Roli Misra. 2020. Migration, Trafficking and Gender Construction: Women in Transition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 230 pp.

Abstract

Migration, Trafficking and Gender Construction brings together scholarly articles suitable for academics, policy experts and politicians, as well as curious and open-minded readers on the issues of migration and trafficking from a feminist perspective. The book is beneficial to understanding global occurrences of mass migration and trafficking across and within continents. It goes beyond the observable to uncover hidden everyday practices that deepen the gender bias in migration. As a reader, the book is deeply rooted in the issues on migration, with a lesser focus on human trafficking.Containing 10 chapters, the book covers narratives of participants living in Asia (Bangladesh and India) and Europe (Finland, Slovenia and Bosnia). The contributors are from various social science fields, with migration and gender studies as common interests. Some are university professors, whereas others are affiliated to research institutions. Structurally, the book has two sections: part one focuses on migration, trafficking and work, and part two is dedicated to migration and assimilation.Broadly speaking, themes such as migration, work, power relations, religion as a point of discrimination, ethnicity and nation demarcation are covered in the book. These themes are presented with the overarching notion of ' otherness' and 'being indigenous' female in an entrenched patriarchal environment. The common feature of participants, whose rich narratives bind the stories in the book, is being female. Findings of this book paint vivid pictures of: (1) Gender patterns in migration being even between male and female. As Mahapatro (see Chapter 2, page 82, figure 2.1) noticed, the female migration growth rate is slightly higher. (2) Females are migrating not only as male supports but also as individual autonomous beings with agency in search of self-actualisation (Krilic, Chapter 7). (3) The search for a better life could be an involuntary decision by some indigenous populations who internally migrate after being forced off their natural habitats by purposeful governmental policies of assimilation (Tripura, Chapter 1). (4) In migrating as women and in a labour force dominated by patriarchal and/or religious discrimination, sexual exploitation is possible (Hembrom, Chapter 3).Considering labour migration in Bangladesh, attention has been drawn to the Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) indigenous women. Located in South-eastern Bangladesh, CHT has several communities, each with its own language, culture and mode of dressing (see Tripura,