Strengthening Whom? the role of international migration for women and men in Northwest Pakistan

Abstract: This article investigates the role of international labour migration from Pakistan’s Northwest for the sending communities’ social resilience. It focuses on the implications of male out-migration for the women who stay behind. This article refers to Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice to shed light on the gendered nature of vulnerability and resilience. Contradictions identified between heightened vulnerability at the level of individual women and strengthened resilience of the household underline the social construction of scale in the analysis of resilience. With his emphasis on material as well as symbolic resources determining opportunities and well-being, Bourdieu provides an analytical key for the identification of such ‘uncomfortable layers of resilience’.