Introduction

Any guess about the gender of the two migrants in the above testimonies is linked to gender biases shaped by centuries of gender norms and stereotypes that have been – more or less unconsciously – internalized by most people.¹ It has been estimated that only 10.3 per cent of the global population has no social gender norms bias.² While gender biases are more apparent in societies embracing patriarchal and conservative social norms, they remain prevalent worldwide. Stereotypically, men are generally considered breadwinners, remittance senders and decision makers within families. Women are associated with caregiving, unpaid work and vulnerability. Looking at the two testimonies above, these gender norms and biases are likely to lead to testimony 1 being attributed to a man and testimony 2 to a woman, particularly given the “breadwinner” role of testimony 1. However, testimony 1 is from a woman, and testimony 2 is from a young man.

Gender norms and biases affect many aspects of day-to-day life. However, they take on a specific importance for migrants, influencing their migration experience to the extent that migration has been described as a gendered phenomenon.³ Alongside a range of other overlapping factors such as age, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, health and socioeconomic status, gender impacts the different opportunities migrants may have and the various obstacles and risks they may face in pursuing them.⁴ By setting out different roles and expectations for migrants of specific genders, the social norms of countries of origin, transit and destination may influence, for instance, who can stay and migrate in a household, the motivations and options for migration, the preferred destination countries, the type and means of migration, the goal and objective of migration, the sector of employment or the disciplines studied, the status afforded by legislations of countries, including in terms of rights and benefits, and the list goes on. These gender dimensions of migration in turn impact societies in countries of origin, transit and destination. Similarly, in displacement contexts, gender considerations underpin individuals’ trajectories, experiences and protection, and even their very decision to flee when related to gender-based discrimination and violence that may, in some countries, lead to international protection, including refugee status.

Gender-related challenges, obstacles and risks for migrants often mask broader systemic and structural gender inequalities that must be better understood and addressed in order to ensure that individuals of all genders have the same opportunities to migrate and to experience migration in a safe, orderly and regular manner. Among these, gender inequalities in terms of decision-making power and the gender segmentation of the global economy are of particular importance in explaining gender migration patterns. While gender equality has improved worldwide, progress is reported by the United Nations Development Programme to be slowing and even reversing in some countries since the COVID-19 pandemic, thus negatively impacting human development.⁵ Discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics continues, with an increased polarization over the past decade between countries with high and low levels of acceptance.⁶ Key definitions are provided in Appendix A.

The legal principle of non-discrimination, including on grounds of gender,⁷ underpins decades of policy and legal developments on gender equality. These include, at the global level, the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action; the 2006 Yogyakarta Principles and their 2016 additional Principles Plus 10 relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics; and the 2015 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in particular Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 5.⁸ In the specific context of migration, global migration initiatives have recognized the need to adopt a gender-sensitive approach to migration, especially with respect to women and girls.⁹ The most recent examples are the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which commit to gender equality and gender responsiveness.¹⁰

Against this background, this chapter aims to describe and analyse how gender intersects with international migration and considers what can be done to improve gender equality in migration. Given the breadth of the topic, the chapter does not purport to be comprehensive but to provide an overview of some important gender dimensions in migration to increase the understanding of the multifaceted interactions between gender and migration. A particular focus is placed on labour migration, because it is one of the main types of migration (nearly 70% of the international migrant population of working age are estimated to be migrant workers),¹¹ with highly gendered trends due to the gender segregation of the global economy. The chapter also covers other “types” of migration that are highly gendered, such as family migration, including marriage migration.¹² It also considers the gendered drivers of displacement and gendered impacts on refugees, as well as, more broadly, the interactions between gender and irregularity of status. In recognition of the context-specific nature of the topic, the chapter provides illustrations of diverse geographies worldwide.

The first section outlines historical context, including the “feminization of migration”. The second section then explores the diverse and multiple ways that gender impacts migrants’ experiences throughout the migration cycle, from departure from the country of origin to entry and stay in transit and destination countries and, if applicable, return to the country of origin. The third section then discusses the urgent need to adopt a gender-responsive approach to migration governance, and identifies four cross-cutting challenges that need to be addressed, highlighting examples of promising practices and interventions. Finally, the chapter concludes with reflections on the complexity of understanding the multifaceted interconnections between migration and gender, and the importance of genderresponsive migration governance for gender equality more broadly.