Transcript Women in International Migration Regimes

Women in
International Migration Regimes
Between
Coercion and Empowerment
Christa Wichterich
24.08.07, FES, Berlin
Restructuring
Of Economies
Commodification
New
International
Division of
Labour
Cross-Border
Movement
Migration = Gendered Process
… mediated by gendered norms, stereotypes,
expectations, opportunities
 … demand for gender specific labour e.g. domestics
 … supply of gender specific labour e.g. nurses
 migration process itself is gendered… women more
vulnerable
 Integration process is gendered
 Re-integration is gendered… cultural & social
repercussions
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Complex & Changing Nexus of
Push & Pull
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Economic crisis, loss of 
livelihood, poverty
Change in domestic labour
market, men loose jobs,
new gender roles
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Discrimination, lack of
chances
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Coercion
Hope for a good life
Demand of labour e.g. IT sector
& care of the elderly 
selective strategy of opening of
borders & inclusion
Transnational networks of
migrants offer jobs to people at
home
Migration industry: Labour
agencies, brokers & traffickers
make false promises & lure
women into slavery
Why?
Global reason: inequalities between countries
 Individual reason: Poverty, loss of livelihood,
economic crisis, conflict, violence, cultural norms
 Survival Strategy:
Search for livelihood, security & rights
 Distinction: voluntary  forced …
… coercion & choice are interlinked
 Agents of their life, decision makers regarding
their future
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Latest Trends in Migration
 More
temporary and circular
 More illegal
 More gendered or female
 More polarised: skilled & unskilled
 Less share of refugees
Feminisation of Transnat. Migration
- Figures 1980
1990
2000
2005
Number of
99.7
Migrants (mio)
154.0
174.9
191.0
Women
47.1
73.8
85.0
94.5
% of Women
47.2
47.9
48.6
49.6
+ 200 mio migrants within China
Feminisation of Migration
Change in goal: Earlier majority of women migrated
as dependent family members (marriage, family
unification) – now migrate as wage earners on their
own
 More visible in statistics & in public
 Specific female flows of migrant workers
 Gender segregated labour market:
Mostly unskilled informal jobs, new international
division of labour
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Global Care Chain
1) Nurses & doctors trained in the Philippines work
in Saudi Arabia brain drain  lack of medical
personal in the Philippines
2) Middle-class women in the US, full time employed, transfers care work in the household to
undocumented migrant from Mexico whose children are taken care of by a relative care drain
new internat. division of care work
3) Private households in Germany employ care takers
from Poland for elderly & sick people  often
deskilling, rotation or shuttle system
Contradictory Discourses & Policies
Building new external borders & internal barriers 
fear of competition in domestic labour market,
xenophobia, racism
 Shift in discourse: focus on economic advantage:
- for the home country: export of unemployment,
remittances development effect, poverty reduction
- for the receiving country: selective demand, supply
of labour for specific sectors
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Remittances
2005: 232 bill. US $ official money transfers
167 bill. US $ for developing countries
 Huge profits for financial service sector due to high
fees for transnational money transfer (up to 20 %)
 Women: less income, remit higher share than men
- temporary migrants remit more
- depends on family relations
 Gender specific use of remittances:
- men invest in consumer goods,
- women invest in human development
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Social Costs & Gains
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Violation of human
rights, racism
Sexual violence
Lack of access to social
security & health
Wage discrimination,
deskilling, downgrading
Social remittances:
conservative values
Brain/skills/care drain
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Recognition as breadwinner for the family
Personal freedom far away
from family & cultural
regime
New transnational families, communities &
networks
Social remittances: liberal
values
Brain gain
Trafficking
Trafficking = recruitment & transport “by means of
threat, use of force or other forms of coercion”
 Presently 2,45 mio people enslaved + annually 1,2
mio people trafficked …. 80 % girls & women
 Main sectors of destination: prostitution, forced
marriage, labour in sweatshops & agriculture
 No clear distinction between forced & voluntary
migration
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Refugees, Displaced & Asylum Seekers
12,7 mio refugees (2005) = 7 % of all migrants
 90 % of all refugees stay in developing countries
 Women lack physical safety & security during flight
& in camps
 773.500 asylum seekers
 Growing awareness of gender specific reasons for
asylum
 However, little progress in gender specific asylum
procedures
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New Transnational Spaces for Women
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New neoliberal regimes of migration management,
policies of selective opening of borders &
integration, informed by demand of markets
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Individual practices & subjectivities between
exploitation & empowerment
Assumptions for Policies
Consider migration as survival strategy & each
migrant women as actor who struggles for livelihood
& rights
 Migration is there to stay as long as inequality
prevails
 Each human being has “a right to have rights”
 Search for concept of global citizenship &
cosmopolitical rights
 Struggle against social & economic inequality &
against poverty
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