Friday, April 22, 2011

Modern Trends in International Female Migration - Introduction

Until the late 1970’s most scholars assumed that men constituted the lion share of the world’s international migration and that women were merely on the move as wives and daughters who followed their husbands and fathers. In contrast to that general assumption statistics on female migration, provided from the late 1990’s by organizations dealing with human migration such as the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, have shown that women have been a huge part of the world’s international migration for at least six decades. They have always taken part in a range of globalized movements, e.g. as skilled or unskilled workers, students, within family reunification, for marriage or as asylum seekers and refugees (Kofman 2003).

Female migration deserves attention not only because it’s presence has finally been noticed. The recognition of the role of women in global movements is bound to lead to significant changes in international migration studies, which for a long time were based on a belief that international migration is a ‘gender neutral’ phenomenon. Women on the move present different migratory behaviors than men, face different opportunities and they have to deal with different risks and challenges such as gender inequalities, abuses of their human rights, exploitation, trafficking, gender discrimination and specific health problems. Their crucial contribution to economic development and poverty reduction in their countries of origin and countries of destination should not be omitted, either.

According to the United Nations statistics (UNDESA, 2005) in 1960 women and girls accounted for nearly 47 per cent of the total number of international migrants. Since then the number of migrant women has been increasing steadily to 47.2 per cent in 1970, 47.4 per cent in 1980, 47.9 percent in 1990 and 48.8 per cent in 2000. Today female migrants account for 49 per cent of all international migrants, representing a group of hundred million women (IOM, 2010). The data presented above allow drawing the conclusion that the number of female migrants has increased 0.2 per cent every 10 years.


Source: Hania Zlotnik, 2003

In this paper I will try to find out whether that overall picture of stability hides trends at a regional level and if it does I will make an attempt to identify them.

In my analysis the UN, the IOM and the OECD statistics will serve as a source of information. Reports on International Migration in Thailand (IOM 2005, IOM 2009) will play a significant role while searching for regional trends in female migration within South, Southeast and East Asia.
It is important to keep in mind that studying international migration requires using data that never fully mirror reality. Neither the United Nations statistics nor data provided by other international bodies examining the phenomenon of international migration are able to present exact data on international migrants. Three factors may be helpful to explain that fact.
First of all, there are plenty of women who entered foreign countries in order to work illegally (either without or after expiry of a work permit). A huge number of them are engaged in jobs as cleaning ladies, housekeepers, babysitters or caretakers in private households, to which researchers have very limited access. Another group is constituted by those who have been involved in activities that are against the law and/or public order (prostitution, pornography, street crimes). Precise estimates are very hard to come by (Piper 2005, Aryan and Roy 2006).
Second of all, there are countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, that neither publish official data on international migrants that enter their territory nor keep records on people leaving their territories. Even in more developed countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom and France the number of migrants is estimated based on population censuses.
Last but not least, hundreds of women make decisions to migrate every day. The number of international female migrants has been increasing at a different pace depending on the world region. That means that the data derived from official statistics may be considered just as approximate numbers.

In my next post (that will be posted within 14 days) I will make an attempt to answer a question whether the number of migrant women is equal in every part of the world or there are areas where migrant women constitute a larger proportion than men. If I succed in identifing the regions where migrant women over-represent men I will try to explain reasons why women choose some part of the world over the other.



Sources
1. 1. Arya S. and Roy A., Poverty, Gender and Migration, SAGE, New Delhi 2006
2. IOM, Word Migration Report 2010. The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for Change, http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/WMR_2010 _ENGLISH.pdf, Access 2/27/2011
3. IOM, International Migration in Thailand 2005, http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/books/iom_thailand.pdf, Access 1/30/2011
4. IOM, International Migration in Thailand 2009, http://www.un.or.th/ , Access 24/2/2011
5. Kofman E., Women migrants and refugees in the European Union, OECD, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/2/15515792.pdf, 2/15/2011
6. Piper N., Gender and Migration, Global Commission on International Migration, http://www.gcim.org/attachements/TP10.pdf, Access 11/27/2010
7. UNDESA, 2002, International Migration Report, http://www.un.org/esa/population/ publications/ittmig2002/ittmigrep2002.htm, Access 12/10/2010
8. UNDESA, 2006, Trends in Total Migration Stock: The 2005 Revision, http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/migration/UN_Migrant_Stock_Documentation_2005.pdf, Access 1/14/2011
9. Zlotnik H., The Global Dimension on Female Migration, Migration Information Source, http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/
display.cfm?id=109, Access 2/15/2011