has been on male migration. This paper examines the decision process of rural-urban migration and adaptation of rural female migrants to the Taipei metropolis. The analysis is based on interviews of 96 female migrants who have moved to Taipei from villages. The reasons for migration are severalfold. With rapid expansion of employment in the manufacturing and urban service sectors, women are attracted to urban occupations, most of which require unskilled labor. Migrants are also motivated by psycho-social reasons. The "glamour" and "convenience" of city and greater chances for further education through work-study programs are all perceived by migrants to provide alternatives to hard and unrewarding farm lives. Though the initiative and final decision to move come from the migrants themselves, most only do so, however, with the consent and advice of their parents. The choice of moving to Taipei, rather than some other city, is mainly influenced by friends or relatives who are alrady there. Their initial jobs and accommodations are arranged by friends and relatives. The majority of women are employed in unskilled or semi-skilled occupations. Even though they change jobs frequently in order to find better employment terms and pay, they experience limited upward mobility. Homesickness, unfamiliarity with the city environment, limited resoureces, and social lives are major problems for the rural female. Freequent home vistits are made in between jobs to relieve themselves of homesickness and the pressures of city life. Once settled, they do not segreate themselves by village origin in their occupation or palces of residence in the city, but they have a tendency to interact socially with other migrants of rural origin rather than city people.     

Failing to Grow "Their" Own Justice? The Co-Production of Racial/Gendered Labor and Milwaukee's Urban Forest

Little attention is paid to the ways that labor market inequalities within urban institutions enforce governance regimes that (re)produce urban environmental unevenness. Milwaukee's Bureau of Forestry is one such institution that has historically been dependent on state-sanctioned labor market inequalities to perpetuate an explicitly White/male regime of environmental governance and production. Historically, the Bureau's management employed and promoted very few African Americans and women within its arboricultural workforce, based on its racist and gendered categories of laboring individuals. Furthermore, and for identical reasons, these workers—and by extension their communities—face distributional injustices as they are not allowed to channel their labors into the production of equitable and/or alternative forms of urban forests more suitable to their own social reproduction. This paper investigates the changing relations between Milwaukee's Bureau of Forestry and its African American and female employees as they attempt to legally (re)articulate their laboring identities and capabilities within a disempowering institution. We use in-depth interviews and archival materials to show that the Bureau of Forestry has consequently been forced to publicly confront its racist/patriarchal legacy in light of two recent high-profile lawsuits and an ambassadors program. We conclude by discussing how changes that allow some African Americans and women to work in Milwaukee's urban forest have affected the Bureau of Forestry and potentially the forest itself.     

Gender,migration and the organisation of work under economic devolution: Ecuador, 1982-90

This study examined the impact of economic deficits due to structural adjustment processes on shifts in the organization of work by gender and migration status in Ecuador. Work is organized according to Lawson's social hierarchy scheme: ownership; authority and control over employees; autonomy in one's own work; and the nature and range of skills used in production. After a brief review of the related empirical literature, the author describes the concepts, categories of, and study area of work and then begins the empirical analysis. Data were obtained from 1,884,816 individual records of economically active persons in 1982 and 2,946,547 persons in 1990, from the censuses of 1982 and 1990 for the entire nation, and from fieldwork observations by Lawson. Structural adjustment policies (SAPs) associated with devolution tend to further aggravate inequities, especially among the disadvantaged. Findings are presented for male and female nonmigrants, migrants, and female migrants. During the 1980s, female migrants experienced primary economic activity, especially as self-employed, family, or low skilled employees; and declines in high skilled public sector employment and service activity, especially in wage labor. The economic impact was greater by gender than by migration status. The shifts only improved the relative position of women in self-employed and ownership jobs. Females lost public-sector employment to males; overall wage declines were more severe in the informal sector. Down-sizing in the public sector and shifts toward capital-intensive production marginalized female migrants. Fieldwork operationalizes losses among females/female migrants.     

地方城市的人口回流与移民战略——基于深圳-驻马店的调查研究

改革开放30 多年来,沿海大都市和内陆地方城市之间的发展差距不断拉大,其中人口流动是重要动因。因此,如何吸引人口回流,留住本地人才,是内陆地方城市未来发展的关键。在此背景下,以驻马店为案例地,通过实地调研和问卷访谈,探讨了在深圳市的驻马店籍人口的回流意愿,以及当前驻马店的人口回流状况,并重点对回流创业者与回流购房者的回流动因、地域选择、就业动向及预期等进行了调查分析。研究表明,以驻马店为代表的地方城市已出现了以U-turn 与I-turn 为主的人口回流现象,且回流人口大都从事或打算从事与之前就业行业相关的创业活动。已发现有两种主动回流类型,即创业回流和购房回流。其中,购房回流也可看作是创业回流的前奏,二者可理解为同一回流过程的两个阶段。如果地方政府能够做出积极的政策引导,回流人口及其带动的返乡经济可望成为地方城市摆脱发展困境的一个新战略。     

The Web-based Recruitment of Female Foreign Domestic Workers in Asia

In the last three decades, there has been an increased "feminisation" of international migration within the Asian region. In part, the increased mobility of women migrant workers within Asia has resulted from the increased bureaucratic regulation of labour migration. This commodification of the migratory process, however, has placed women in significantly more vulnerable positions vis-´-vis their male counterparts. Comparatively little research, however, has examined the critical role of private recruitment agencies, and especially the use of the Internet, within the migratory process. In this paper, I examine the Web-based recruitment strategies of private recruitment agencies in Asia. Based on a qualitative analysis of 25 recruitment-related Web sites, I suggest that the commercialisation of migration serves an important "socialisation" process that contributes to the vulnerability and exploitation of female foreign domestic workers.     

非正规就业:女性人力资本积累的一种方式——以广州芳村茶叶市场茶艺表演业为例

非正规就业对女性的影响一直是非正规就业研究的重点,其中许多研究认为,从事非正规就业的女性往往难以实现向上发展而强化了自身弱势地位.这类研究忽视了非正规性的多样化性质,过度地强调了非正规就业对女性的负面影响.本研究以广州市芳村茶叶市场茶艺表演业为例,使用观察、问卷调查和深度访谈的方法研究了非正规就业对女性人力资本积累与向...     

Gendered Spaces of Informal Entrepreneurship in Soweto,South Africa

Abstract

The full diversity of economic activities in the informal economy is not well understood. The apartheid legacy of limiting informal entrepreneurship explains the most obvious geographical patterns in South Africa. After a decade and a half since the end of apartheid, however, knowledge about the places from which informal entrepreneurs operate is incomplete. Retailing is overemphasized and production firm entrepreneurs, both male and female, remain a neglected spatiality. This study reports on a survey of 100 firms in Soweto and in-depth interviews with 30 firm owners. The findings challenge the representations of isolated urban entrepreneurs dependent on inherited social capital and of women's exclusive engagement in retail. Entrepreneurs create their own social capital in work-related realms, but there are important gender differences. More finely tuned conceptualizations of entrepreneurs and of gendered working spaces need to be developed so that policy does not perpetuate unitary myths and incomplete spatial representations. [Key words: entrepreneurship, Soweto, informal economy, gender.]     

The making and unmaking of gendered crops in northern Ghana

In rural West Africa, the gendered division of labour extends to labelling certain crops as 'male' or 'female'. With the introduction of new varieties of crops and technologies, these constructions of gendered plants undergo a process of renegotiation at social intrafaces. This process of attaching meaning to new features in cultivation results in the remaking of gendered crops. These negotiations, in turn, have an effect on the construction of gender in specific ethnic and environmental settings, unlinking labour from its gendered connotations and, thus, unmaking the social meaning and creating room for manoeuvre. Based on fieldwork among the Dagomba and Kusasi people in northern Ghana, this study examines how gendered responsibilities and access to the cultivation of crops are linked and expressed in obligations related to the cultural ideal of a proper meal, in this case consisting of the food categories (male) staple and (female) soup, which serve as the blueprint for assigning crops to a specific gender.     

20 世纪90 年代中国乡镇企业变革及其地方效应

以1993 年和2000 年对中国七个不同乡镇的近百家乡镇企业和近4000 名企业职工两次 实地调研的数据为基础, 运用实证研究的方法, 探讨了20 世纪90 年代中国乡镇企业改制过 程中乡镇财政收入、乡镇企业职工工资和福利以及农村劳动力转移的变化。结果表明： 乡镇 企业改制对我国农村地区的社会经济造成了较为深刻的影响, 由于乡镇工业发展缓慢和集体工业的改制, 私营经济成为农村经济的主体, 其与乡镇政府的直接经济联系有所减弱, 乡镇企业税收对财政的支撑作用有所减弱; 乡镇企业职工工资有不同程度的增长, 但增长幅度不大, 乡镇企业职工的福利没有得到显著改善, 土地的社会保障功能仍然十分突出; 私营企业 通过提高劳动效率、加大劳动强度和增加劳动时间来增加企业效益, 这也导致90 年代后期乡镇企业对劳动力吸引能力的减弱。乡镇企业劳动力市场基本还局限在镇区范围, 只有当镇区劳动力资源短缺时, 跨区域的劳动力市场才会发育。     

The Making of the New Urban Poor in Transitional China: Market Versus Institutionally Based Exclusion

Market transition excludes a great number of industrial workers from former state-owned enterprises from the newly established labor market. On the other hand, the market economy absorbs millions of rural migrants into the cities. But the institution of household registration discriminates against migrants in public services. Although there is a noticeable problem of urban poverty in China, this article argues that there is no unified poverty caused by a single mechanism. Our study contrasts two poverty groups and compares their characteristics. It is found that the migrant poor tend to be younger with lower educational attainment but with a very high job participation rate, and live predominantly in private rental housing. The poor in permanently registered households are older and thus suffer the risk of market redundancy, but mainly stay in public or ex-public housing with less residential mobility. These features reflect their different connections to the market and institutional exclusion.     

Gender and Water in Mongolia

Global institutions, academics, and practitioners have long acknowledged the need to consider gender in creating sustainable water management plans. However, for most countries a dearth of context-specific information on gender and water relations hinders gender-sensitive plan development. Mongolia is particularly poorly represented in the gender and water literature. This article presents fieldwork revealing distinctive gendered practices around water use, decision making, and management including an unusually high degree of men's participation in water collection. This research adds new context-specific data to the understanding of actual gender and water relations and underscores the need for further investigation into the Mongolian context.     

基于农户调查的山区劳动力转移特征分析——以修武县西村乡为例

基于河南省修武县西村乡的8个村108份有效农户调查问卷,分析了现阶段山区农村劳动力转移特征。结果显示:(1)农村劳动力转移方向以焦作市内务工为主,工种主要集中于技能要求较低的建筑、餐饮服务及工厂务工。(2)性别和年龄结构上,女性年龄多在16~25岁之间,而男性则没有明显特征,只是在21~30岁的年龄段上比重较大。(3)相对于在家务工劳动力,外出务工劳动力受教育程度相对较高,其工资收入与其文化程度呈正向相关。总之,研究区农村剩余劳动力转移处于较低水平,急需大力推进劳动力素质培训。     

不同受教育水平女性流动人口的就业差异研究——以福建省为例

通过对福建省女性流动人口的调查,获取不同受教育水平的女性流动人口的就业信息,对受教育水平为"文盲半文盲"、"小学"、"初中"、"高中/中专"和"大专及以上"5组女性流动群体的就业特征以及差异进行研究。结果表明:受教育水平越高的流动女性的就业层次越高、通过正式的市场找到工作的比例越高、获得较高收入水平的比例也越大;受教育水平越低的流动女性的工资越容易遭到拖欠,劳动强度越大,工作越不稳定,获得职业技术培训的比例越低且受培训愿望越不强烈。因此,有必要从提高女性流动人口整体素质,拓宽就业信息网络,规范劳动用工市场等方面采取相关政策以提高女性流动人口的就业能力、保护其就业权益。     

“人口回流”视角下的中部地区乡村振兴——对湖北“毛嘴模式”的实证

采用质性研究方法,以中部地区湖北的“毛嘴模式”为例,围绕武汉汉正街与仙桃毛嘴镇的城乡联系问题,研究人口回流及返乡创业所带动的地方发展,解析其对乡村振兴的重要作用。研究发现：①劳动力回流受家庭需求、家乡发展环境等多重因素影响;资本回流的主要影响因素是雇佣“本地化”劳动力,也涉及城市更新及其“外部性”效应的间接影响;②技能型劳动力回流以及企业家在城-乡间的高频流动,有利于发挥流动人口的“桥梁”作用;③回流人口主要从事与之前就业相关的行业,倾向于在镇区或市区购买商品房,促进了乡村经济转型,同时利于社会资本的培育,重塑了乡村社会空间。     

Heavy burdens: Gendered livelihood strategies of porters in Accra,Ghana

Urban poverty is invariably linked to sociospatial dimensions of livelihood strategies. Gendered social relations, for example, have been seen to impact the ability of females to access resources, to gain assets, and to engage in viable income‐generating activities. Focussing on the livelihood strategies of the urban poor as they intersect with neoliberal economic reforms in contemporary Ghana, this paper draws on a field‐based survey of porters in Accra, mostly migrants from rural agricultural northern Ghana, whose primary livelihoods derive from transporting goods for clients in congested market areas of the urban industrial south. The paper highlights the gendered aspects of porters' livelihood experiences such as differences in migration patterns, reliance on physical labour and living conditions, which relatively few analyses have examined, especially as these relate to wider socioeconomic processes. The study illustrates how this perspective is important to understand the intersection of livelihood strategies, gender and national economic reforms in promoting both rural and urban development.     

A GENDER-SENSITIVE URBAN FACTORIAL ECOLOGY MALE,FEMALE, GROUPED,AND GENDERED SOCIAL SPACES IN SASKATOON

Significant social, demographic, and economic changes related to gender have occurred within North American cities in the past generation. It is hypothesized that these changes may have led to the emergence of distinct male and female social spaces that have not been fully accommodated within the classical urban factorial ecologies. This paper compares and analyzes four gender-specific data bases (male-oriented, female-oriented, grouped, and gendered) through a series of four factorial ecologies for census tracts in the city of Saskatoon, Canada. It is discovered that, at an aggregate level of analysis, both male and female social spaces are similar when assessed in terms of the composition of the components, the saturation levels, the correlations between components, and the spatial distribution of the component scores. However, separation of gender into different data sets leads us to the conclusion that subtle gender-specific differences, formerly masked by classical factorial ecologies, are clarified by this gender-sensitive approach. These subtle distinctions also lead us to question the validity of the labels traditionally attached to the components in classical factorial ecologies     

Socio-spatial segregation in China and migrants’ everyday life experiences: the case of Wenzhou

Although internal migration is one of the most frequently discussed aspects of China’s twenty-first century urbanization, much of the research in this area emphasizes megacities. This paper, however, focuses on Wenzhou, a Chinese city that served as a national model for the introduction of small-scale private enterprise in the 1990s. Through a survey of migrants living in the subdistrict of Shuangyu, a settlement dominated by manufacturing workers, this article argues that socio-spatial segregation research should pay more holistic attention to migrants’ use of urban space, beyond simply place of residence. Focusing on how migrants use space in several aspects of their everyday lives, this article contends that Shuangyu is socially and spatially segregated from other parts of the city. Rather than neatly incorporated into the rest of the city, migrant settlement in Wenzhou is both marginalized and independent. We thus theorize Shuangyu’s place in Wenzhou’s new socio-spatial structure as a “city within the city.”