Nepal, Aug. 1 -- Nepal remembers women migrant domestic workers exist when their remittances arrive home. However, it forgets them when they seek support from the state. Somewhere in West Asia, a poor Dalit Nepali domestic worker is fulfilling the care needs of a household. Driven not only by gender- and caste-based oppression at home but also by the lack of economic opportunities in the country, she sustains households in the Gulf, contributes to Nepal through remittances, helps her family escape intergenerational caste oppression, and invests in the next generation of Nepali citizens.

While she is legal in the country where she works, she is invisible in the country to which she 'belongs', having migrated without the government-issued ...