Gender, labor, and migration

Migration patterns, migration discourse, migrants' experiences, obligations and duties as well as the expectations relative to their migration are gendered. Men and women not only engage in migrations and mobility differently, inducing differential impact on those who remain nonmigrants, but their movements are also linked to each other. Gender is a socially constructed category; it produces asymmetries and inequalities relative to positioning of women and men and to valuing and ordering what is considered as feminine or masculine. Gender can facilitate or jeopardize migration – it underlies decision-making and migration work, it determines who and under which circumstances will be expected to move and who denied the opportunity to move. At the same time gender identities are constitutive elements of other identities, cross-cutting other social relations, and gender processes cannot be understood independently of the class, race, immigrant status, sexuality, or generation with which they intersect.

Keywords: poverty; gender; women; family; welfare; labor; labor supply; political economy