Explore links between changes in western family structures and the migration of women professionals from industrializing nations.
Migrant women are implicated in the decreased population growth of developing nations, and nation such as Japan. Young women seeking paid work in foreign countries as nannies and health care providers, are staying single longer, having children later, and giving birth to children outside of their own country of origin, according to the United Nations Population Fund. The trend will continue as more and more industrialized nations look outside of their borders to fill growing labour demands in the health and childcare fields.
So, what does all this mean? Family restructuring is a global issue, and western women's movement into the waged economy along with their double work day has effects far beyond national borders. Western women's liberation is complexly interwoven with the lived realities of women who have not benefited from western women's improvement civil rights, and changes in family structures in industrialized nations are impacting on family structures in non-industrialized nations in profound ways.
Often, the desire to escape poverty in their home nation fuels the search for labour in industrialized countries. Many women leave behind children and close family members to take better paying positions as nurses, or nannies. They send money home and wait years to become a resident. Then reunite their families in their country of residence and dream of providing better educational and life opportunities to their children and grandchildren.
The emigration of educated women from developing nations highlights other issues related to sustainable development. The brain drain takes its toll on the home nation, as nurses and other women professionals relocate to the West. While their children may temporarily reap the benefits of an increased standard of living provided by their mother's foreign wages, their probable relocation curtails the rise of a middle class.
Foreign trained professionals face many challenges in their country of employment: culture shock and language issues may lead to social isolation and miscommunications. Deskilling and re-education demands often leads to 'dead-end' employment. Separation from family increases possibilities of depression and other psychological issues.
What is the solution? Certainly, this is a complicated question that introduces a wide variety of possibilities. Government programs to re-skill and re-educate foreign trained professionals provide some benefits. Support groups and community involvement may help to diminish isolation of individuals. However, strategies for dealing with the loss of women professionals in developing nations are not so obvious.
