Women migrant workers from developing countries engage in paid employment in countries where they are not citizens. While women have traditionally been considered companions to their husbands in the migratory process, most adult migrant women today are employed in their own right. In 2017, of the 168 million migrant workers, over 68 million were women. The increase in proportion of women migrant workers since the early twentieth century is often referred to as the "feminization of migration".
Most women migrant workers come from developing countries to high-income countries, with significant impacts on both their countries of origin and destination countries. Women migrant workers send upwards of $300 billion in remittances to their countries of origin each year, often using this money to pay for their families’ basic health, housing and education needs. On a macroeconomic level, remittances from emigrant workers can account for up to 25% of national gross domestic product, and help these developing countries cope with trade deficits and external debts. However, women migrant workers have to leave their countries of origin to provide financially, and are often separated from their own families. This has led to an uneven distribution of reproductive labor globally: in destination countries, immigrant women help address the care worker shortage, and enable more local women to enter the workforce. On the other hand, in countries of origin, the emigration of large numbers of women forces other members of the community to shoulder greater domestic work burdens.
Women migrant workers typically pursue gendered professions such as domestic work and disproportionately work in private homes. As a result, they are comparatively “hidden” from society and are more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. A variety of governmental policies, moreover, have also increased the vulnerability of these women migrant workers to abuse. For example, in the Arab states, migrant domestic workers depend on their employers for legal status, causing the workers to tolerate a significant amount of abuse for fear of deportation. Several countries also prohibit women migrant workers from having sex or becoming pregnant.
Statistics Of the 271 million international migrants today, 130 million – or nearly half – are women. The share of women migrants increased from 46.7% in 1960 to 48.4% in 2010,Morrison, Schiff & Sjöblom (2008): The International Migration of Women. Washington: The World Bank. Page 2; Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011. but has declined slightly over the past two decades, from 49.1% in 2000 to 47.9% in 2019. Amongst migrant workers, men also outnumber their women counterparts. According to the International Labor Organization, only 68.1 million – or 41.6% – of the 164 million migrant workers in 2017 were women.
Although migration between developing countries is generally more substantial than migration from developing to high-income countries, the World Bank estimates that there are almost 73 million migrants from developing countries living in high-income OECD countries.these numbers include both refugees and migrant workers. Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011. Women outnumber men amongst immigrants in developed countries, accounting for 50.9% of all immigrants in developed countries. However, in developing countries, women only account for 45.7% of all immigrants, compared to 54.3% for men.
Women migrant workers by region
Arab states 5.3% of all women migrant workers reside in the Arab states. Even though 40.8% of all workers in the Arab states are migrant workers, only 20% of these migrant workers are women. Cultural and legal institutions in the region, such as the Kafala system and a lack of labor laws, have caused large proportions of these women migrant workers to be exploited and abused.
The labor laws in most Gulf states do not cover women migrant domestic workers. As a result, these women migrant workers face harsh working conditions and are vulnerable to abuse. An International Labor Organization study of four Arab countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates) found that women migrant domestic workers worked an average of 101 to 108 hours per week. Many of the women interviewed also complained of sleep deprivation as they were “on-call” all day and night. The majority of women migrant domestic workers in Kuwait were subject to physical, sexual or verbal abuse. Women migrant workers in Lebanon also reported being locked in their employers’ homes and having their food intake restricted.
Many Arab states also use the Kafala system, where each woman migrant worker has to be sponsored by a resident. Women migrant workers pay large amounts of money to agencies that help them find sponsors, which is deducted from theirs first salaries. As a result, they receive no income for their first three months’ work and depend entirely on their employers for their basic needs. In addition, as a woman migrant worker's legal status is tied to her employer's sponsorship, she often tolerates significant amounts of abuse for fear of deportation.
Europe and North America Women international migrants outnumber male migrants in both Europe and North America. 39.8% and 25.8% of women migrant workers reside in Europe and North America respectively, compared to only 26.3% and 21.1% of male migrants. The total number of immigrants has also continually increased in both regions due to an increased demand for care work amongst dual income families.Beneria, Lourdes (2008). "The crisis of care, international migration, and public policy". Feminist Economics. 14(3): 1–21. ( ). For example, Beneria, a feminist economist, argues that the demand for care work in Europe in the 1990s and 2000s brought young Latinas to countries like Spain, in order to provide care work for the aging population.
China The number of rural migrant workers in China increased eightfold from 20 to 30 million in the mid-1980s to upwards of 160 million in 2012. Of these 160 million workers, 33-50% are women. Gaetano, an American cultural anthropologist, argues that rural women's motivations to migrate are numerous and complex. Some women are driven by the allure of modern cities, and others by filial responsibility. Studies show that poor Chinese workers are more likely to migrate, and that migration increases per capita household income by 8.5 to 13.1%. Rural migrants remit a large proportion of their incomes to their families.
In order to find employment in China's bigger cities, such as Shanghai, rural migrant women rely on guanxi, social networks that enable them to connect with family or other villagers who have already left for the city. Rural migrant women pursue a wide variety of jobs, from domestic to factory work, owning their own businesses to working as hostesses in China's popular karaoke bars.
Many young Chinese women from rural areas are sent to work at factories in China's cities, where they face poor working conditions, strict regulations, low wages, and non-payments of their salaries. As Chinese laws mandate that factories must provide their women migrant workers with food and shelter, these women workers become entirely dependent on their employers for their basic needs. Employers are able to control almost every aspect of their workers’ lives, and can therefore force their employees to work late or penalize them for poor performance. In addition, Ngai, a sociologist, argues that the dormitory system is stressful for these migrant women as it removes them from their families. While this system has provided China with cheap labor to compete globally in manufacturing, it has come at the expense of isolation, maltreatment, long work hours and low wages for the women migrant workers who work in these factories. The documentary China Blue provides insight into the treatment of these young Chinese women and the conditions under which they live.
Southeast Asia
Women migrant workers play an important role in economic development in Southeast Asia. For decades, countries in the region have either sent or received large numbers of women migrant workers. Demand for contract labor in the Arab states as well as other Southeast and East Asian countries has led to significant emigration amongst women workers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. By the 1990s, the Philippines had become the world's largest source of government-sponsored emigrant workers. Upwards of 700,000 migrant workers were emigrating from the Philippines each year, most of whom were women. Today, Filipino migrant workers send over $24 billion in remittances annually, which accounts for 8-10% of the Philippines’ GDP.
Large numbers of Southeast Asian emigrant women pursue domestic and care work, a phenomenon that scholars refer to as "the global nanny chain" or "the international division of reproductive labor".Lan, Pei-Chia. Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2006. Print. In fact, in Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, over 60% of emigrant workers are women, and over two-thirds of these women pursue domestic work. Similarly, in Indonesia, 70% of all emigrant workers leaving Indonesia for Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and South Korea are women seeking domestic and care work.
Some Southeast Asian governments have actively promoted the emigration of women workers, both to reduce unemployment and increase remittances. In Indonesia, for example, the Department of Manpower set up a Center for Overseas Employment, along with training programs for potential emigrant women domestic workers to improve their domestic service skills.
Meanwhile, labor shortages have caused other Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, to turn to immigrant workers as a cheap source of labor. In Singapore, the increase in women migrant domestic workers parallels an increase in the workforce participation rate of Singaporean women. Between the 1980s and 1990s, the women workforce participation rates amongst women in Singapore increased by 70%. Similarly, the number of women migrant domestic workers also increased significantly, and by 1999, Singapore had over 100,000 immigrant women domestic workers in a small city-state with just under 4 million residents.
Millions of Burmese women migrate to Thailand each year, where they work almost exclusively in agriculture and manufacturing.Pearson, Ruth; Kusakabe, Kyoko. Thailand's Hidden Workforce : Burmese Migrant Women Factory Workers. London: Zed Books, 2012. The Thai manufacturing and agricultural sectors are dependent on Burmese migrants – more than half of whom are women – due to the migrants' low pay and long working hours. As these Burmese migrant workers are typically undocumented, they receive limited protection under Thai law. In fact, they often face aggression from the Thai government and police force.
Latin America and the Caribbean As of 2019, women made up 49.9% – or nearly half – of all international migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, the proportion of women migrant workers has increased between 2000 and 2019.
Africa There has been an increase in women migrants working within Africa. Due to the high rates of poverty and unemployment in the continent, many women have had to seek employment or even become the main providers for their families. Women workers often migrate within the region to work in the agricultural and mining sectors, as well as to North America and Europe, where there is a high demand for care workers.
Types of employment
Women migrant workers tend to be concentrated in a narrow range of highly gendered professions, including both unregulated industries such as agriculture, domestic and care work, and the sex industry, as well as highly skilled professions such as nursing.
Domestic and care work