Women’s social resilience in the context of male out-migration in Dehradun district, India

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that migration impacts men and women differently. Most prior research has looked at these effects on the migrants themselves, while those who remain in their places of origin have received less scholarly attention. This article investigates how male labor migration from the Dehradun district of India affects the wives who stay behind. It adopts a social resilience perspective by focusing on the opportunities and vulnerabilities that women face once their husbands migrate. Our findings identify four factors that shape these women’s resilience as well as four domains of resilience. While women with strong support networks and higher social statuses tend to experience a greater sense of resilience when their husbands migrate, their personal circumstances nevertheless interact in nuanced and sometimes surprising ways. We argue that stay-behind wives are neither particularly vulnerable nor emancipated but can occupy myriad positions along this spectrum.