SINHAS Vol 30 No 1 Sandhya A.S.
“Managing” Welfare: Labor Migration and the Social Question in Nepal
Sandhya A.S.
Abstract
As migrant workers cross borders, their entitlement to social protection and their ability to mitigate risks pertaining to mobility and employment abroad comes into question. This paper builds on recent scholarly work on the question of social protection of migrant workers and examines how migrant-sending states facilitate (or deny) access to welfare under the façade of “management.” Developing our existing knowledge of transnational social protection (TSP), I argue that the question of social protection needs to be understood against the backdrop of the regime of migration governance of which it is a part. The post-Cold War, neoliberal regime of “migration management” mobilizes non-state actors to produce and sustain “desirable” forms of mobility. In this context, this paper makes the conceptual contribution of “welfare management” as a neoliberal strategy of dealing with the question of social protection and welfare of transnationally mobile workforces. Informed by qualitative research conducted in Kathmandu, Nepal, I show how, under the current regime of migration governance, the traditional state-citizen relationship undergoes reconfiguration. By putting the onus of social protection on the migrants through selective information dissemination, and by delegating the responsibility for migrants onto commercial intermediaries, the Nepali state uses a number of strategies to navigate the uncertainties related to labor export. As such, Nepal appears to align with the broader trend of depoliticizing the social question, reframing welfare as a distantly manageable task rather than as a direct political responsibility of the state.
Keywords: Transnational social protection, migration management, welfare management, labor migration, neoliberalism
“Managing” Welfare: Labor Migration and the Social Question in Nepal
Sandhya A.S.
Abstract
As migrant workers cross borders, their entitlement to social protection and their ability to mitigate risks pertaining to mobility and employment abroad comes into question. This paper builds on recent scholarly work on the question of social protection of migrant workers and examines how migrant-sending states facilitate (or deny) access to welfare under the façade of “management.” Developing our existing knowledge of transnational social protection (TSP), I argue that the question of social protection needs to be understood against the backdrop of the regime of migration governance of which it is a part. The post-Cold War, neoliberal regime of “migration management” mobilizes non-state actors to produce and sustain “desirable” forms of mobility. In this context, this paper makes the conceptual contribution of “welfare management” as a neoliberal strategy of dealing with the question of social protection and welfare of transnationally mobile workforces. Informed by qualitative research conducted in Kathmandu, Nepal, I show how, under the current regime of migration governance, the traditional state-citizen relationship undergoes reconfiguration. By putting the onus of social protection on the migrants through selective information dissemination, and by delegating the responsibility for migrants onto commercial intermediaries, the Nepali state uses a number of strategies to navigate the uncertainties related to labor export. As such, Nepal appears to align with the broader trend of depoliticizing the social question, reframing welfare as a distantly manageable task rather than as a direct political responsibility of the state.
Keywords: Transnational social protection, migration management, welfare management, labor migration, neoliberalism