copyright ⓒ Sondra Cuban 2022

The Mongolia Study

A close look at this windowsill (Figure 1) in an Ulaanbaatar city center room reveals dung incense in a glass vase. It is lit by the women who use this office as a meeting and workspace. And in smelling the fragrance, they remember the countryside, from where they came. A participant explained to me that it reminds her of her roots and good memories. These women’s engagement in this ritual neither romanticized country life nor exoticized the dung as a pastoral symbol; instead they connected it to their labor and livelihood of gathering dung for fuel as girls, and as adults, to culture, such as Mongolian poetry—a far cry from the glorification of the Mongolian horse with its masculinized and nationalistic associations. It was not uncommon for me to see dung incense holders sold in regalia shops or in public bathrooms, where women work. 

It was in this space that I interviewed thirty women, all of whom originally were born and raised in the countryside and moved to Ulaanbaatar, with arrival dates ranging from the late 1980s to recent. From many of them, I learned about the pull of Ulaanbaatar and how it operated in their lives, as a magnet especially after middle/high school. A number of the participants came from generations of herding families. This study was sponsored by the Jack Street Fund for Mongolia and the American Center for Mongolian Studies and the Henry Luce Foundation. From additional ethnographic group interviews of herders and herder leaders located in two different areas in central Mongolia I learned about push factors in herding families’ lives propelling them to move to the capital city– many of their adult children migrating to Ulaanbaatar for education and work. 

This study uncovered complex factors for the contemporary internal migration of Mongolian women from the countryside to the capital city. The ages and backgrounds of the women varied widely, from their 20s-60s, and while a minority came from well-resourced families, others were impoverished. They arrived in the capital from a number of provinces and villages, some of the participants being displaced due to climate change and other factors while others voluntarily chose to move there^[1]. Their routes however to Ulaanbaatar were not necessarily direct and there were smaller movements that represented a rural-to-urban migration pattern in addition to circuitous movements and detours that stood out in their stories. While many of the women desired to return to the countryside, and some of them temporarily did, they lived in the city for the meantime, and were both settled and unsettled in their decision to stay put there. Their situations however weren’t characteristically ‘urban’; they visited the countryside to see relatives, although infrequently due to their work lives. And they also visited city parks and lived within and around kin in ger districts, retaining precious artifacts from the countryside and bringing their gers and living in these, or other ones as well. They participated in countryside rituals, such as lighting dung incense, all of which compensated for a rural experience to the extent that they could. I asked the women to describe the precious objects that they brought with them from the countryside, both ephemeral and permanent, and to represent their daily lives moving around in the city in maps they drew for me, including their favorite places, to understand the full range of their mobilities. The stories they shared, together, revealed patterns which are detailed below as themes. However, their stories also raised questions about the diversity of Mongolian women’s livelihoods and their aspirations as they are affected by the systemic barriers that restricted their movements. Additionally, questions surfaced about the homegrown supports they developed within their personal networks, which was also evident in their stories, and the degree to which they enhanced their autonomy and capacities. Last but not least it was not clear whether or not Ulaanbaatar was their last stop as a number of them dreamt of going overseas and Korea was specifically mentioned in several of the interviews. Overall, this was an extremely rewarding experience, as I was able to uncover narratives of engendered internal migration, collected images of this experience, and heard stories of struggle and resiliency.  I am heavily indebted to the women who participated in the study, who took the time and energy to talk to me and share their lives, as well as to the supporters and sponsors of this project.^[2]

Methods

• Interviews with six herding families and three herder leaders (bagiin dargas) as part of a field research course on climate change and herding including topics of women’s work and education. Notes were taken of these interviews, some of which were triangulated by additional notes of group members who visited these and other families in addition to recordings^[3]

• Academic and expert consultants: Lectures by professors, managers of research centers, and doctoral students during the field school as well as expert interviews with NGO consultants in 2021/22 via Zoom and in person on migration issues in addition to consultant interviews, including with the Asia Foundation, Ms. Tsolmontuya Altankhundaga, and my research sponsor, Dr. Narantulga Bataarjav, National Academy of Governance

• Interviews with 30 women about their rural-to-urban migrations, using a structured interview instrument with 5 biographical questions (name, age, province/village born and raised as well as early family life, schools, parents/grandparents), as well as 8 additional questions about their migrations, adaptations, and aspirations, including questions associated with the precious objects they brought with them and ‘maps’ they drew of their daily lives in Ulaanbaatar

• Ethnographic Observations while living and doing research in Ulaanbaatar, from the field school and a family who hosted me in an outlying ger district, that was from the countryside, with a journal and photographs 

• Photographs of Precious Objects of the participants as well as those artifacts in the interiors of gers (of herding families), to understand family life, the labor of women, and hybrid customs and innovations, as well as traditional culture and meanings

• Maps of Women’s Daily Lives and Movements in Ulaanbaatar from 30 interviews 

Themes: Push and Pull Factors of Women’s Internal Migration 

• Separation and Distance in Girlhood Impacted Migrations and Mobilities Migrations occurred in small steps, first within the family, that started with children going to school. Typically, once a girl reached 6-8 years of age (depending on education policy in Mongolia at the time) she would go to school in a village sum (a county), either living in a dorm, moving in with relatives, or with her mother in a rented apartment—the former two options, prevalent during the Soviet period especially if the parents were nomadic herders. After democracy and the market economy expanded, the latter case was more prevalent, where the mother lived with the children, or child during the week. The distance and separation of the mother from her herding life (and other children and partner) during most days of the week, initiated the first step of migration for rural women and girls. From girlhood to adulthood, policies on school attendance, enrollments, and participation were changing and dictating many of their experiences, thus impacting distance and separation practices of girls, regarding family life and migration. 

• Higher education as a driving factor for young women’s migration to Ulaanbaatar It became clear, early on in the study, that the capital was a magnet for young rural women in attending university and technical colleges, and it was typical among the participants (as well as in herding families I interviewed) to expect daughters to go to Ulaanbaatar to get a higher education. This appeared to leverage the family status as well as assist with remittances back to parents and symbolized a daughter’s progress. Educated women often moved other siblings to Ulaanbaatar, and it was not uncommon for parents to later follow them in older age. These young women often arrived directly after school or within a couple years of graduating middle or high school. The uncertain condition of the global economy in Mongolia as well as the unpredictable natural environment, produced compensatory strategies of families (including accumulating livestock as part of insurance for tuitions and daily needs of the university student). Despite problems and issues associated with migrating to the city for a higher or vocational education, all participants declared that their livelihoods were much improved. This was even more of the case for those participants, (about half of the sample) who were highly skilled. Several of these participants obtained professional posts in Ulaanbaatar, among which were lawyers, academics and teachers.

• Women’s Labor and Jobs Dominated their Adult Lives Nearly all participants in the study worked for pay in Ulaanbaatar, regardless of their ages. These 1^st generation internal migrants also worked extremely hard with schedules that would be unmatched in any core country, and which is typical in emerging economies. These women could be viewed as the backbone of Mongolia’s economy and Ulaanbaatar’s continued urbanization, and they stayed put in the city in low and mid-level jobs, to ensure it was running and thriving. The women’s work in the study in large part represented Mongolia’s burgeoning service economy with jobs the participants had such as cashiers and receptionists, but also its industrial aspects with a number of participants working in factories and outsourced cottage industries. But the participants were also engaged in entrepreneurship such as selling products especially clothing through their family networks.  Moreover, there were a number of participants who drew on their high levels of education for professional posts. The family’s labor hinged on the intense work of women, who multi-tasked and held numerous jobs, including caring for children while working full-time. Additionally, stories revealed discrimination within Ulaanbaatar’s labor market, including employers not hiring women due to being over a certain age or expecting that prospective employees would become pregnant, despite these practices being illegal. Over a lifetime, many participants became inserted in the lower ranks of the labor force and moved horizontally rather than vertically within it. Yet the declared that they were making more money than they would if they were to stay in the countryside.

Summary Points: Internal Migratory Routes of Mongolian Women 

• Steppe to school was the initial migratory move in girlhood and for mothers. 

• Draw of a city education and urban economy accounted for secondary young adult migratory routes to the capital. After graduating they stayed on for jobs and because of new networks of family and friends, and they may move back to the countryside temporarily. 

• Women’s city movements are short and fixed Immobilities in the city were due to clock time, fixed schedules, and limited transport (with long drives requiring sitting in cars—-because most of the population live outside of the city in ger districts, standing at bus stops and being passengers on buses to navigate the traffic congestion).  More sedentary lives were common in Ulaanbaatar but due to women’s work, they did move around extensively in the city. In this study mobilities were associated with freedom to earn a living and thrive in whatever conditions they could. 

• Climate Change in conjunction with family economic collapse imposed a background effect on women’s movements and migrations. Arrival times correlated with internal migratory routes for education but also especially around dzuds (severe drought in summer and extreme freezing winters killing herds) especially after 2010. Several women attested to their families losing everything during these times and having few options other than to migrate to the city. 

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^[1] Mongolia has 21 provinces and all except the following four were represented in the study: Bayan-Ulgi, Sukhbaatar, Dundgovi, and Dornogovi. Most participants were born and raised and went to school in in Tuv or surrounding Tuv,  especially Arkhangai and Uvurhangai provinces

^[2] All 30 women participants were asked how they felt about the interview afterwards, and everyone felt that it was beneficial in some way or form, including being a cathartic experience and/or a means for cultural transmission

^[3] For the related study of herder families, ACMS consent forms were signed and recordings were made of most of the herding interviews 

A special thank you to the Jack Street Fund for Mongolia which funded both the internal study on Mongolian women migrants and the intraregional study in Korea. I also appreciate all of the continuing support from my research sponsor, Dr. Narantulga (Nara) Bataarjav of the National Academy of Governance who connected to me to IOM contacts: Ms. Myagmar Tsagaan and Ms. Oyunkhishig Yura. I also give a big thanks to Ms. Javzandulam Sodnom (Oko), Mr. Mark Koenig and especially, Ms. Tsolmontuya Altankhundaga (Tsoom), as well as the ACMS leadership, Dr. Charles Krusekopf and Dr. Bolortsetseg Minjin (Bolor)  and staff: Ms. Tuvshinzaya Tumenbayar and Dr. Annika Eriksen, and of course, my wonderful ACMS field school fellows and colleagues.