The invisible ones: women in migration

Traditionally, migration has been mostly a male phenomenon because men had the freedom to travel and a duty to maintain the financial upkeep of the family. Migration was a men’s world: migrants’ jobs were male jobs and migrants’ rights were men’s rights. But recently globalisation has brought with it a feminisation of migration, and the number of women who migrate alone, as men do, to make money for themselves or to support their families, is increasing.
“There are very limited job opportunities in this country (…) I remember how I suffered before securing a job in Yemen (…) things would have been worse for me and my family had I not gone abroad to work”, Ethiopian woman working in Yemen.

Who are migrant women?

They are married or single, divorced or widows, mothers and daughters, girls and older women. They are many but they are invisible as there is not enough data or sex-disaggregated statistics on migrant women. We know that women make half of international migrants and that they tend to migrate from poor to poor countries as they avoid long journeys, may not have enough money to travel far, or are attracted to countries similar in terms of customs, religion, language, climate etc. But the number of women migrating to rich countries is increasing and today women represent the majority of immigrants in North America, Europe and the Middle East and the majority of emigrants from many countries in Asia and Latin America are female.

Read more