Labor migration from Ethiopia to the Middle East is not a new phenomenon. Demand for labor has been increasing in Middle East which has led to labor migration in these countries. According to Bina Fernandez (PhD), Associate Professor in Development Studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences, agencies that facilitate the movement of workers have contributed to the female dominated Ethiopian labor migration.
The narrative about this migration by the international media and literature is overwhelmingly negative. They wrote about young impressionable migrant women facing desperate economic situations. They underlined that they have been deceived by human traffickers into rude and abusive working conditions. As Anne Kubai et.al, associate professor of World Christianity and Interreligious studies put it; they had to return to Ethiopia with broken spirits, perhaps broken bodies, and little to show for it.
Observers added that labor migration is affecting a lot of young people who are forced out, cheated by the human traffickers. This has created an immense socio-economic problem to the country. Despite the information on the risks of labor migration to the Middle East, young Ethiopian women continue to move there. Particularly, the rural young women decide to migrate to the Middle East as domestic workers after being influenced by labor traffickers.
Studies reveal that the desire to migrate arises at a particular moment in the transition from adolescence into adulthood. This is particularly true when the local situations before them are not promising avenues to achieve their life time aspirations. These aspirations are, however, facilitated by the migration industry that lowers the costs and constraints of leaving the country of origin. The industry promises the young Ethiopians a significant capital and change in their socioeconomic status. This shows that migration to the Middle East is implanted within a wide segment of the youth across Ethiopia.
The good life for the rural women is no longer in the village. They move to the urban center that demands huge amount of resources. In rural Ethiopia, migration experts assert that the Middle East is often a "short-term, long-distance strategy" to finance their needs.
The migration of Ethiopian women to Middle Eastern countries is part of a global picture in the international labor migration of women for domestic work. Domestic workers receive significant attention by the agency of labor migration as women use it to pass through this corridor. In a research work on Ethiopian domestic workers in the Middle East, the idea of "trafficking" is widely and freely applied.
Some studies make distinctions between regular migration, trafficking, and smuggling. Mostly, however, trafficking becomes synonymous with informal labor migration. It is used to describe the experience of domestic workers who face exploitation irrespective of their legal status. It makes a compelling case to describe this migration, particularly when it concerns adolescent girls, in terms of trafficking.
Even among minors, migration to the Middle East may be regarded as a means to improve their opportunities for school and work and to achieve a better and secure future. Many adolescents move willingly and freely for economic reasons. It is also argued that family pressure, poverty and limited local employment opportunities force migration of the youth. Also, reliance on illegal dealers who provide limited information causes the exploitation of girls at the country of destination. The persistent frame of migration consists of both "forced and voluntary" ones.
In the case of Ethiopian women migrating to the Middle East face limited choices, exploitation, and abuses that call for legal protection. Because human trafficking is obviously appalling, it deserves political action to assist the migrants. However, individual migrants have the capacity to develop their aspiration and capability to migrate anywhere. The aspiration to migrate refers to the conviction that migration is "preferable" to staying in the country of origin.
The objective of migration is more specific such as access to education, marriage, or work, all of which emerge out of visions for better life. More than the simple cost-benefit analyses, "aspirations" capture the subjective hopes and goals that guide decision-making processes. Aspirations to migrate are shaped by greater socio-cultural norms and improved standard of living. Because aspirations are "socially grounded," they indicate the value-systems within which people make decisions to migrate. Aspirations and the social, economic, and cultural forces allow migrants to make decisions on their future path.
Researchers on migration capture the forces that influence the decisions of migrants. While there is nothing wrong with the cost-benefit analysis in the decision-making of migrants, problems arise when "costs" and "benefits" are defined. Identifying costs within a narrow economic frame is not realistic because it ignores the social context within which migration decision-making takes place. Aspirations in migration, for example, reveal the values and desires that determine an individual cost-benefit analysis.
The costs that force the individual to migrate are on balance with the benefits that accrue to the migrant. Moreover, "capability" of the individual migrant to have the resources and opportunities to overcome constraints determine the fulfillment of aspirations. In contrast to maximizing income, consumption, and happiness, "capabilities" vary from person to person, shaped by gender, education, social class, wealth, networks, and social norms.
Aspirations depend on skills, ability, dexterity, talent, and gift that support an individual migrant. This is true for Ethiopians working in the Middle East in different occupations. If they lack the required skills it can lead them to adjust their aspirations accordingly. The high wages they aspired for may have to be adjusted based on the demand for their skills at the workplace. The broad aspirations of Ethiopian migrants and the capabilities required to achieve them determine their demand for higher wages and good working conditions. Also, the aspirations of the young Ethiopians and what they are capable to do and to be as migrants to the Middle East is the only viable way to realize a better life.
The migrant women find the way to the limited opportunities for their personal advancement. This is confirmed by studies on rural areas that experienced relatively rapid migration to the urban towns and new forms of international movement. Unlike many other areas of Ethiopia, international migration is not yet a strong aspiration of "young men" in the rural districts. However, for women, international migration is increasingly viable, particularly to the Middle East for domestic work.
Studies have been conducted to understand the internal and international migration patterns and what social changes drove their modalities. These studies helped to evaluate what demographic characteristics are associated with various forms of mobility. Those included in these studies have been Ethiopian returnees who had worked in the Middle East. They consisted of different groups in terms of age, sex, migration and experiences.
The studies reflected histories of migrants to determine what forms of mobility characterized their past, present, and future. This helped to understand how migration abroad as compared to local mobility affected family members, siblings, husbands, women who had not left but wanted to. Most women who have not left and never wanted to think of migration to the Middle East have also been covered by these studies. Thus, the studies have covered three types of workers: migrants, returnees and non-migrants to have a clear picture of causes and effects of migration. They have also covered community leaders, government workers, and women.
Studies on migration experiences generated a deeper understanding of the social forces that shaped migration. These are the aspirations of adolescents, the opportunities and constraints women encounter in the Middle East. As poorer countries experience the social change associated with development, economic growth and diversification, more people tend to leave the rural areas. Also, with the expansion of formal education, improved infrastructure and communication, declining mortality rates and a rising young population, and greater gender equality, more people begin to move to urban centers.
Researchers confidently claim that as low-income countries move toward middle- and upper-income status, the share of the population living in urban areas grows. This stimulates an increase in international migration.
Though there are variations in the timing, nature, and degree of movement, mobility seems to be a common experience in "developing" countries. Studies show that Ethiopia is in the midst of a migration transition. Ethiopians have always been mobile, but their mobility was initially rural-rural. In recent years, however, rural-urban and urban-urban migration trends replaced rural-rural migration as the most common modes of movement within Ethiopia, observed Sonja Fransen, a research fellow at the Maastricht School of Governance.
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Though Ethiopia has a long history of regional cross-border mobility due to trade, religious ties, and political conflict, more Ethiopians are now moving as labor migrants to an increasing number of international destinations. The number of female migrants leaving for the Middle East has been rising exponentially in recent decades. Irregular migration is estimated to be rising thereby raising the movement of female workers. Despite rising rates of rural-urban and international movement, most Ethiopians remain in rural areas.
The young Ethiopians in the rural areas aspire for an urban future, as a consequence of rising access to formal education. Also, with increase in family size the economic and social constraints on small-holder farmer become stronger leading to migration to towns. The expansion of market forces have push and pull effects on rural labor force. Shortage of viable economic opportunities pushes job-seekers to urban areas. It also leads to rising demand for laborers, pulling them to urban areas.
The development process that concentrates economic and educational opportunities in urban areas affects the rural-urban migration. However, studies reveal that for many rural youth in Ethiopia, aspirations have shifted toward urban centers faster than the opportunities to realize them. As a result, many young people remain in rural areas. They are "involuntarily immobile" aspiring to leave, but lacking the capability to do so.
The consolidation of a "migration system" between Ethiopia and Middle Eastern countries introduced the capability to migrate internationally for rural women. This system comprises of brokers, agencies, and networks that lowers the costs and constraints of the Ethiopian labor migration. However, the government has recently introduced a policy and program that protect the rights of Ethiopian migrant workers against illegal human traffickers.
