Current context: From the feminization of migration to the growing global gender gap in migration

Migration, as with any other aspect of an individual’s life, remains structured by gender norms that ascribe certain roles and expectations to people based on physiological sex at birth. Because of these ascribed roles, migration tended to be depicted as male dominated, with women and girls considered as “tied movers”, migrating as spouses and daughters or subsequently through family reunification. Migration researchers engaged more deeply with migration and sex-based roles as feminist theories about the social construction of gender were advanced in the 1980s and 1990s. These theoretical advances marked a turn in understanding how gender and migration interact at individual, household and societal levels, and how gender identities, roles and relations influence migrant agency, decision-making, patterns of migration, as well as experiences throughout the migration cycle.¹³

Research on women’s international migration from the 1980s noted the increasing presence of women migrating independently, especially as migrant workers, leading to the introduction of the concept of the feminization of migration.¹⁴ This notion was consequently elevated as a mantra in migration and gender research, one seldom questioned since the 1990s.¹⁵ However, a deeper examination of migration trends and patterns requires nuancing this view. Although global data sets do not provide information on migrants of diverse genders, as the collection of gender-disaggregated data remains uncommon, global sex-disaggregated data remain useful to better understand demographic trends from a gender binary perspective.

History attests that there was a steady increase in the number of international female migrants from 1990.¹⁶ However, evidence points to a growing gender gap globally over the past two decades.¹⁷ As highlighted in the previous world migration report (Figure 1 below), the share of female migrants has been decreasing since 2000, from 49.4 per cent to 48.1 per cent. The gap between female and male international migrants increased from 1.2 percentage points in 2000 to 3.8 percentage points in 2020.

Source: IOM, 2021b, based on UN DESA, 2021.

Hence, though the number of female migrants has increased over the years, migration is not more feminized. On the contrary, it has become more masculinized when considering the share of female and male international migrants at the global level.

These global trends and patterns, however, mask wide variation by regions of origin and destination. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, although migration has been more female led in certain regions of the world, there has been no marked feminization of migration for the past three decades, except, to a certain extent, for emigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean and immigrants to North America. By contrast, some regions have experienced a substantial masculinization of migration, especially in terms of emigration from South Asia, as well as immigration to Middle East and North Africa.

Source: Abel, 2022, based on UN DESA, 2021.
Note: Regional categorization as done by the author.

Source: Abel, 2022, based on UN DESA, 2021.
Note: Regional categorization as done by the author.

Labour migration corridors constitute the main driver behind both the global gender gap and the wide variations in gender patterns of migration across regions worldwide. First, labour migration constitutes the main form of migration and displays an even greater gender gap than does the overall international migrant population. According to the latest available data, migrant workers represented the majority of migrants worldwide in 2019, accounting for 62 per cent of the international migrant population.¹⁸ Out of the 169 million migrant workers at that time globally, 99 million were males (58.5%) and 70 million females (41.5%), resulting in a global gender gap of 29 million individuals.¹⁹

Second, labour migration corridors drive the geographic distribution of migrant workers and, thus, of international migrants across the world’s regions. As shown in Figure 4 below, and similar to the share of male and female international migrants by regions of destination (Figure 3), there is a stark imbalance in the demographics of migrant workers in the Arab States, North Africa and, to a lesser extent, in sub-Saharan Africa, where male migrant workers are disproportionately represented.

Source: IOM, 2021b, based on ILO, 2021a.
Note: The figure above reflects ILO geographic regions and subregions and does not imply official endorsement or acceptance by IOM. Please see Annex A of ILO, 2021a for more information on regional breakdowns.

The disproportionate representation of male migrant workers in the Arab States is underpinned by the fact that, as illustrated in Figure 5, in 2020, 18 out of the top 20 male dominant migrant corridors were to the Middle East (and primarily from South Asia). In contrast, the top 20 female-dominant migrant corridors in 2020 and outlined in Figure 6 were more diverse, although predominantly from South and South-East Asia.

Source: Abel, 2022 based on UN DESA, 2021.
Notes: Ordered by share of male migrants, where the size of the male migrant population of the migration corridor exceeds 100,000 persons.
Regional categorization as done by the author.

Source: Abel, 2022 based on UN DESA, 2021.
Notes: Ordered by share of female migrants, where the size of the female migrant population of the migration corridor exceeds 100,000 persons.
Regional categorization as done by the author.

Regional migration patterns and country-to-country migration corridors reflect regional economic demand in occupational sectors that may be gender segregated. The Gulf countries are major destinations for male migrant workers: nearly 83 per cent of all migrant workers in the Arab States region in 2019 were male,²⁰ primarily working in the industry sector as construction workers, due to an ever-rising demand since the oil shock of 1973. For female migrant workers, their main destinations and the top migration corridors reflect the high prevalence of female migrants in the service sector, especially in domestic work and as health-care workers. Figure 7 shows this gendered segregation and its intensification between 2013 and 2019, with male migrants increasingly working in the industry sector (from 19.8% to 35.6%) and female migrants in the service sector (from slightly less than 74% to nearly 80%).²¹

Source: ILO, 2015 and 2021a.

These patterns demonstrate that the mantra of the feminization of migration must be nuanced. Not only is the migration gap increasing between female and male international migrants, but the gender patterns of occupational labour segregation remain prevalent worldwide and will likely be exacerbated, according to global historical trends in gendered labour segregation by sector of activity.²²

Data provide a useful overview of migration trends and patterns; however, they are unable to account for the gendered vulnerabilities and inequalities experienced by migrants and their families that are perpetuated by the gender segregation of the global economy and the ensuing gendered labour migration corridors. The implications of gender roles and dynamics are more far reaching, going beyond numbers, beyond binary understandings of gender, and beyond any specific form of migration.