Ban on female migrant workers: Skills-differentiated evidence from Sri Lanka

Arbeitspapier

This study examines the skills-differentiated impact of a restrictive female labour migration policy in Sri Lanka using monthly departure data from 2012 to 2018 in a difference-indifference model. The Family Background Report policy has resulted in decreasing departures among lower-skilled groups-female domestic, unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled workers-and increasing departures among middle-level and professional workers. The decrease in departures of lower-skilled groups is consistent with the objectives of the policy and existing impact evaluation studies, while the increase in higher-skilled workers is consistent with the literature on Family Background Report-related corruption and mis-reporting of skills to avoid the policy. Thus, the policy is associated with higher involvement of lower-skilled workers in recruitment-related corruption, higher exposure to recruitment-related vulnerability, and lower foreign employment opportunities. The study also finds that it was appropriate to exempt the 45-49 year age group from the Family Background Report requirement in 2017.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-92-9256-982-2
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2021/44

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
• Subject: labour migration ; employment ; female ; difference-in-difference ; skills

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Weeraratne, Bilesha
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (where): Helsinki
• (when): 2021

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2021/982-2
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/243370
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET