Trans-Local Livelihoods and Connections -- Embedding a Gender Perspective into Migration Studies. (original) (raw)
Migration, gender and vulnerability
2006
Theorising in the field of research on migration and gender has been pointed out as one the greatest challenges for future research. This challenge is taken up in this article. I look critically and from a gender perspective at the theories on migration and settlement, and suggest an alternative theory.
Migrants: Suitable brokers of development?
Migration: is the 21st century different? In recent years migration, again, has become one of the most controversial and emotive social and economic issues. This despite its being as old as human beings who moved around to improve their living conditions, for safety and even adventure! In previous phases of globalization and since the eighteenth century, the development of the rich 'North' depended on the movement of millions of people through slavery, indenture and wage labour.
In the context of the contemporary globalized world, international migration gained an increasing interest among social sciences scholars. Which are the main drivers of international migration? Who benefits more from migration: the host or the origin countries or communities? Which is the relationship between migration and social stratification or inequality? What is changing in the identity register for both migrants and natives in social contexts with significant communities of immigrants? Is there any relationship between migration and the new wave of terrorism in Europe? These are only some of the main questions which request the academic community's attention and intricate answers. From this perspective, The Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies edited by Steven Gold and Stephanie Nawyn is an excellent up to date introduction in a range of topics related to migration studies and a useful tool for scholars interested in economic, cultural and social processes linked to international migration. The Handbook is organized in nine distinct parts covering theoretical and methodological aspects of several dimensions of migration phenomenon. This book review constitutes a brief overview on each of these parts aiming to emphasize some of the most interesting chapters of the handbook. Unauthenticated Download Date | 3/5/15 10:15 PM
From Migrant Identity to Migration Industry: The Changing Conditions of Transnational Migration
Nordic Journal of Migration Research
In this article, I reflect on changes in the conditions of transnational mobility over the past 25 years. Drawing on continuous engagement with Dominican migrants in sending, transit, destination and return situations, I argue that increasingly strict migration control measures during this period have profoundly altered the existential option of living lives across borders. I specifically address changes in the right to move and settle, the absence of avenues for regular migration and the concomitant rise in high-risk irregular migration. Examples include the risk to life, safety and investments during journeys, the risk of exploitation in both transit and destination countries and the risks resulting from being subject to deportation and removal from family and community. I argue that the by now well-established tradition of transnational migration research, in particular the multi-local focus on the social relations that facilitate migration, can be fruitfully extended by paying e...
Gender on the Move: Working on the Migration-Development Nexus from a Gender Perspective
This training manual, written for UN Women, aims to provoke thinking and action around migration and development from a gender and rights-based perspective, questioning the remittances-for-development model, bringing to the fore migration for care work, and highlighting the need to defend migrant women’s rights. The manual is divided into the following sections: 1. Introduction to Gender, Migration, and Development 2. Impact of Remittances on Local Economies in Origin Countries from a Gender Perspective 3. Global Care Chains 4. Migration Policies and Migrant Women’s Rights - See more at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2013/12/gender-on-the-move#sthash.cGOTIzX1.dpuf
2012
An increasing number of people around the world are diversifying their sources of income through migration. In most cases only some members of the family migrate, making their livelihoods multi-local, be it within a country or across international borders. There are two major ways of approaching migration in research: from a livelihoods perspective, on the one hand, and from the perspective of transnational migration and transnational social spaces, on the other. Scholars rarely combine the two. One major criticism of both approaches is that they are not linked to other existing social theories. A theoretical foundation is necessary in order to gain a better understanding of people’s access to and use of resources, of the relationship between subjects and society, and of socio-economic dependencies, as well as to be able to extrapolate the results of case studies. The present article addresses this criticism by proposing Bourdieu’s theory of practice as a means of filling this theor...
Formidable Intersections: Forced Migration, Gender and Livelihoods
Social Science Research Network, 2015
Forced migration, gender and livelihoods are interlinked phenomena-each influencing and impacting the other. Movement, displacement and settlement in new and foreign locations impact gender roles and responsibilities which, in turn, are impacted by market barriers, market access and livelihood opportunities. A 'livelihood', as commonly understood, refers to the capacities, assets and strategies that people use to make a living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future without undermining the natural resource base (Department for International Development 1999). Conflict is a devastating 'shock' to livelihoods that impacts individual, household and market capabilities as well as the full range of assets-human, social, financial physical and natural-that people use and require for their livelihoods. Markets collapse, resources become scarce, mobility is restricted due to insecurity and purchasing power diminishes. Access to fields, grazing lands, markets and other resources vital for one's livelihood may become dangerous or impossible. Over the past several decades, as the nature of conflict has changed, so too, has its consequences; more often internal, more often about access to and control over resources rather than ideology, and with civilians more often uprooted and in harm's way, leading to large waves of forced migration. As a result, household and community livelihoods are severely disrupted, with assets stripped, discarded or depleted. Formal economies constrict and parallel, unregulated shadow economies-or even more harmful, war economies that benefit from and further fuel the conflict-emerge (Buchanan-Smith & Fadul 2008, p. 12). This chapter looks at the intersectionality of violence, forced migration, gender, and livelihoods. While accepting the commonly understood notion that displacement impacts women, men, girls and boys differently, it notes that the impacts on livelihoods are also gendered. The chapter examines how livelihood assets are drivers of conflict while being simultaneously depleted by conflict, as well as how the need to re-acquire livelihood assets provides impetus for forced migration. The links between livelihoods and gender-based violence are also explored both from
Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In
International Migration Review, 2006
This article aims to bring gender into an even tighter transnational migration focus by broadening and deepening our original framework of "gendered geographies of power," linking it more directly to existing and emerging scholarship. We examine and highlight previously neglected areas such as the role of the state and the social imaginary in gendering transnational processes and experiences. We identify topics that remain under-appreciated, under-researched, and/or under-theorized. Finally, we initiate a discussion of how a gendered analysis of transnational migration can help bridge this particular research to other gendered transnational processes under study that do not privilege migration.