Patterned remittances enhance women's health-related autonomy
| Autor: | Charlotte Wang, Peter Shawn Bearman, Sharon H. Green, Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Hannah Brueckner |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Health (social science)
media_common.quotation_subject Face (sociological concept) Fertility 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine State (polity) Political science Health care 030212 general & internal medicine lcsh:Social sciences (General) 10. No inequality media_common Receipt 030505 public health business.industry Health Policy lcsh:Public aspects of medicine 1. No poverty Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health lcsh:RA1-1270 Special Section: Gender Equality Empowerment and Health (Guest editor: Anita Raj) Independence Demographic economics Remittance lcsh:H1-99 0305 other medical science business Autonomy |
| Zdroj: | SSM: Population Health, Vol 9, Iss, Pp-(2019) SSM-Population Health |
| ISSN: | 2352-8273 |
| Popis: | The consequences for women “left behind” by virtue of temporary male migration are mixed. On the one hand, concomitant changes in fertility, participation in the labor force, and social norms are often associated with increased independence for women. On the other hand, women left behind can be vulnerable to increased dependency on members of their husbands' family or face limited access to social institutions. These shifts in women's capacity for decision making can have important implications for their health and well-being. Focusing on the state of Kerala in southern India, we examine the conditions under which the remittances that migrants send home have an impact on the health of women left behind. Specifically, we assess the extent to which the timing of remittance sending can support women's autonomy and improve their ability to make autonomous healthcare decisions. We use evidence from migrant households in Kerala, a region deeply engrained in the world labor migration system for more than five decades. Analysis is conducted with data from the 2016 wave of the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS), a representative household survey, and paired with in-depth qualitative interviews with women in Kerala whose husbands and other family members have migrated to the Gulf. We show that the positive effect of remittances on women's autonomy manifests primarily through the timing of remittance receipt, not the amount of money remitted. Regular remittances are associated with higher levels of autonomy than remittances received at irregular intervals, net of amount remitted. This finding challenges the usual emphasis on remittance volume as the driving factor of social and behavioral change in sending communities. Analytical efforts should be refocused on the social-interactional component of remittance sending and how these interactions can impact women's health and autonomy. Highlights • Temporary migration can enhance women's autonomy in migrant sending countries through remittance sending. • We studied the impact of remittances on women's healthcare autonomy in Kerala using a representative survey of migrant households and semi-structured interviews conducted with women who were left behind. • Women who receive remittances on a frequent and regular pattern are more likely to report increased healthcare autonomy, regardless of remittance amount. • Results highlight that the social importance of remittances for development extends beyond the amount remitted. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|