Experiences of immigrant Nepalese women workers in South Korea. A study

Abstract

The present study examines the experiences of of the Emigrant Nepalese women workers in South Korea. While in a foreign employment, most of them have achieved their empowerment despite the gender issues and violence. Back home the traditional patriarchal society posed them hurdles and they were economically dependent on their families and husbands. But, after their foreign employment, they have themselves been breadwinners for their families and are constantly supporting former as they have been earning a handsome sum there. This has empowered them and helped change the perception of their society and families back home.

I have used the concepts of gender, patriarchy and structural violence.The study is based on the sixteen semi-structured interviews and newspaper articles and government publications as the secondary sources.The findings talk about the causes of foreign employment of these women and pull and push factors like poverty, conflict, gender and globalisation and the impacts like economic support in the family, help in poverty reduction, establishment of business, children’s education etc. These causes and impacts are dealt in the context of the Nepalese emigrant women in South Korea and at last the problems and challenges undergone by them have been shown. The empowerment has outweighed the problems like gender inequality and structural violence these women undergo.