From Vulnerability to Resilience

From Vulnerability to Resilience

Partner: The National Centre for Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South (Transversal Package Project)

Year: 2008-09

Locale: Upper Dir and Swat

Objective:

The research focuses on the implications of male out migration for the women who stay behind through which the need for reconceptualization of the Government's development agendas that lack specific coverage   of migrant sending regions becomes apparent. The report stresses the necessity of development sector mobilization for harnessing local development potential in migrant sending communities.

Methodology:

In this project International migration and its linkages with vulnerability and resilience have been investigated. The project undertook a conceptual work/review of regional and global evidence; empirical research in Upper Dir and Swat, as well as networking and dissemination of research finding through publications, conferences, net-working and capacity building. The conceptual work undertaken investigated the gendered interface between social capital and vulnerability.

Finding:

Based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social capital, a shift from the investigation of women's exclusion from and gender inequality within social networks to an analysis of masculine domination is suggested. Domination, in turn, appears to be directly associated with the degree of vulnerability that women experience. The research finds that a focus shift needs to take place from financial flows to the wellbeing of migrants and their families and communities in analyzing politics and patterns of migrant flows. To understand, for instance, the multilocality of migrants' livelihoods, relations of migrants to their places of origin as well as linkages to their multiple other places of residence and work have to be considered, as well as considering the political economy of bordermaking.