Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Modern Trends in International Female Migration - More Developed Countries

In previous post I mentioned that for a long time 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 reality in Europe, Northern America and Oceania migrant women outnumbered male migrants for at least two decades. In 1960 female migrants accounted for nearly 48 per cent of all international migrants in those regions. Since then the female migration index increased slowly but steadily to reach 50.8 per cent in 1990 and 51 per cent nineteen years later, in 2009 (Zlotnik, 2003).
The reasons for the acceleration of female migration should be sought in changes in the global economy, in new labor market needs arising due to growing participation of women in the workforce, reduced social services and services for children and older people, in changing immigration policies of more developed countries, in relaxation of their family reunification policies, in political and economic changes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and in the creation of the European Community and the European Union (Zlotnik 2003, Kofman 2003).
Female migrants have entered more developed countries through four major channels: (A) as foreign workers, (B) as family members, (C) as students or (D) as asylum seekers or refugees.

A. Labour migration

International mass labor migration began in the late 1950s. It was caused mainly by the economic boom after World War II. During the first years after the end of the war the leading economic strategy of large-scale capital was based on the idea of concentration of investment and expansion of production in the existing more developed countries (Castles and Miller, 2009). Demographic insufficiency forced governments to start recruiting foreign-born men and women, first in the United States, then in Europe and Oceania. New migrant workers came to the developed countries mostly as participants of ‘guest worker programs’ or as colonial workers. Their social rights were limited. They had no right to family reunion. According to the OECD statistics, between 1956 and 1976 net migration to developed countries reached 790 000 per year (Martin J., 2008). Female migration accounted for a significant minority among this group (Castles and Miller, 2009).
The situation changed in late 1970’s as a result of a fundamental restructuring of the world’s economy after the oil crisis in 1973. In Castles’ and Miller’s opinions three factors may be helpful to explain changes in proportion between male and female migrant workers.
The first factor is connected with changes in global investment patterns. Developed countries started to move their manufacturing industries to some previously underdeveloped areas such as Asia and Latin America, which became main economic centers. The second factor is connected with changes in sectors of industry that were traditionally dominated by men. The micro-economic revolution which eliminated the need for manual workers in manufacturing, as well as the erosion of traditional skilled manual occupations in more developed countries resulted in rising male unemployment and in an increased burden being placed upon women, who became main income earners. The third factor is seen in increased differentiation of labor forces on the basis of gender, age and ethnicity and increasing demand for so called female jobs.
In the face of new market needs the governments of more developed countries started to change their immigration policies. New immigration policies allowed female migrants to enter their territory, but by providing different rights and entitlements in favor of migrants who were considered valuable to the economy, these policies brought about polarization between skilled and unskilled female migrants (Piper, 2005).
According to data presented by the OECD, highly skilled migrants come mostly from the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the former USSR, Germany, China, Poland, Mexico, the United States, France, Japan and Vietnam (OECD, 2002). Skilled women tend to work as teachers, nurses, scientists, and technicians. For the last 10 years over one quarter of employed migrant women who entered Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been working in the education and health sector (UNRISD, 2005). Over 90 per cent of migrants in the nursing sector are women. 25 per cent of all nurses working in big cities in the United States were born outside the USA. In New Zealand in 2002 23 per cent of nurses came from other countries. In Singapore, 30 per cent of the nurses are foreign born. All of the foreign-trained nurses working in the United Kingdom come from Africa, Asia and India (UNFPA, 2006).
While very well educated migrants enjoy the benefits of migration, barriers for poorer migrants are still increasing. A huge number of unskilled workers have been working in “3D jobs” (dirty, dangerous and degrading). They have worked as domestic workers (garbage collectors, cleaners, baby-sitters, care-takers), in sweat shops or as entertainers. In 2004, the United Kingdom records showed that ‘entertainment and leisure’ is the second largest category of work permits applications (5,908 applications). Moreover additional 4,627 applications were submitted for “hospitality and catering” and “other occupations”. In Canada over 1000 temporary work permits were granted to exotic dancers in the mid-90s. In 2004 nearly 65000 women entered Japan on entertainment visas. The majority of them came from the Philippines (UNFPA, 2006).

B. Family reunification

Despite the fact that today the number of women who migrate as the main economic providers for their households has increased, family reunification remains the largest migration channel out of the four mentioned above. We should not forget, however, that these two modes of entry are closely connected. The majority of migrant women have come to developed countries as dependants but foreign workers movement has been the first link in the migratory process (Castles Miller 2009).
Raising number of migrating family members was an effect of the new Immigration Act introduced in the United States, the introduction of the White Paper in Canada, abandonment of the White Australian Policy in Australia and the introduction of new family reunification law in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland. Today, family related migration is a main source of permanent migration accounting for 65% of permanent immigrants into the European Union (Kofman, 2003), over 60% of permanent immigrants into the Unites States (IOM, 2008) and 37% in Oceania (IOM, 2008).

C. Education
Access to education has always been a crucial magnet for migration to developed countries. According to the latest report realized by the OECD, the United States continue to top the list of destination countries for international students seeking a university education. (O’Malley, 2007). Other countries with the biggest gains in recent years include the UK with 235 110 foreign female students, Australia with 125 488 foreign female students in 2008, France with 123 135 foreign female students, Germany with 124 905 foreign female students and New Zealand with 31 309 foreign female students (OECD, 2008). In other words women and girls have accounted for 51 per cent of all students in the United Kingdom, 49 per cent in Australia, 51 per cent in France, 51 per cent in Germany and 52 per cent in New Zealand.

In the next post I will make an attempt to present areas with the biggest increase in female migration between 1960 and 2010.

I would like to thank Ms. Sarah Rosengaertner, UNDP New York, for her valuable comments.