DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-857011
title: Gendered Dynamics of International Labour Migration, 2020-2021

description: The research sought to contribute to a gender-sensitive understanding of the interaction between economic and socio-cultural drivers of labour migrations in different cities: Erbil in Kurdistan-Iraq; Beirut in Lebanon; Islamabad in Pakistan; and Istanbul in Turkey. While migration remains a key issue globally, relatively little work has been done on gender migrations in the Global South, and what has been done has largely focussed on domestic and care work, without including higher-skilled migrants. 

The project addresses this gap by interviewing approximately 25 women and NGO workers in each city and was designed to go beyond domestic work by looking at a range of labour sectors where women play active roles. In doing so, this research contributes to a better understanding of, the global circulation of gendered labour that is occurring, the drivers of this movement, women’s rights and agency, and how migrant women use urban spaces, within these contexts. 

This project was designed with specific attention to researcher power dynamics. It was conducted with (not on) researchers in the Global South, thus aiming to produce knowledge from the South rather than to impose knowledge from the North. The multi-context project design also brings forward a rich comparative analysis of societies in South Asia and the Middle East – going beyond one country and nation-state borders. 


Key findings of the project are:

• Gendered migrations in the Middle East and South Asia are diverse In terms of educational level, occupations, nationalities and rights and include migrant women from the Global South and North.

• Discriminatory practices in home countries inform migration. In each of the four countries there were discriminatory practices and patriarchal norms in their home countries that influenced the women’s migration (e.g., sexual violence, domestic violence, discriminatory employment practices because they are women, discrimination against their SOGIE identity, no legal rights to divorce). 

• Women are treated differently based on their race, country of origin, and social capital within a given context. Women from diverse backgrounds faced distinct forms of discrimination based on their intersectional identities. For example, in Turkey, cultural capital is important. Women from North America, in particular those who were educated with university degrees were often able to find good work as teachers, journalists, or translators. In contrast, the women interviewed from the former Soviet Union, who were also educated, went through a process of de-skilling after migration – now working as cleaners or live-in carers. This happens in-part because they have less cultural capital in the Turkish context. 

• Education levels amongst the women were high, but the value placed on that education once in the country of migration was mixed. Despite relatively high levels of education, many of the women still faced significant hurdles in finding commensurate employment opportunities.

• Women’s agency can be both amplified and strained in migration contexts. Most women showed agency in their choice to migrate away from their home countries and in their efforts to improve their life conditions. However, women's agency in these contexts was strained by structural inequalities and violence that inhibited and moulded their ability to participate in the labour market. For example, two of the Syrian women interviewed in Lebanon described how they ended up in sex work, despite this not being their choice or aspiration. 

• Personal networks based on nationality play a key role in women’s lives. Interviews revealed that rather than relying on formal trade unions or collective forms of organising, many women used personal networks based on nationality to build community and advance their working conditions and livelihoods. 

• Recruitment agencies have a lot of control and power. Recruitment agencies also shape who migrates because they have bilateral agreements with agencies in countries of origin. They can influence and shape the flow of who and under what conditions migrants are allowed to enter the country. This is particularly the case in Lebanon where they blocked changes to the Kafala system