The Feminisation of Global Migration: Professional Sri Lankan Women in New Zealand

Abstract

The migration of highly educated single women from developing to developed countries is a phenomenon of the global knowledge labour market. While it is a response to the requirements of that market it has considerable effect on both sending and receiving countries and on the lives of the young women migrants. This thesis examines the experiences of six Sri Lankan female knowledge migrants who are highly educated professionals and recent migrants to New Zealand. Its purpose is to contribute to a greater understanding of the feminised character of professional global migration by identifying how the phenomenon was experienced by these independent young women. Four significant features were identified in the case studies of the women's experiences. The first showed that the desire for independence and gender equality was the result of the women's advanced education in Sri Lanka but it took migration to the liberal New Zealand environment for that independence to be achieved. The second feature concerns the complex negotiation that occurred as the women's relationships with their parents changed. Rather than a rift developing between liberalised young women and traditionally focused parents, both parties accommodated the changes to the women so that the relationship could be maintained. A third feature concerned the young women's attitudes towards marriage partners and future family life including considering marrying outside their ethnicity or putting their careers before marriage and families. The fourth feature was the complex interaction between traditional Sri Lankan values and the culture of the modern independent professional woman living on her own in a liberal society. While the women rejected the inequalities inherent in traditional gender roles they maintained Sri Lankan cultural values such as concern with social status, wealth accumulation, and family dignity that could be adapted and personalised to their lives in New Zealand. The highly educated sons and daughters of the South Asian middle class are moving into the globalised professions at a rapid rate. This phenomenon has the potential to affect a number of sites: the social and cultural capital of the traditional home country, the new host country, and the globalised knowledge labour market more widely. The study suggests that gender equality is a key factor in the migration patterns of highly educated independent young women. If Sri Lanka wishes to retain this group it needs to develop policies that encourage the nation's female population to actively participate in the economy. Such policies should recognise women's desire both for employment and for equality. It is the liberal environment of gender equality available in New Zealand that is the main reason for that country's appeal to this group of highly educated professional women. Given the increasingly feminised character of global migration by well-educated professionals, the desire for gender equality is one that both developed and developed countries need to recognise.