While traditional migration narratives often construct women as passive followers or sufferers of economic hardship, various studies conducted in recent years underscore a shift on their growing roles as active economic agents and primary remitters. This reflection highlights how Nepali female migrants navigate, negotiate, and assert their agency while encountering structural challenges before, during, and after migration.
Utilizing a qualitative analysis based on our researches on labour migration and gender in the region for last 15 years including the recent, Role of Evidence in Migration Policymaking (EVI-MIG), Migration, Equality and Development (MIDEQ) and Returnee Migrants (ReMi) projects, the discussion examines the interplay between structural constraints—such as restrictive state policies, masculine migration governance, gendered social norms perpetuating migration stigma and exploitative labour markets—and women’s agency as remitters.