Abstract
This chapter examines the ways in which the unequally gendered structures of opportunity in Ethiopia drive and sustain the migration of women to the Middle East. The chapter begins by situating the migration trajectory of Ethiopian women in the context of broader trends of migration within and from Ethiopia, analysing how migration patterns are gendered in terms of legality, direction, and duration. I go on to argue that the gender differentiation in demographic changes, unemployment, and education cumulatively produce structural conditions in Ethiopia that are drivers of young women’s migration. The chapter then assesses the Ethiopian government’s policies towards migration, which seek to regulate and restrict migration. The central paradox that the chapter exposes is that, on the one hand, structural conditions in Ethiopia propel the migration of women, which is critical to the survival of the women and their families. On the other hand, the Ethiopian government’s legislation to regulate migration seeks to restrict and control the mobility of women without adequately supporting or protecting those who do migrate. The chapter ends with an outline of the regular and irregular pathways through which women migrate.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Villagisation in Ethiopia was a socialist programme begun during the Derg regime in the 1980s to forcibly relocate large segments of the rural population into new village settlements that were re-organised spatially into grid-patterns, and politically and economically into agricultural collectives.
- 2.
As reported in Al Jazeera, see https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/saudi-arabia-release-1000-ethiopian-prisoners-180520053522987.html.
- 3.
From 15.7 years for women aged 45–49 to 18.1 years for women between 20 and 24 (Teller et al. 2011: 51).
- 4.
Data from http://uis.unesco.org/country/ET, accessed 20 December 2018.
- 5.
Young Lives is a major international longitudinal research project on child poverty which follows the lives of children growing up in four countries. In Ethiopia, the study focussed on a cohort of children born in 1994. See https://www.younglives.org.uk.
References
Abella, M. 2004. The Role of Recruiters in Labor Migration. In International Migration: Prospects and Policies in a Global Market, ed. D. Massey and J.E. Taylor. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Allen, Tim. 1996. In Search of Cool Ground: War, Flight and Homecoming in Northeast Africa. London: James Currey.
Broussard, Nzinga, and Tsegay Tekleselassie. 2012. Youth Unemployment: Ethiopia Country Study. London: International Growth Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Camfield, Laura. 2011. ‘A Girl Never Finishes Her Journey’: Mixing Methods to Understand Female Experiences of Education in Contemporary Ethiopia. Research Papers in Education 26 (4): 393–412.
Campbell, John. 2009. Caught Between the Ideology and Realities of Development, Transiting from the Horn of Africa to Europe. The LSE Migration Studies Unit Working Papers No. 2009/01, 1–29.
Carter, Becky, and Brigitte Rohwerder. 2016. Rapid Fragility and Migration Assessment for Ethiopia (Rapid Literature Review). Birmingham, UK: GSDRC, University of Birmingham.
Cross, Hannah M. 2009. The EU Migration Regime and West African Clandestine Migrants. Journal of Contemporary European Research 5 (2): 171–187.
de Regt, Marina. 2010. Ways to Come, Ways to Leave: Gender, Mobility, and Il/Legality Among Ethiopian Domestic Workers in Yemen. Gender and Society 24 (2): 237–260.
———. 2014. Close Ties: Gender, Labour and Migration Between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. In Why Yemen Matters: A Society in Transition, ed. Helen Lackner, 287–303. London: Saqi Books.
de Regt, Marina, and Medareshaw Tafesse. 2016. Deported Before Experiencing the Good Sides of Migration: Ethiopians Returning from Saudi Arabia. African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal 9 (2): 228–242.
Demissie, Fassil. 2017. Ethiopians in an Age of Migration: Scattered Lives Beyond Borders. Abingdon, Oxon, New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis.
Dom, Catherine. 2017. Migrating for Work from Rural Communities (2010–2013). In Change and Transformation in Twenty Rural Communities in Ethiopia: Selected Aspects and Implications for Policy: Ethiopia WIDE Tracking Communities Since 1994, ed. Alula Pankhurst. Addis Ababa: Pankhurst Development Research and Consulting Plc.
———. 2018. Economic Experiences of Rural Young People in 2018. WIDE Series III Discussion Brief No. 4. Accessed December 20, 2018. http://ethiopiawide.net/wp-content/uploads/WIDEBridge_DB4_Young-peoples-economic-experiences_2018.pdf.
FDRE National Planning Commission. 2017. Ethiopia’s Progress Towards Eradicating Poverty: An Interim Report on Poverty Analysis Study (2010/11). September 2017. Addis Ababa: National Planning Commission.
FDRE-MOE. 2015. Educational Statistics Annual Abstract 2006 E.C. (2013/2014). Federal Negarit Gazette No. 67, 17 August 2015, 8329–8330. Addis Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Education.
Fernandez, Bina. 2011. Household Help? Ethiopian Women Domestic Workers’ Labor Migration to the Gulf Countries. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 20 (3–4): 433–457.
———. 2013. Traffickers, Brokers, Employment Agents, and Social Networks: The Regulation of Intermediaries in the Migration of Ethiopian Domestic Workers to the Middle East. International Migration Review 47 (4): 814–843.
———. 2017. Irregular Migration from Ethiopia to the Gulf States. In Skilful Survivals—Irregular Migration to the Gulf, ed. Philippe Fargues and Nasra Shah, 243–267. Florence, Cambridge: European University Institute, Gulf Research Center.
Frouws, Bram. 2014. Blinded by Hope: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Ethiopian Migrants. Mixed Migration Research Series: Explaining People on the Move, Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, Horn of Africa and Yemen. Accessed January 10, 2019. http://www.mixedmigration.org/resource/blinded-by-hope/.
Gathmann, C. 2008. Effects of Enforcement on Illegal Markets: Evidence from Migrant Smuggling along the Southwestern Border. Journal of Public Economics 92 (10–11): 1926–1941.
Gebreselassie, Tesfayi. 2011. The Fertility Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1990–2005: How Unique Is Ethiopia? In The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa: The Unique Case of Ethiopia, ed. Charles Teller and Assefa Hailemariam, 19–44. Dordrecht: Springer.
Grabska, Katarzyna, Marina de Regt, and Nicoletta del Franco. 2019. Adolescent Girls’ Migration in the Global South: Transitions into Adulthood. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hallward-Driemeier, Mary, and Ousman Gajigo. 2015. Strengthening Economic Rights and Women’s Occupational Choice: The Impact of Reforming Ethiopia’s Family Law. World Development 70 (June): 260–273.
Hanmer, Lucia, and Jeni Klugman. 2016. Exploring Women’s Agency and Empowerment in Developing Countries: Where Do We Stand? Feminist Economics 22 (1): 237–263.
Heshmati, Almas, and Haeyeon Yoon. 2018. Economic Growth and Development in Ethiopia. Perspectives on Development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. Singapore: Springer.
Hogg, Richard. 1997. Pastoralists, Ethnicity and the State in Ethiopia. London: Haan Publishing.
International Labour Organisation (ILO). 2011. Trafficking in Persons Overseas for Labour Purposes: The Case of Ethiopian Domestic Workers. Addis Ababa: ILO Country Office, International Labour Organization.
International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2004. Glossary on Migration: International Migration Law. Geneva: International Organisation for Migration.
Jones, Nicola, Elizabeth Presler-Marshall, Bekele Tefera, Guday Emirie, Bethelihem Gebre, and Kiya Gezahegne. 2014. Rethinking Girls on the Move: The Intersection of Poverty, Exploitation, and Violence Experienced by Ethiopian Adolescents Involved in the Middle East ‘Maid Trade’. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Kanko, Teshome D., Ajay Bailey, and Charles H. Teller. 2013. Irregular Migration: Causes and Consequences of Young Adult Migration from Southern Ethiopia to South Africa. Paper presented at The XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, Busan, South Korea, August 2013.
Kumar, Neha, and Agnes R. Quisumbing. 2015. Policy Reform Toward Gender Equality in Ethiopia: Little by Little the Egg Begins to Walk. World Development 67 (March): 406–423.
Kuschminder, Katie, Lisa Andersson, and Melissa Siegel. 2012. Profiling Ethiopian Migration: A Comparison of Characteristics of Ethiopian Migrants to Africa, the Middle East and the North. In Crossing African Borders: Migration and Mobility, ed. Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues and Jordi Tomàs, 28–43. Lisbon: Center of African Studies (CEA) ISCTE-IUL, University Institute of Lisbon.
Kyle, D., and R. Koslowski. 2001. Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lefort, Rene. 2018. Ethiopia: Climbing Mount Uncertainty. Open Democracy. Accessed December 20, 2018. https://www.opendemocracy.net/ren-lefort/ethiopia-climbing-mount-uncertainty.
Liebelt, Claudia. 2008. On Sentimental Orientalists, Christian Zionists, and Working-Class Cosmopolitans. Critical Asian Studies 40 (4): 567–585.
Mains, Daniel. 2012. Hope Is Cut: Youth, Unemployment, and the Future in Urban Ethiopia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Mainwaring, Ċetta, and Noelle Brigden. 2016. Beyond the Border: Clandestine Migration Journeys. Geopolitics 21 (2): 243–262.
Mjaaland, Thera. 2018. Negotiating Gender Norms in the Context of Equal Access to Education in North-Western Tigray, Ethiopia. Gender and Education 30 (2): 139–155.
Naude, Wim. 2010. The Determinants of Migration from Sub-Saharan African Countries. Journal of African Economies 19 (3): 330–356.
Nicoué, Delia Evelyne. 2018. Migrations et savoirs: Stations, itineraries et périples de l’apprentissage sur le parcours migratoire entre l’Éthiopie et l’Allemagne. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Pankhurst, Alula, and Francois Piguet. 2009. Moving People in Ethiopia: Development, Displacement and the State. Oxford: James Currey.
Papadopoulos, Dimitris, Niamh Stephenson, and Vassilis Tsianos. 2008. Escape Routes: Control and Subversion in the 21st Century. London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press.
Pereznieto, Paola, and Nicola Jones. 2006. Educational Choices in Ethiopia: What Determines Whether Poor Children Go to School? Young Lives Policy Brief 2. Young Lives, UK. Accessed December 20, 2018. https://www.younglives.org.uk/sites/www.younglives.org.uk/files/YL-PB2-Education-in-Ethiopia.pdf.
RMMS. 2014. Blinded by Hope: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Ethiopian Migrants. Nairobi: Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat.
Schapendonk, Joris. 2010. Staying Put in Moving Sands: The Stepwise Migration Process of Sub-Saharan African Migrants Heading North. In Respacing Africa, ed. Ulf Engel and Paul Nugent, 113–138. Leiden: Brill.
Seifu, Yordanos, Mehiret Habte, and Solomon Alayu. 2011. The Demographic Transition and Development Nexus in Ethiopia: Real Dividend or Burden? In The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa: The Unique Case of Ethiopia, ed. Charles Teller and Assefa Hailemariam, 69–88. Dordrecht: Springer.
Singh, Renu, and Protap Mukherjee. 2018. Push Out, Pull Out, or Opting Out? Reasons Cited by Adolescents for Discontinuing Education in Four Low- and Middle-Income Countries. In Handbook of Adolescent Development Research and Its Impact on Global Policy, ed. Jennifer E. Lansford and Prerna Banati. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spener, D. 2009. Clandestine Crossings: Migrants and Coyotes on the Texas-Mexico Border. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Tafere, Yisak. 2017. Educational Trajectories from Childhood to Early Adulthood: Aspirations, Gender and Poverty in Ethiopia. Young Lives Working Paper No. 171. Young Lives, UK. Accessed December 20, 2018. https://www.younglives.org.uk/sites/www.younglives.org.uk/files/YL-WP171-Tafere%2520final.pdf.
Teller, Charles, and Assefa Hailemariam. 2011. The Complex Nexus Between Population Dynamics and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Conceptual Framework of Demographic Response and Human Adaptation to Societal and Environmental Hazards. In The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa: The Unique Case of Ethiopia, ed. Charles Teller and Assefa Hailemariam, 3–16. Dordrecht: Springer.
Teller, Charles, Assefa Hailemariam, and Tesfayi Gebreselassie. 2011. The Nature, Pace and Determinants of the Incipient Fertility Transition in Ethiopia, 1984–2007: Can the 4.0 TFR Target for 2015 Be Met? In The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa: The Unique Case of Ethiopia, ed. Charles Teller and Assefa Hailemariam, 45–68. Dordrecht: Springer.
Tesfaye, Aaron. 2017. State and Economic Development in Africa: The Case of Ethiopia. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tesfaye, Alemu. 2018. Exploring the Migration Industry. Migrating Out of Poverty, 13 September 2018. Accessed December 20, 2018. https://migratingoutofpoverty.blogspot.com/2018/09/exploring-migration-industry-in-ethiopia.html.
Tsegaye, Yared. 2018. Ethiopia Overseas Employment in New Push to Send Professionals, Graduates to Gulf States. Addis Standard, 30 October 2018. Accessed December 20, 2018. https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-overseas-employment-in-new-push-to-send-professionals-graduates-to-gulf-states/.
UNDP. 2015. National Human Development Report 2014. Ethiopia. Accelerating Inclusive Growth for Sustainable Human Development in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: UNDP. Accessed December 20, 2018. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/nhdr2015-ethiopia-en.pdf.
UNHCR. 2011. UNHCR Global Appeal 2011 (Update). Ethiopia. Accessed December 20, 2018. http://www.unhcr.org/4cd95fcc9.pdf.
World Bank. 2015. Ethiopia Poverty Assessment 2014. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
———. 2016. Ethiopia’s Great Run. The Growth Acceleration and How to Pace It. Washington, DC: World Bank. Accessed December 20, 2018. https://www.openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/23333/Ethiopia0s0gre0n0and0how0to0pace0it.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Yeibyio, Assefa Fiseha. 2015. Ethiopia: Development with or Without Freedom. In Human Rights and Development: Legal Perspectives from and for Ethiopia, ed. Eva Brems, Christophe van der Beken, and Solomon Abay Yimer. Leiden: Brill.
Yitna, G.Y. 2006. Field Mission Report, Stranded Ethiopian Migrants in Bosasso, NE Somali/Puntland. Nairobi: International Organisation of Migration.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fernandez, B. (2020). ‘We Are Like Oil to Our Government’. In: Ethiopian Migrant Domestic Workers. Mobility & Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24055-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24055-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24054-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24055-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)