The Empowerment Experiences of Nepali Women Labor Migrants in Korea

Kim, Kyunghak 

As the global labor market shapes around the growing poverty in Nepalese society and the high demand for female workers in the domestic sector, more Nepali women are migrating abroad in search of work and sending remittances to their families back home. As female migrant workers become the primary breadwinners in their households, they experience empowerment through their increased status within their families and increased decision-making power over economic and domestic affairs. If we define women's empowerment as the achievement of gender equality through the transformation of structural factors in society and culture, women's empowerment in South Asian societies, including Nepal, where the patriarchal order has been entrenched for a long time, seems almost impossible.

This article argues that women's empowerment can be understood as the processes by which Nepali women migrant workers in Korea become the primary breadwinners of their families based on the economic resources they have secured through their labor, thereby expanding their decision-making power within the family and strengthening their agency, independence, and autonomy. Analyzing data collected from in-depth interviews with 10 Nepali migrant women in Korea, this study highlights that migrant women's diverse experiences of labor migration can be sufficiently challenging to existing gender norms and patriarchal authority in Nepali society. This study reveals that migrant women can increase their agency and autonomy by renegotiating their roles within the family and strengthening their options through physical movement to Korea and living as an unfamiliar migrant. Labor migration enabled migrant women to improve in material, relational, and cognitive domains through the acquisition of economic capital in the form of cash and real estate assets, expanding their decision-making power within the family, gaining respect from the community, and increasing their ability to practice independently. This socio-economic transformation of migrant women leads to attitudes and ideas that challenge the existing patriarchal order and gender stereotypes. This study highlights the transformation and potential of migrant women's migration experiences in Korea to gain independence and autonomy that challenges existing socio-cultural practices and stereotypes in Nepal.

Nepal, migrant labor, women, empowerment, remittances, gender

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