Paper short abstract:

Based on case studies, this paper explores the continuum of exploitation, precarity and agency experienced by migrant women workers from Bangladesh and Nepal, the experience of which is complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

There is considerable debate around women's migration and empowerment. Migration for care work inhabits in a continuum of exploitation, precarity and agency, and within that levels of empowerment. The COVID-19 global pandemic has created profound challenges and changes to migrant women workers' experiences. Using case studies from key informant interviews of NGO advocacy and support groups and the International Labor Organisation, this paper explores the complex issue of changes in women's agency and empowerment from the migration experience, as well as the informal networks of friends, employers, colleagues and families which serve as paradoxical sites of empowerment and exploitation. A central theme of the paper is that empowerment and disempowerment are fluid, and gender relations for migrant women in the workplace 'home', as much as in their origin home, are a complex set of negotiations and re-negotiations, which can be easily disrupted by global and local events. In most cases, the migration 'events' are local or regionally based, so that alternative solutions can be readily available. However, COVID-19 is a global event and it has affected both the home country as well as the destination. In conclusion, this paper provides findings and recommendations based on service providers' insights as to where policies fail, and how they can be changed to better address the precarity of migrant women's experiences.