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Gender differences in socioeconomic returns to family migration in Malaysia: The role of family decision making versus labor market stratification

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Abstract

In this article I examine gender differences in the effect of family migration on socioeconomic attainment in Malaysia. The analysis discerns the relative importance of gender roles in household migration decisions, compared to gender stratification in the labor market. The Malaysian economy has undergone rapid industrialization and great structural changes which have opened up new economic opportunities, particularly for women. Despite the somewhat advantaged position of women compared to men in the Malaysian labor market. I find that men experience much greater socioeconomic gains than women from family migration. Hence indicating that family migration decisions in Malaysia, rather than optimizing family gains, compensate for the gender effect in the labor market. However, the gains of Malaysian men are more assured when they move alone. Data for the study come from the second round of the Malaysian Family Life Survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kansas State University, 750 Gonzalez Dr., 3-M, 94132, San Francisco, CA

    Arpita Chattopadhyay (is Assistant Professor of Sociology)

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  1. Arpita Chattopadhyay
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Additional information

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington D.C., August 19–23. I. thank Michael White, Frances Goldscheider, Sidney Goldstein, Ronald Rindfuss and the two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. I also thank Christine Peterson for help regarding the data set, and Lynn Igoe for editorial assistance. Research support from the Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, the Population Council, and the Carolina Population Center is gratefully acknowledged.

Prior to joining Kansas State University, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1997. Dr. Chattopadhyay's research interests include social demography, gender role/differentials and households and families.

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Chattopadhyay, A. Gender differences in socioeconomic returns to family migration in Malaysia: The role of family decision making versus labor market stratification. Gend. Issues 18, 29–48 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-000-0009-y

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