WUNRN
FEMINIZATION OF MIGRATION IN AFRICA
- DRIVERS & OUTCOMES
Nelson Pophiwa - June 26, 2014
Migration from
African migration has a long history. Migration
patterns in present day Africa are still greatly influenced by historical
factors such as colonialism and its creation of arbitrary borders that sought
to divide ethnically linked populations into different countries. Over the past
few decades there has been an overall rise in ‘feminisation’ of migration in
Africa as millions of women gradually became economic beings with a
responsibility to contribute financially to their families. As it stands now,
nearly half (49%) of all migrant workers are women [1]. An activity that used
to be largely male dominated has become increasingly feminine. It was the norm
especially in the colonial era for male labourers to leave their families
behind and cross international boundaries looking for work, especially in the
Southern African region where the South African mines proved to be a magnet for
employment. Women are now more than ever migrating independently as a means of
meeting their own economic needs rather than migrating to join a husband and
family [2]. This brief article focuses on answering two critical questions with
regard to the feminisation of migration, namely:
1. What have been the major drivers of female migration in Africa?
2. What are the outcomes (positive or negative) of female migration?
The significant number of women involved in international migration is a
pattern that has been noted since 1960 [3], while the feminisation of labour
migration was already underway even before the literature on female migration
flourished. In general, the developed regions have a more balanced share of
male and female migrants than developing regions. Scholars have argued that the
window for family reunification, which has worked favouring female migrants,
provides some explanation in shaping this situation. In these countries large
numbers of female migrants have arrived under family reunification schemes,
following the earlier wave of labour migration consisting mainly of males.
DRIVERS OF FEMALE MIGRATION IN AFRICA
Economic pressures on the one hand, and demand factors, on the other, changed
the migration opportunities of women and men, and in the process, also changed
age-old norms about the spaces allowed to women and men. In Africa, for
example, the traditional pattern of migration within and from the continent was
‘male-dominated, long distance and long term’, leaving women behind to assume
family responsibilities and agricultural work. Shrinking job opportunities for
men, however, has recently prompted increasing female migration both within and
beyond national borders (Adepoju, 2004). Whereas traditional or customary
migration seems to privilege men’s options, labour migration has somewhat
equalised the migration motivations of women and men. Male and female migrants
alike generally articulate economic reasons for migration – in developing
regions, migration is usually undertaken to improve the family’s economic
conditions. Women’s reasons for migration, however, may be motivated by other
non-economic factors. An important, though less explicit, motivation for
women’s migration might also be the search for more open milieus.
Gender-related factors, such as surveillance of daughters, or lack of socially
accepted options to get out of a bad marriage, or fleeing from domestic
violence, are conditions that can ‘push’ women out. In this regard, migration
functions not just as an economic safety valve, but as an avenue to allow women
passage into safer, more enabling environments. Gendered norms about migration
not only influence individual motivations or household decisions but also state
policies. Oishi (2002) has suggested that men’s migration is seen more in terms
of economic criteria while policymaking regarding women’s migration is
value-driven, i.e., influenced by values on women’s employment and their
socio-economic status.
THE OUTCOMES OF FEMINIZATION OF MIGRATION
Women’s incorporation in the ‘productive’ labor market has not been accompanied
by a redistribution of the ‘reproductive’ work that continues to be primarily
their responsibility. As a result, migration has become a private solution to a
public problem for both women from poor countries and their employers in rich
countries. Scholars have coined the phrase ‘global care chains’ to describe the
importation of loving care from developing to developed countries [4]. The
argument here is that as care is looked as a precious resource, children and
the elderly who are left behind from poor countries pay the highest price for
this transfer, after women themselves, who manage their households from
different countries and try to maintain their families. This refers to the
strongly segmented labour markets for care workers in industrialised countries,
which results in migration by women from poorer countries to work as nannies,
maids and sex workers.
Literature on this subject is infused with debates about what happens to
children that are left behind. Reports show how in a context of high female
out-migration, villagers in parts of Zimbabwe perceive that children are left
in others’ care and when things go wrong, the mother is not there. In the end,
the mother is to blame and migration is looked on as a thing of moral disorder.
In another study, it is documented that the money sent home by wives is spent
on alcohol and cigarettes by the husbands or men of the households [5]. Also,
female out-migration would idealistically mean that more childcare
responsibilities are taken on by the men, but this might not be the case. This
is shown as some Zimbabwean women working abroad often continue bearing the
responsibility for childcare by organising and funding a domestic worker back
home to raise the children, with little expectation that men will increase
their caring role [6]. Another phenomenon that is highlighted with female
out-migration is how male roles within the family are rigidly defined and how
difficult it is to change them. For example, in South Western Zimbabwe and
parts of Mozambique, when men migrated, women readily assumed many of the
traditional household functions performed by men. However, in the absence of
their wives, men were found to be inflexible in accepting new roles in
household management. Instead, the extended family came into operation once the
women were away .
Gender concerns are very much evident in the issue of trafficking in persons,
especially women and children. Although trafficking has been more broadly
defined beyond prostitution or sex work, most trafficked persons continue to be
trafficked for this purpose, and most trafficked persons are women and
children. On the supply side, gender inequality can predispose women and girls
to being trafficked because they are less valued. Some of the modus operandi of
trafficking adds to the vulnerability of women and girls to be trafficked –
e.g., offers of marriage free families of the burden of having to raise dowry
to marry off their daughters. Also, the fact that families do not have to raise
a placement fee works to the advantage of traffickers. Studies suggest that
traffickers, in fact, have been found to target families during the lean
months, approaching families with offers of jobs as domestic workers, sales or
restaurant workers to women and girls [7].
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The discussion above has indicated that female migration in Africa has come of
age as women are forced to take a leading role in meeting the livelihood needs
of their families. Over the past decades, female-headed households have become
the norm and hence the pressure to cross boundaries in search of work ranging
from domestic care work to prostitution has increased for many African women.
However, this shift in roles poses a number of challenges, especially for
married women who leave their husbands in their home countries, including those
who migrate with them. Most of the men do not willingly take up the
responsibilities of taking care of children while their wives take up
employment. For women who migrate alone, the dangers of being smuggled or
trafficked are very high and this poses a number of challenges for policy
makers who are responsible for protecting the rights of migrants.
The policy space for female migration remains fertile for the development of
proactive policies that cater for the needs of female migrants.
* Nedson Pophiwa is a Chief Researcher in the Democracy, Governance and Service
Delivery Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria, South
Africa
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1. International Committee for the Red Cross
Advisory Meeting. (No Date) Special Report: Migration and Gender in the African
Context. http://tinyurl.com/lggq2zf
2. A. Adepoju. 2004. Changing Configurations of Migration in Africa Accessed on
http://tinyurl.com/mtkfnhk
3. Hania Zlotnik, 2003. “The Global Dimensions of Female Migration” in the
Migration Information Source, Available from http://tinyurl.com/2bvpz8h
4. R. Carlota, M. Dominguez, and J. Morais. 2005. “Crossing Borders:
Remittances, Gender and Development.” UN-ISTRAW Working Paper. http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001496/index.php
5. C. Waddington. 2003. Livelihood Outcomes of Migration for Poor People.
Working Paper T1. Sussex Centre for Migration Research. Accessed on http://tinyurl.com/kprrfyv
6. De Jong, G. F. 2000. Expectations, Gender and norms in Migration decision
making. Population Studies 54(3): 307-319.
7. See for example the International Organisation for Migration and UNINSTRAW’s
work on migration in Southern Africa