Women Migrants’ Health and Work after COVID-19: An Intersectional and Comparative Study in Malaysia and Thailand

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International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada

Sharuna Verghis (PI), Carmen Logie (Co-PI), Tengku Aira Tengku Razif, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Chalermpol Chamchan, Lesley Gittings, Yap Kwong Hsia

Co-Investigator

Oct 2022 - Mar 2025

https://idrc-crdi.ca/en/project/women-migrants-health-and-work-after-covid-19-intersectional-and-comparative-study-malaysia

Background and problem International migration as a gendered process has differential consequences for men and women. Malaysia and Thailand are two countries exemplifying the phenomena of mixed migration. COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges to work and health for migrant women. Preliminary reports from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Malaysia and Thailand reported that women migrants experienced food and housing insecurity, increased exposure to domestic violence, and deteriorating access to health care during the pandemic. However, there is a paucity of evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on migrant women in both countries challenging the institution of gender-transformative strategies for recovery post-COVID with and for migrant women.

Project general objective: To generate knowledge to inform gender transformative policies and interventions for women migrants in Thailand and Malaysia, with a focus on documented women migrants (Malaysia) and documented and undocumented migrant women, refugees and asylum seekers (Thailand).

Project specific objectives:

1. To identify how women migrants navigate changing gender roles related to health and work and how COVID-19 shifted these gender roles, gender norms, and gender relations.
2. To understand the nature of risks, shocks, vulnerabilities, and resiliencies experienced by women migrants related to COVID-19.
3. To understand how gender dynamics impact access to resources to cope and adapt to COVID-19 stressors to inform gender-transformative interventions/approaches and policies.

Method: This study will be informed by the conceptual framework of intersectionality that explores the ways through which interlinked social categories, such as gender and migrant status, shape individual level experiences to reflect larger systems of oppression at familial, community and structural levels. We are particularly interested in experiences at the nexus of gender inequity, migration, labour and COVID-19 that shape health, security and work rights among women migrants.

This cross-country comparative analysis will employ a convergent parallel mixed-methods design across 6 sites involving 1,000 women in Malaysia and Thailand. Differential and shared experiences between migrants with documented/formal, and undocumented/informal statuses will be explored.

This 2-year study has 3 phases:

• Phase 1: preparation (consultations and ground engagement);
• Phase 2: multi-site cross-sectional study with parallel mixed-methods (cross-sectional survey, semi-structured life history narrative interviews);
• Phase 3: knowledge mobilization.

Potential impact: This comparative project will generate knowledge to inform gender transformative policies and interventions for women migrants in Thailand and Malaysia.

Project outputs

• Journal articles