Need and Necessity for Inclusion of Women in Migration Studies, (Empirical and Theoretical Evidence (original) (raw)

Locating Women in Migration Studies: An Overview

Theoretical formulations, model building, and macro-and micro-level empirical studies on migration have neglected the gender dimension of migratory processes, patterns, trends and consequences. The past two decades have begun to witness interest in this area. This introductory paper to this special issue on 'Women and Migration' has attempted to provide an overview of selected material in this area. A series of structural changes in the rural context, such as polarisation of landholdings, decay of cottage industries, mechanisation of agriculture ; natural calamities such as droughts, floods, earthquakes; loss of sustenance due to faulty resource use patterns; large-scale evictions by mega-developmental projects and the resultant increase in inequalities have led to different migration patterns or spatial mobility. Rural-rural migration and rural-urban migration, especially among small and marginal farmers, landless and artisan castes is considered an important survival strategy that individuals and families adopt as a coping response to economic hardship. Migration studies have attempted to document different patterns of migration, the factors that cause migration and, to a certain extent, the impact of migration at the point of origin and destination. The dimension of gender as a category for macro-data analysis and micro-level research in migration studies has acquired significance over the past decade. Women's studies research focuses on women as migrants with the family, single female migration, and women left behind due to male migration.

Women's Mobility and Migration

Muslim women have remained invisible in the larger discourse on migration. This paper shows how Muslim women who have migrated to Jamia Nagar in Delhi are leading a more fulfilling life in their new locality, as is evident from the fact that they claim to have migrated for social security, well-being, better opportunities and higher education. Many of them are fleeing from small-town prejudices and overbearing families. However, it is also true that while Muslim women, belonging to different socio-economic backgrounds seek mobility, this is often achieved within the rubric of familial and community strategies of both migration and of living together as members of the same community in a territorial space marked out as their own. This has certain implications that both facilitate as well as impede their need for employment, safety and autonomy. Legal and policy frameworks must pay more attention to women migrants to create a gender sensitive migration policy.

Gender and Migration: Overview Report

2016

This Overview Report on Gender and Migration takes a broad approach to migration – it looks at the gender dynamics of both international and the lesser-researched internal migration and the interconnections between the two. People may choose to migrate, or have no choice, or the decision may fall somewhere on the continuum between the two. This report therefore covers both forced and voluntary migration, including covering economic and other voluntary migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons and trafficked people. These migrants in turn come through regular (conforming to legal requirements) or irregular channels.

Women and Migration

2019

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Migration and Gender Issues. Determinants, Impacts and Interactions

2013

My doctoral thesis consists of three separate research papers, which together represent the result of three years of research undertaken by me as part of the PhD programme in Development Economics at the University of Florence. Although the three papers are each free standing, they constitute a distinct research path that has unfolded around the issues related to migration and gender. This first chapter introduces the main features of the three papers and explains how my investigation of the issues related to migration and gender has developed over the course of the PhD programme.