Family Obligations, Gender, and Migration in Nepal

Christina Hughes, University of Washington, Seattle
Prem B. Bhandari , University of Michigan
Linda Young-DeMarco, University of Michigan
Jeffrey Swindle, University of Michigan
Arland Thornton, University of Michigan
Nathalie Williams, University of Washington, Seattle

This study focuses on values related to the family, contending that filial obligation comprises a vital pillar of how people understand their social expectations and opportunities. The analysis leverages event history, multinomial logistic regression to examine whether variation in how much individuals value (1) putting family needs before individual needs and (2) caring for their adult parents matters for whether men and women migrate at all and if so, where. The results support our hypotheses, which propose that (1) men who most value putting family needs before individual needs will be most likely to migrate to the most remunerative destinations while women will be more likely to remain at home; and (2) men who most value caring for their adult parents will be most likely to migrate to more proximate destinations while women will be less likely to migrate given gender-differentiated expectations of what constitutes care for men and women.

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 Presented in Session 215. Gender and Families