Migrant labour has become an important foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka and as a result, the government has made efforts to encourage migration to the Middle East. Furthermore, the economic deprivation in the rural sector which resulted in the collapse in agriculture, in recent years, has been relieved due to overseas employment opportunities. In this context, the focal area of the study concentrates on the portion of rural sector women among the migrant labourers. It looks at the socio-economic conditions of the families of the returnee women over a period of five years starting in 1996 and highlights both the positive and negative consequences in detail.