A Glass Half Full? Gender in Migration Studies

Illegal Migration and Gender in a Global and Historical Perspective

“…1 Whereas in the course of the last decade gender has been taken up as an analytical category in migration research and the trend towards the feminisation of migration has been acknowledged (see Donato, Gabaccia, Holdaway, Manalansan & Pessar, 2006;Mahler & Pessar 2006), little academic research has been published on the migration of women to the Middle East, the large majority of whom are migrant domestic workers. Moreover, if attention has been paid to the migration of women this has by and large been limited to journalistic writings and reports of international and non-governmental organisations that focus on trafficking and abuse (some examples are Beasley 1992 andBou Habib 1998; for a critique of the 'victim' perspective see Moors 2003).…”

“…However, study of the 'illegal' side of migration has remained relatively sparse. A special issue of International Migration Review on gender and migration offers an impressive overview of what has been written on gender differences in migration in recent years (Donato, Gabaccia, Holdaway, Manalansan & Pessar 2006), but the focus has mainly been on legal migration. Not much light is shed on the historical roots and global differences within illegal migration.…”

Reconstruir identitats i noves quotidianitats: el cas d'un grup de dones espanyoles a la Ciutat de Mèxic

“…D'aquesta manera, la migració femenina només es pot comprendre si contempla, a més dels aspectes relatius al mercat laboral, les jerarquies de poder i les expectatives socioculturals associades al gènere (Chant i Radcliffe, 1992). En aquest sentit, algunes recerques emfatitzen els processos d'empoderament de les dones, tant en els països de destinació (referent als Estats Units, vegeu Pedraza, 1991;HondagneuSotelo, 1994;Pessar, 1995, i Foner, 1997, com en les comunitats d'origen on l'emigració dels homes provoca un accés més accelerat i intens de les dones al mercat laboral local (Arizpe i Aranda, 1986;Chant i Radcliffe, 1992); i d'altres estudien els canvis en les relacions de gènere com a conseqüència de la migració internacional o els conflictes que poden derivar-se d'aquest procés (Prieto, 1992;Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994;Foner, 2001;Donato et al, 2006). D'altra banda, les teories feministes i postcolonials, com també, en general, les noves geografies culturals, han introduït, en les últimes dècades, noves perspectives per apropar-se a l'estudi de les migracions.…”

Estimates of Global Bilateral Migration Flows by Gender between 1960 and 20151

“…The application of the revised methodology allows for an updated view of international migration over a far longer time period. Estimates by gender quantify the dierences in male and female global migration ow patterns which are known to have distinct variations in the origin and destinations by gender (Donato et al, 2006;Zlotnik, 1995) and have only previously been measured using net migration statistics. Estimates over both ve and ten-year periods enable for contrasts between possible dierent global migration transitions rates to be identied.…”