Migration
Female migrants are often disproportionately affected by migration trends, due to being doubly marginalised based on both gender and migrant status. A major driver behind the increasing number of women migrant workers is the high demand for jobs in specific ‘female-orientated’ sectors. However, three important factors result in women migrant workers being highly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation including forced labour, harsh working conditions, abuse, violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
First, women migrant workers tend to be employed in low-skilled, low-wage jobs, concentrated mainly in informal and unregulated sectors. The gender pay gap, lower access to job opportunities, lower savings due to their burden of care, and inadequate access to financial products mean that women migrants have a lower ability to integrate into destination countries.
Second, migrant women also tend to come from lower socio-economic segments and hence are less ‘literate’ in immigration policies and procedures – leaving them particularly vulnerable to exploitation. The cost and complexity of documentation prevents all migrants, particularly women (who have lower access to documentation or independent documentation) from becoming or staying documented. Also, undocumented migrants are less able to access services from formal channels in destination countries.
Third, limited trust in public services in destination countries often results in a lack of – or inadequate access to – basic services such as finance, legal protection, housing, education and healthcare, which further restricts the empowerment of women migrant workers.
- Opportunity
- high
Migration, if managed well, can bring with it the opportunity for women to gain improved access to resources, education, income, employment, and government services.
- Risk
- high
Instability (political, economic and environmental) is an inherent part of migration and tends to disproportionately affect women.
Also, the lack of protection for migrants often leads to significant risks of trafficking, exploitation, and poor outcomes for women migrants.
- Opportunity
- high
- Risk
- high
Women migrants, particularly those affected by crises or disasters in their home countries, tend to be unable work or face unexpected costs. Their ability to cope with these challenges is influenced by the personal savings they have built up and the insurance they can access, both formal and informal. Women migrants, tend to be less financially resilient because they have less savings (they usually are paid less and allocate significant portions of their salaries to remittances); they have limited access to insurance (they face greater barriers to financial inclusion and their friends/family, who are usually also migrants, have less money to lend them in emergencies). Women migrants, on average, earn less than their male counterparts because of the gender pay gap, gendered division of the labour market and other labour market discrimination. And, because of the greater burden of familial and household responsibility they are expected to bear, women usually allocate more of their earnings to remittances and/or providing for their children.
Gender-smart investors, through investees, could foster:
- The collection, analysis, monitoring, and sharing of gender disaggregated data on the welfare of migrants.
- Products that improve women’s ability to equitably and directly access and control finances, giving them agency in spending decisions (for example, structured savings that enable savings plus remittances plus insurance).
- Financial initiatives that empower women. For example, easing access to financial services in destination countries and requiring all employers to pay directly into migrants’ bank accounts.
- Opportunity
- high
- Risk
- high
“With minimal access to the labour market, many women migrants enter the informal care sector, where there are minimal protections against harsh working conditions, and many women face deskilling and low wages.”
Migrant-focused skills development thus presents an opportunity for women’s economic empowerment, which gender-smart investors could foster by:
- Identifying the overlap between the (future) demand for skills and female migrants’ existing skillset and potential skillset post-training.
- Working with investees to strengthen employee protection, for example though insurance and requiring all employers to pay directly into migrants’ bank accounts.
If existing education-centric investments lack the capacity or knowledge (e.g. requiring specific linguistic skills) to fill the skill gaps identified, gender-smart investors might consider making new migrant-focused investments in academies, universities and colleges that provide for upskilling.
Source: https://theglobepost.com/2019/07/20/women-violence-migration-policy/
- Opportunity
- high
- Risk
- high
Migration, and the insecurity that comes with it, disproportionately impacts the educational attendance of women and girls (e.g. “Girls in conflict settings are almost 2.5x more likely to be out of school than boys”).
Gender-smart investors could move to tackle low levels of education attendance among migrants by:
- Identifying barriers to attendance and, if possible, working with existing investees to provide solutions.
- Working with investees to improve the community’s understanding of the importance of educating women and girls.
- Investing in education facilities (remote or nearby) which are adapted to migrants’ needs (e.g. located in or near community hubs, teaching in relevant languages, observing relevant traditions and religious customs, etc.).
Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/why-do-humanitarian-crises-disproportionately-affect-women/
- Opportunity
- medium
- Risk
- medium
Violence disproportionately affects female migrants. A Doctors Without Borders survey found that 31 percent of women migrants to Mexico faced sexual abuse on their route through Central America and 59 percent displayed symptoms of depression.
Gender-smart investors could move to reduce the impact of female-centric violence against migrants by:
- Working with investees to improve access to public health services for migrants.
- Investing in organisations that provide mental and physical healthcare for migrants.
- Investigating potential commercial entities capable of supplying affordable secure accommodation along major migration routes.
Source: https://theglobepost.com/2019/07/20/women-violence-migration-policy/
- Opportunity
- medium
- Risk
- medium
Male movement to other sectors, or migration to urban centres, has led to an increasing share of female participation in agriculture over the past 40 years, both in smallholder farming and agricultural wage labour.
Given that women farmers in many regions 1) have comparatively less access than men to improved inputs, land and other assets, and agricultural finance; and 2) face significant additional time burdens for caregiving and household chores, the feminisation of agriculture could, if not managed carefully, result in declining household-level income and food production, with negative effects on the wellbeing of women and their households.
To avoid these negative impacts, and take advantage of opportunities to increase women’s economic empowerment through agriculture, gender-smart investors can work with investees to:
- Understand the specific needs and constraints of women farmer customers and suppliers, and design appropriate products and services (e.g., input finance, market linkages), and delivery channels (e.g., women-led field agent networks).
- Work with women’s co-operatives and other rural actors to ensure women have access to information about good agricultural practices.
- Opportunity
- high
- Risk
- medium
Migration will increase pressure on infrastructure in high-growth emerging markets (e.g. almost all the 1.4 million refugees from South Sudan have fled to neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). As the primary care giver (cook, water collector, etc.), women often rely more heavily than men on infrastructure for the provision of basic needs, such as roads, water supply, etc.
To mitigate the potential resource scarcities associated with population influxes, gender-smart investors could:
- Support the efforts of regulators and governments to make infrastructure more resilient or efficient by improving access to funding and technical assistance.
- Identify barriers that inhibit women migrants from accessing infrastructure and work with and through investees and other stakeholders to provide solutions.
Source: https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~sjv340/roots_of_gender_inequality.pdf
- Opportunity
- high
- Risk
- medium
Migration will increase pressure on the construction sector to deliver safe and affordable housing in high-growth emerging markets. This presents opportunities for investees that focus on this market. To ensure investees seize the opportunity, and produce adequate volumes of affordable housing, gender-smart investors could:
- Work with sector experts and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to establish the size of the migrant market (i.e. number of households, household income, household size, etc.).
- Work with investees to identify a range of business models for temporary and permanent housing.
- Collaborate with donors, NGOs and governments to ensure adequate infrastructure is in place in new developments to ensure basic needs are met (e.g. water, sanitation, education, etc.).
