Women And International Migration: A Cross-Cultural Analysis
...migration is a global phenomenon. There is increasing international
connectivity and flow of information, capital and people. Further, the liberalized immigration policies of some of the developed countries (Zlotnik , 1998:429-430) have accelerated the pace of international migration of both men and women for settlement and temporary residence. Women are an important component of international migration:
nearly half the international migrants are women (Jolly, Bell and Narayanswamy , 2003;
Russell , 1995; United Nations , 1998). The impact of international migration on women, both those migrating and those left behind has been a sorely neglected issue in international migration research (Boyd , 2003). The male bias in this research is undoubtedly based on the assumption that most women migrated for reasons of family reunification. This assumption is epitomized in The ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation, 1949 (No. 86) , when it refers to a migrant worker’s family as being “his wife and minor children”. Gender has been neglected in the international migration research The increasing participation of women in international migration processes and gender-related issues in causes and consequences of emigration can no longer be ignored. An increasing number of women in the Asia and Pacific region are migrating either with families or autonomously to more developed countries to seek employment and higher wages, better lifestyle, social and economic benefits, social security and to escape cultural constraints (United Nations, 1997 ; Jolly, Bell, and Narayanswamy, 2003).
Feminization of the labour market, demand for women’s labour and the ready supply of these from developing countries and changing views on women’s mobility have motivated women to seek employment in overseas destinations. According to ILO (2001),
It is the...
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