Kinship, Honour and Money in Rural Pakistan: Subsistence Economy and the Effects of International Migration: 78 (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series) - Softcover

Lefebvre, Alain

Softcover

ISBN 10: 113897403X ISBN 13: 9781138974036

Publisher: Routledge, 2018

Synopsis

International migration is favoured by the governments of many poorer countries despite often well-publicized abuses affecting individual migrant workers. Not only is local unemployment reduced but also it is expected that the migrants will learn new skills, with many even becoming entrepreneurs on their return home. Meantime they are seen as a source of foreign remittances, providing needed capital for economic development. Such is the attitude in Pakistan from where thousands of migrant workers leave every year for the Gulf states especially.
An anthropological study approaching this issue from a local (village) level, this book focuses on two areas of the Punjab. Describing the historical passage of rural life from pre-colonial times to the present, it shows how the rural economy of the Punjab was not transformed by the green revolution - on the contrary, it is still a subsistence economy. The resulting poverty combined with Pakistan's labour-market policies forces many Punjabi men to seek work abroad, in turn bringing changes to the economic role of the women left behind. Remittances from abroad have brought further changes on the economic and social life of the villages but not, as expected, to bring economic development let alone capital or entrepreneurialism to the area.

About this title

About the Author

Alain Lefebvre

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 113897403X
• ISBN 13: 9781138974036
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320