Female Ugandan Labour Migration to Middle East: Is it a reflection of a Non-resilient Public Sector?

Abstract

The growing number of female workers migrating from Uganda to the Middle East countries through formal and informal arrangements casts a shadow on the resilience of the public sector in Uganda. While the Government of Uganda, through the public sector, has legalized the externalization of labour, it has not yet done enough to minimize the risks involved in female labour migration to the Middle East. Meanwhile, work conditions in that sub-region have been widely described as hazardous. Hence, this study sought to answer four questions: Why have female Ugandan workers continued to migrate to the Middle East despite the reported precarious conditions of work that such workers face while there? What attempts has the Ugandan public sector made to streamline working
conditions for women and girls in the Middle East? What forms of resilience or non-resilience does the public sector portray in managing female Ugandan migrant workers to the Middle East? What more can be done by the public sector of Uganda to mitigate the plight of female migrant workers in the Middle East? The study used documents review analysis method plus interviews of two purposively selected senior labour officers from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in Uganda. The data management processes involved qualitative methods of primary and secondary data. The findings suggest that the envisaged economic benefits from migration have overshadowed all the risks involved, including life-threatening risks, which the female labour migrants face in the Middle East. I argue that the massive female labour migration to Middle East existing today (although not a crime) is a pointer to the weaknesses of the public sector of Uganda that has failed to create sufficient employment opportunities in the country and has thereby compelled the citizens to find alternative occupations abroad. I, therefore, recommend that the public sector should not only smoothen the processes of migration but pay more attention to the national labor force retention strategies.