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Protecting the Welfare of Children and its Causal Effect on Limiting Mother's Labour Migration
Author(s) -
Weeraratne Bilesha
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international migration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-2435
pISSN - 0020-7985
DOI - 10.1111/imig.12263
Subject(s) - vulnerability (computing) , limiting , welfare , demographic economics , sri lanka , work (physics) , economics , development economics , economic growth , labour economics , political science , socioeconomics , mechanical engineering , computer security , computer science , engineering , market economy , tanzania
In June 2013 Sri Lanka introduced a new policy, the Family Background Report ( FBR ), to restrict mothers migrating for domestic work. This article performs an impact evaluation of the FBR using monthly departure statistics of female migrant workers from January 2012 to December 2014 in a difference‐in‐difference methodology. The identification is based on the inter‐temporal variation between the treatment and control groups. As anticipated, the FBR has a negative causal effect on female departures for foreign employment in the range of 449–812 departures per month. The findings are robust to placebo and sensitivity tests. Although successful in restricting females migrating for domestic work, this policy promotes migration outside the institutional framework of Sri Lanka and thereby increases their vulnerability at destination. For the policy initiative to be effective, its myopic focus has to be transformed into a long‐term plan to support those deterred from migrating.