Popular images primarily depict migrants as men, when in fact women comprise almost half of the estimated 140 to 150 million annual international migrants. Whether voluntarily or involuntarily, women have become a growing "export" from many developing countries around the world. In honor of International Women's Day (March 8), the Migration Policy Institute held a briefing regarding the concerns, motivations, and challenges that are unique to the experience of female migrants, an often-overlooked, particularly vulnerable, and uniquely valuable group. The speakers were Irena Omelaniuk, Director of Migration Management for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Sarah Gammage, economist and doctoral candidate at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and Washington D.C. representative of the Centro de Estudios Ambientales y Sociales para el Desarrollo Sostenible (CEASDES)

Deborah Meyers, policy analyst at MPI and moderator, began by providing a brief background on the founding of International Women's Day. Tracing the celebration to a 1910 gathering of 100 women from 17 countries at a socialist women's convent in Copenhagen, Meyers highlighted the first celebration's focus on women's suffrage and international peace. During International Women's Year in 1975, International Women's Day was given official recognition by the United Nations and was taken up by many governments who had not previously known of its existence. It is now officially celebrated annually on March 8. As a result of the awareness that has sprung in part from the celebration of International Women's Day, the UN has held four international women's conferences.

Overview of Female Migration in the 21st Century

Omelaniuk noted that while countries of origin, transit, and destination have similar problems and challenges, countries of origin and transit do not always necessarily have the resources to cope with them. She urged wealthier nations to give money to strengthen the capacities of the first two and recommended that all three work together to address the hard issues of immigration. Omelaniuk also emphasized the need for countries to show a willingness to pass legislation, engage in practices and work with NGOs that will further enhance the capabilities of sending and transit countries.

Women have long been part of the international migration stream, but they are moving in new ways and in larger numbers. Women are also pursuing different migration routes than in the past and, in doing so, are creating strong transnational family links while maintaining responsibility for the upkeep of family life back home.

Though the changes in migration often benefit the women involved, they also open these women up to increased risk of gender-specific forms of abuse and exploitation. International law must keep pace with these developments in order to effectively manage migration and the migrating populace.

The choice to migrate is usually a pragmatic choice for women. Several observations come out of this fact:

• Women are now the main source of family support, rather than dependents (migrating with husbands, children, or other relatives).
• Female migration has been assisted by the lifting of restrictions on movement across borders.
• Many or most of these migrating women are relegated to low-paid, domestic positions (due to the assumption of women's natural proclivity to this type of work). Women are more prone to abuse and exploitation in gender-specific way when they are working in these domestic positions (behind closed doors).

Nonetheless, government policy does not look at their migration as independent, continuing to view women as dependents of principle (male) migrants. Government also tends to see all migrating women as members of the lower classes (not universally true) of the sending countries and translate their class bias by paying less attention to their issues. Often, free access to employment is restricted by the legal aspects of the host country and the position of women within the host society. The image of migrant women that is created is unbalanced and produces a situation where migrant women are overlooked despite their tangible contributions to both sending and receiving countries.

Presence without Power

Of the world's approximately 150 million migrants, 47-48 percent are women. In 1965 the number of migrant women was equal to about 2.1 percent of the total world population of 3.3 billion people. In 1990, migrant women comprised 2.2 percent of the world population of 5.3 billion .

The lowest proportion of migrant women is in sub-Saharan Africa, while countries in transition (i.e., the former Soviet states) and the developed countries of North America and Europe have a higher proportion of female migrants than the average figure. In fact, in Southeast Europe, two-thirds of migrant workers are women.

The fact is that there is a hidden international labor market divided into male and female sectors. As was mentioned earlier, women perform traditionally "female" occupations when they migrate. However, there is not much data about skilled (non-traditional, high-tech) female migration, though it is known that many of these skilled migrants come from Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Women Migrants and Immigration Policy

Omelaniuk argued that although most migration-related policies are not gender specific, at present there are particular consequences to women that government policies should begin to consider. Most receiving country governments do not take stock of the unforeseen consequences of their immigration laws on women. For example, it was noted at the UN World Conference Against Racism that excessively strict immigration laws could be not only racist, but also sexist, impacting women more harshly than men.

Country Examples

A notable exception to the overlooking of women has been Canada, where a gender-based analysis approach to migration policy has helped in the mainstreaming of the assessment of gender-specific impacts at every step of policy implementation. Current Canadian proposals to increase the age of dependence from 18 to 22 are aimed at aiding dependent daughters, who, in some cultures, remain in the home until marriage or after divorce. In addition, in the skilled and entrepreneur categories in Canada, limited education in sending countries may impact women's ability to qualify for visas in these categories. Steps are underway to remedy this gender-based disparity in qualifications.

In Germany, where 45 percent of all migrants (3.3 million people) are women, the integration of these migrant women has posed a challenge. Government-funded programs have been implemented to lessen the isolation of these women and to provide them with vocational training (albeit in the traditional domestic sectors of nursing, geriatric care, domestic work, etc.). Lobbying groups have also brought to light the gender-bias in many of the country's immigration programs, including the new (August 2001) Green Kardt program, designed to attract IT professionals. The current ratio of women to men in this program is 1 to 9. Women might well be applying in lower numbers for this program because of an educational disadvantage in the home country. Women's groups in Germany are lobbying the government to examine the impact of this inherent gender bias in the high tech field on women.

Italy provides a salient lesson in its cooperation with countries of origin with regard to labor migration. The country has successfully linked its immigration and labor goals with the countries to whom it provides the most development aid. For instance, Italy gives vocational training to Albanian migrants in Albania and in Italy before placing them in vacancies in Italy. This dual training creates a pool of skills for the sending country as well as for Italy's use. Family reunification under this plan is subject to limits specified by law.

Victims of trafficking in Italy are issued special "residence permits for social protection" that allow for six months of work, training or studying activities. This permit can be renewed or converted into a permanent residence permit with full integration into Italy. Admission to the program is incumbent upon completion of an ad hoc rehabilitation program and the applicant's testimony against traffickers. After giving testimony, the woman has the option of remaining in Italy. This is not the case in other countries that call on trafficked women to testify against their traffickers. In the U.S, for example, after a trafficked woman gives testimony, she is returned to her home country.

Effects of Women's Migration on Family in Sending Countries

Studies have shown that even if migrant women are the main financial support for their families in their countries of origin, the family (including the woman) perceives the male as being the head of household. (For instance, although women often take over the traditional male role within the home when men migrate, the same is not true for men who remain in the sending country while women migrate. The women's mothers and relatives often maintain the absent women's families after they migrate.)

A study of 30 to 45 year old domestic workers in the Middle East demonstrated that after women migrated to the Middle East to work and began sending money to their families in the sending country, their husbands stopped working. When the women return from working abroad, the family is plunged into poverty, since there is now no one employed and the woman is pressured to return abroad to work. Omelaniuk remarked that it would be interesting to study what effect, if any, this dynamic has on the traditional family structure in the sending country.

Benefits of Migrating

Despite some of the negative aspects of migration, many women report that the positive aspects of their decision to migrate overshadow the negatives (i.e., increased sense of self-esteem and independence.) Omelaniuk shared the example of Chilean women who migrate within the country to perform domestic work for pay to avoid performing the same work within the family for free. These women often use migration as a way to avoid the traditional marriage role or as a way to escape an unpleasant home environment. This same scenario is being played out in many parts of the world.

Trafficking and Smuggling

The domestic and cross-border kidnapping of people, namely women and children for sale into servitude as domestic workers, spouses and sex workers, is termed trafficking. Potential victims are most often deceived by traffickers (into applying for positions as waitresses, domestic workers or entertainers) only to be tricked into the sex trade on arrival in the destination country. Women from transit countries and countries of origin (most of these are from the Balkan countries) are triply victimized as women, foreigners and unauthorized migrants. As unauthorized migrants, trafficked women lack access to health care, cannot speak the language and have no resources for medical services. (Young girls are more vulnerable to health-related problems because of their age and undeveloped physical frame.) Among this population, it is estimated that between 50 and 80 percent of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) go unnoticed because of an absence of signs or symptoms in the carriers. It has been estimated that the lifespan of trafficked women is only about four years. (Approximately 20,000 trafficked women reside in Germany.)

International Responses to Trafficking

Many international and non-profit organizations have begun to address the twin issues of trafficking and smuggling, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN. IOM provides trafficked women with assistance in returning to their home countries with dignity and the United Nations, in December of 2000, held the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in Palermo, Italy. From this Convention came the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons to which forty countries must agree before full implementation. Only four countries have ratified the Convention thus far.

Counter-Trafficking Recommendations for Receiving Countries

• Receiving countries should set up shelters (run by NGOs not government) for victims of trafficking.
• Receiving countries should put into law, provisions for protection of trafficked women and provide them with psychosocial support (before and after return to the home country) and medical attention.
• Receiving countries should modify reproductive health services to address both trafficked women's health needs and to intervene with the men who use the services of trafficked women.
• Receiving countries should implement an interagency referral system for trafficked women.

Transformative Nature of Migration

Gammage described migration as a response to economic, social and political upheaval in the country of origin. The increased volume of migration in recent years has followed neoliberal policy changes that have devalued agriculture and the rural economy in the developing world. As a result, the great majority of migrants move first within their home countries, from the countryside to the city. Lack of financial opportunity, overcrowding, and crime in the larger cities of the home country lead these migrants to look outside their countries to sustain themselves. On the whole, however, migration has produced some positive results in terms of self-esteem, as mentioned earlier, and has transformed the outlook both of the women involved and of those with whom they come in contact.

The Invisibility of Women's Migration

Gammage agreed that almost half of the world's migrants are women and noted that women comprise 47 to 48 percent of all asylum cases worldwide. She recommended that governments in receiving countries isolate gender-specific migration push and pull factors and filter them through a socio-cultural lens (keeping ethnic, cultural and regional interpretations of policy in mind when formulating legislation) to understand the nature of women's migration in the 21st century.

It is estimated that fifty-five percent of female migration is the result of family reunification policies. However, this calculation may or may not be correct, since data collection and statistical recording methods contribute to the invisibility of women migrants in receiving countries. Economics still emphases women as "tied movers," rather than recognizing the dynamic nature of women's movement (more independent now than in the past) and the complexity of migration. For example, who do the statistics and analyses view as the protagonist in migration, the person who leaves the home country or the person who stays? The answer could be that both are principle actors in the decision to move, regardless of the gender of the migrant.

Effects of Female Migration on the Sending Country

Women's remittances are very important to the sending country economies, often providing substantial support to family members in the home country. For example, in El Salvador, 22 percent of all female-maintained households reported receiving remittances, while only 12 percent of male-maintained household received remittance money.

In Haiti, 43 percent of female-maintained household income was from remittances. Migration has urged a shift in traditional gender roles, as agriculture has moved from a male-dominated sector to being female-dominated. In 1981, 30 percent of the agricultural force in Haiti was female. In 1990, this percentage rose to 37 percent. This same study showed that 61 percent of female-maintained households surveyed reported receiving gifts from abroad (the gifts were roughly equal to 20 percent of their income).

Women in Haiti and throughout the world are peopling the peasant movement as men migrate internationally. As a group, these women (who send money home or control money received from abroad) are demanding land rights (including co-equal land title), credit and loans to establish businesses and support their agricultural production.

Question and Answer Session

Question: Two questions: In what ways are the proven links between monetary support for women's development and reduced poverty in developing countries being strengthened? Has IOM seen any major challenges in its effort to return trafficked women to their home countries? What happens to them if they are not returned?

Answer (Omelaniuk): It is true that aiding women aids the entire society. Organizations like the World Bank should make links between migration and development by funding countries' efforts to consider the consequences of their migration policies on women. The majority of women want to go home when assisted out of the cycle of trafficking in a country of destination. The major hurdle is in assuring that their physical, social and psychological needs are met when they return home.

Answer (Gammage): The poorest areas of developing countries are the ones that are fueling migration due to the effects of neoliberal policies on the economic structure of developing countries. People are encouraged to seek work in the cities and abroad since support for agriculture is non-existent. International organizations and receiving countries need to support economic development in sending countries in order to improve living standards.

Question: In what areas should funding organizations encourage the study of female migration?

Answer (Omelaniuk): A good example of oversight of the trafficking issue is the yearly U.S. report on international best practices in counter-trafficking. It gives insight into how governments are influencing each other's behavior in this area. However, since only four governments have ratified the UN Protocol Against Trafficking, a good research study would be whether or not the countries that ratify this Protocol or that put in place "politically correct" counter-trafficking legislation actually follow-though with its enforcement.

Notes

i U.S. Bureau of the Census. Total Midyear Population for the World, 1950-2050; http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldpop.php
ii There is little information collected or available on the trafficking of males, although it is known that the practice does exist.