Abstract
Most of the studies on the links between gender and migration of the last four decades focus on understanding how it may lead to changes in women’s status and in gender relations, especially between spouses. Using information from the United Nations database and a review of the literature on gender and migration, we analyze the sex and age composition of migration flows and stocks, we assess the feminization of migration among different regions and we suggest that migration patterns reflect gender ideologies, norms and family systems in sending and receiving countries. Based on an approach that links international migration to family dynamics, we look at recent research on how migration and the start of a union interact with women’s status and gender relations and how looking at international migration and the family life cycle as linked processes may add to the understanding of the potential role that international migration plays in changing gender and generational relations. Although the chapter recovers empirical evidence and cases studies from all over the world, it is mainly based on research results from Latin American countries.
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Notes
- 1.
An example of the abundant literature on the topic is the publication of reviews on gender and migration. From the article by Morokvasic (1984) to more recent publications by Pessar and Mahler (2003), Donato et al (2006), Ariza (2000), Hondagneu-Sotelo (2011), Herrera (2013) and Arias (2013), all of them summarize from different perspectives the results and the emerging research agenda on gender and migration. For a review of recent research on international migration , gender and family in Latin America see Rozée and Zavala (2014).
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Less research has been conducted regarding the changes in men’s roles and masculinity as a result of international migration s (Herrera 2013). Nonetheless, some studies have reported how the ideology around men’s roles and masculinity are reinforced among male migrants as a response to their experiences of being away from the family or as a strategy to cope with discrimination experiences at the receiving communities (Rosas 2008). We also know that the increasing participation of women in female labor migration circuits has necessarily transformed the traditional division of roles within the household , leading to a change in the position of husbands/fathers, especially when they stay in the countries of origin with the children (Pagnotta 2014).
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The story may be different for female skilled migrants. As women’s education tend to increase in sending countries and in response to demands in certain sectors, such as health services, at receiving economies, female skilled migration has tended to increase, even more rapidly that male skilled migration and unskilled female migration (Docquier et al 2009).
- 5.
Different empirical studies for Latin America n migrants in Europe (Roca 2014) and female migrants from Asian countries (Bélanger et al 2010; Bélanger and Linh 2011) find a similar coexistence of two divergent dynamics regarding the case of foreign brides. After moving in order to marry a person in the country of destination , these studies report that women reproduce traditional gender roles that reaffirm their subordinated position within the household ; nonetheless, the women interviewed also report a certain empowerment that transcends their vulnerable situation and the discrimination they face linked to their better economic position and a more equal gender relation compared to the one existing in their countries of origin.
- 6.
For a regional comparison—as the one presented in this section of the chapter—this alternative concept of feminization is more difficult to measure as it needs to explore the reasons of men and women for migrating, their labor status and, ideally, how autonomous women are in the decision to migrate or not. It remains as a pending area in the research of migration stocks and flows.
- 7.
This section is based on the estimates of foreign born population by United Nations (2002 and 2013 Revisions). The data presented here refers mainly to the stock of foreign born population in each country. As we will try to show later in this paper, the view changes when we analyze the data from the perspective of the sending countries/regions.
- 8.
For North America, specially U.S., the proportion of women would be higher if Mexican migrants were excluded given that the large Mexican stock has a lower proportion of women compared to flows from other countries (Donato et al 2011).
- 9.
Docquier et al (2009) based their analysis in the migration stocks and the emigration rates of highly educated population. Nonetheless, there analysis does not include the information on foreign born for non OCDE countries.
- 10.
We also explored the Gender Inequality Index developed by UNDP (2013). The results were similar as those for the girls to boys ratio among secondary students.
- 11.
For the Mexican case, for example, in some of the municipalities with high intensity of migration, the masculinity index varies between 80 and 90 men per each 100 women. The imbalance is even larger for the age groups between 20 and 34 where the masculinity index for the same municipalities varies between 49.9 and 68.8 (authors’ estimates based on the 2010 Mexican Census ; see Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia 2010).
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- 13.
International or internal migration due to other causes—such as political violence or persecution or environmental causes—may show a more diverse age distribution. For example, according to the UNHCR available data, half of the refugees , people in refugee -like situations and asylum seekers are 18 or younger (UNHCR 2013: 123–125). There are, however, large variations among countries; among a selected group of the countries with the largest number of refugees, from 59 % in Iraq and 52 % in Afghanistan to 16 % in Colombia and 19 % in Germany .
- 14.
According to UN estimates (2011), the proportion of older persons (65 and older) is higher among international migrants compared to the total population. In other words, in spite of representing a smaller number in absolute term, their relative participation in migration stocks is higher (11.6 %) than that for the total population (7.6 %). Two other characteristics of the stock of older migrants are that they concentrate in more developed regions (67.8 %; four out of ten live in Europe ) and that women outnumber men.
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According to UNESCO (2014) estimates, the gross enrollment ratios for tertiary education were 78.6 % and 63.2 % for Argentina and Uruguay respectively around the year 2010. The same ratios were 27 % for Mexico and 33.3 % for Dominican Republic .
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- 19.
The cases of foreign brides in Taiwan and South Korea (Bélanger et al 2010) illustrate situations where husbands forbid women to work, restrict their mobility and constrain their participation outside the house.
- 20.
The scenario may be different for male-dominated migration flows. Women remaining behind may stay under the supervision of other relatives and may face the strain and negative consequences of the non-return of migrant husbands (for the case of Mexican migration to the US, see Frank and Wildsmith 2005 and Rosas 2008).
- 21.
Normative aspects such as the migration policies in the receiving contexts and the legislation around family issues on both, sending and destination countries, also mediate the way families respond and accommodate to the international migration of one or all of its members.
- 22.
Aside from the legal situation of female migrants in the countries of destination , other factors that may influence the decision to bring children along are the socioeconomic and dwelling conditions, the access to education and other public services, the possibility of organizing childcare during the mother’s working hours and the social networks (other relatives or friends) available at the destination.
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Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Alejandra Rodríguez and Andrea Bautista for their collaboration in the organization of the references used for this chapter. We would also like to thank Michael White for his thoughtful comments and careful revision of our chapter.
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Giorguli, S.E., Angoa, M.A. (2016). International Migration, Gender and Family: A Miroir from Latin America. In: White, M. (eds) International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution. International Handbooks of Population, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7282-2_25
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