Protection or Discrimination? The Case of Nepal’s Policy Banning Female Migrant Workers

Abstract

Increasing numbers of female labour migrants are independently going abroad for work, which offers them new economic opportunities but also exposes them to risks. These international movements are often preceded by rural–urban migration, which brings its own challenges for female migrants. The feminization of international labour migration is a global trend today, especially evident in Asia and governments have introduced different laws and policies to ensure safer migration. This chapter introduces a policy that has been adopted by several Asian countries which bans female migrant workers from going to certain countries with the rationale of protecting them from possible harm and abuse. The chapter uses the case of Nepal to argue that governments use this policy despite knowing its lack of effectiveness in protecting women from abuse because it provides a short-term solution, allows for blame avoidance and because of their own limitation to influence another country’s laws to protect their migrant workers.