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Gendering Migration, Livelihood And Entitlements
Boyd, Monica Pikkov, Deanna
Boyd, Monica
Pikkov, Deanna
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Abstract
"Although women have always migrated, developments in the last quarter of the twentieth century sustain both their presence in international migration flows and their recognition as migrants. In less-developed nations, structural adjustment programs shrink opportunities for male employment and for traditional forms of profit making, and contribute to declining government revenues. In turn, imperatives of finding alternative means for making a living, making a profit, and securing government revenue stimulate the international migration of women and men alike (Sassen 1988). Moreover, growing insecurities cause states, households and individuals to increasingly rely on women’s labor for their survival, a phenomenon that has been referred to as the “feminization of survival” (Migration Policy Institute 2003; Sassen 2000). Women, of course, have always been heavily involved in their families’ and communities’ survival; but the phrase highlights the increasingly public and visible forms of women’s contributions to state and household economic strategies in the face of extreme conditions and growing world-wide demand for their services. One consequence is the increasing percentage of women in migration flows to all world regions, including North America (Zlotnik 2003). Reflecting the broad similarities between Canada and the United States, many aspects of immigrant women’s experiences are similar in the two countries. Despite the efforts of the women’s movement of the 1970s and 1980s, and the subsequent enactment of affirmative action legislation, gender stratification, defined as asymmetrical relations of power and access to resources that privilege men, persists in both Canada and the United States. Consequently, the modes of entry into North America are gendered, implying that men and women frequently enter under different criteria governing the admission of permanent residents. Migrant women often enter as wives and dependents of men who sponsor their admission, and they are usually less likely than men to enter on humanitarian or economic grounds. However, the effects of gender stratification do not end there. Many migrant women engage in paid work; like their native-born counterparts, immigrant women face a gender stratified labor market where they frequently are employed in female typed occupations, stereotypically labelled as “women’s jobs”. These jobs held by migrant women occur within similar economies. In both Canada and the United States, the move away from farming and heavy manufacturing began early in the twentieth century, and then escalated so that by the close of the century, employment in both countries was overwhelming in service industries. But in post-industrial economies, both the residual manufacturing and the growing service sectors can provide good and bad jobs. Migrant women in both Canada and the United States have their share of both, with examples ranging from seamstress work to domestic, cleaning and nursing occupations. Overall, the negative impacts of gender combine with those of being an immigrant, with the result that immigrant women are “doubly” disadvantaged,” and most likely to be over-represented in marginal, unregulated, and/or poorly paid jobs."(pg 3)
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2005-04
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With permission of the license/copyright holder