by Rosemary
Vargas-Lundius, David Suttie and Anja Lund
Increased flows of information and the
falling cost of transportation make migration increasingly viable for rural
women and men today. Most of the rural people who decide to migrate arrive in
larger towns and cities within their own country. In fact, the majority of global
migration occurs within countries, with conservative estimates placing the
number of internal migrants globally at 740 million, compared to 200 million international
migrants.
One of the most significant changes in migration is that today
more women are migrating than ever before. Women now constitute half the
international migrant population, and trends seem to be similar for internal migration
too, though data is scarce. In many countries the majority of migrants are now
women. For example, in Sri Lanka and
in the Philippines, female migrants are about 74 percent and 55 percent of
total outflows respectively.
These trends are
creating important opportunities for poverty reduction and women’s empowerment.
The poverty reducing benefits of migration broadly are well documented. So too
is the role that migration and remittances play in improving food security and
alleviating poverty among poor rural households.
The benefits of
migration apply also to migrants’ destination communities. In Brazil higher
rates of internal migration are associated with reductions in poverty in
destination cities (among both the local population and migrants) and increased
access to infrastructure services. Far from placing additional pressure on urban
labour markets as is sometimes feared, local households have been shown to benefit
from complementarities of locals and migrants in productive tasks.
Migration offers opportunities for the
empowerment of women in terms of access to paid employment outside the family,
access to services and relaxation of the rigid gender norms which prevail
throughout many rural societies. In cases where the migrating family
member has been male, this has often enabled women to take on greater
decision-making and management responsibilities on family farms, with
remittances sometimes allowing them to hire labour to reduce their own
workloads.
But what about the
challenges? Migrating women are likely to continue experiencing forms of gender
discrimination and are not always well placed to benefit from the prosperity of
their destination towns and cities. According to UN-HABITAT, “gender gaps in
labour and employment, decent work, pay, tenure rights, access to and
accumulation of assets, personal security and safety, and representation in
formal structures of urban governance, show that women are often the last to
benefit from the prosperity of cities.”
Women and girls are
the most affected by many governments’ struggles to maintain services and
infrastructure. Expensive public transport systems hinder women’s mobility, and
many are forced to live in poor housing in the face of escalating living costs. Migrant women living in poor urban
neighbourhoods often have to compensate for a lack of services and infrastructure
by working longer hours, caring for children who are frequently ill as a result
of inadequate water and sanitation. Urban crime can also be a serious problem
for migrant women. In addition, social relations can be more fragmented and despite
urban areas having better equipped health clinics and more doctors, residence
related access and the expense of such healthcare often puts it out of the
reach of migrant women.
So, how can policy-makers support
migrating women in light of these realities? Broadly, more attention is
needed on promoting mobility. This should include removing disincentives such
as residency based social protection (as is often the case with health and
education schemes) and urban housing policies that are biased against migrants.
But equally important will be addressing the gender dimensions of migration.
Introducing gender
sensitive labour and migration legislation that enshrines international
standards for the legal protection of migrants and promoting women’s groups and
migrant associations are key aspects of this. So is including women in
discussions between governments, employers, trade unions, civil society and
migrant communities to ensure the contribution of migrants is recognized and
their rights are protected. Initiatives to improve the safety of migrants,
especially women, during their journeys as well as in their destinations are
also needed. Only by empowering and supporting the role of women in migration
can its potential poverty reducing impact be realized.
