Migration
Issues:
Voluntary and forced migration
Trafficking
Migration has only recently emerged as a key development issue, and attention to the gender dimensions of migration is still limited. Even though there is increasing recognition that women are also migrants, and that causes and impacts of migration in sending and host countries are gendered, attempts to mainstream gender into migration policy are still not systematic.
Migration can provide new opportunities and improve women’s and men’s lives, including by empowering women as social and economic actors and agents of change. But in can also reinforce existing gender inequalities or create new vulnerabilities. Sex-segregated labour markets and gendered migration policies provide differential opportunities for women and men. Women and men face different risks and employment conditions. Their absence from home poses different challenges to the families and societies left behind (e.g. care economy, brain drain, etc.). Globally, it is the case that most women who migrate find work in unskilled occupations, e.g. domestic or care work, even if they are very well educated and highly skilled. If women and men are to benefit from the empowering and development potential of migration, a gendered human rights approach to migration is needed.
Links:
UNODC: Human trafficking and migrant smuggling
IOM: International Organization for Migration
GAATW: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
Publication:
CFM Switzerland 2009: Women in migration (doc in French)
BRIDGE 2005: Gender and Migration
Voluntary and forced migration
Migration happens internationally as well as internally, and can be voluntary or forced. At present, there are more than 200 Mio international migrants worldwide, about 50% of them are women. In addition, there are about 15 Mio refugees and 26 Mio IDPS, about half of which are also women. The reasons why people choose migration as an option to improve their lives vary; they range from poverty, lack of opportunities, war and political persecution to social and family pressure. Equally relevant is the demand for cheap or skilled labour in the global labour market, which pulls migrants away from their homes. In any case, migration processes are gendered: unequal gender relations and the different roles attributed to women and men affect who migrates, why and where, while migration can in turn have an impact on gender relations and roles.
Human Trafficking concerns men and women in different ways. Frequently, voluntary migration turns into trafficking when traffickers and employers exploit and violate the rights of the migrants. This may happen to women seeking work in specific sectors, such as domestic work, tourism, and sex work, or to men looking for jobs in construction and agriculture. Every year, thousands of women and men are trafficked in their own countries and abroad. Every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.
