Gender Issues in Migration - Assignment Example

Topic: Gender, sexuality and Migration Introduction Migration is the movement of people from one area to another. Migration of people from place to place is characterized by various aspects. People migrate for various reasons; to some do it to for fun; others do it because they are forced to do so as they seek greener pastures. People may also migrate in search security. Human settlement is hence inevitable as long as migration lives on. This is where settlement is as a result of the want to explore new things and live in a new environment. Migration can also be as a result of forced circumstances such as wars in the native land or a job transfer that requires the movement of a person to a new location. In other instances, migration is as a result of marriage. Married couples often migrate to convenient locations where they can live happily together and state a family. The emerging migration trends indicate that migration can be influenced by gender as well as sexuality. Gender has a strong relation to social, economic and political factors that might influence the movement of people from one place to another. Gender and its related subjects are some of the most discussed issues globally. Many news magazines, articles and newspapers feather gender as an emerging issue which has influenced the lives of people in so many ways (Pojmann.2006. pg. 17). Migration is one of the phenomena attributed to gender. Researchers as well as the media have been working to discover the reasons that link gender to the migration of people. This document is a review of an article on gender and migration by the International Organization for Migration. Gender in this case is described as the differences between the women and men. The differences between the male and the female gender places a great role in the social, cultural and economic status of a particular geographical location. This influences the settlement and migration of people. In 1980s, migration highly focused on economy. Male migrants played major roles in the economy while female migrants were viewed as passive followers. However this has changed with the change of time and women are currently playing an equal role as that of men when it comes to economic issues. The battle for supremacy is the factor that brings inequality to both genders. Men are the dominant species in the business market, thus women have found it difficult to contribute to an equal share of the economy as they are suppressed by the fact that men have taken all control of the job market. This factor has made women to migrate form one geographical position to another in search of a changed environment challenged by the potential of women in the effort to raise the economy to a much stable position (Sweetman. 1998. Pg.103). They migrate under two major categories. These are; individual migration and dependent migration. Individual migration is where they move as individuals who migrate from place to place in search of good job opportunities. Dependent migration is where they migrate under the influence of certain organizations or individuals. Migration can also be classified farther into two categories. There is forced migration and intended migration. Forced migration is the movement from one point to another on the basis of forceful circumstances such as wars, drought and famine. Intended migration is as a result of self-desires that yarn to be fulfilled. Gender migration is falls in all these categories as gender based situation can either be forceful or intended as well as individual or dependent. Emerging issues in Gender and Migration Gender migration is more perilous to the female gender than the male gender. Women are vulnerable to sexual, verbal and physical abuse. This shows that they are preys to illegal businesses such as drug and human trafficking. In the recent years, education has played a great role in women empowerment as it has been used as a weapon to help women in their struggle to be on the same level with men. Currently, women are entitled to own property and run big businesses which were initially against the traditional beliefs of many communities all around the world. Apart from education acting like a key to women empowerment, it has also brought misfortunes to some of the women who live in areas where the traditional beliefs and practices are not completely abandoned. In these places the girl child is not subjected to full education. She is only allowed to study in ordered to become mature quickly but not to acquire knowledge that can make her self-reliant. They end up being forced to drop out of school and advance to another level in life such as marriage. Women in these traditions are viewed as properties of the community (Willis.2000. Pg46). When the oppression is too much, they end up running away from their native homes to seek refuge to communities where they will be accepted and even be able to make a living. This makes them vulnerable as they may land in a hostile environment where they can be subjected to hostile treatment. Most of the women who are unlucky to finish their education end up getting involved in illegal businesses such as prostitution, human and drug trafficking. Human and drug trafficking has recently been common in the Asian and African continents (Agrawal.2008. Pg.69). Women in most of the countries in these continents live with the desire to travel to continents like Europe and the United States of America. Their basic aim to this is to search of jobs with high payrolls and a more comfortable life than the one in their native homeland. They are frustrated by their countries in the process of searching for permits to fly out of their various countries. This forces them to use the dependent migration system where their migration is facilitated by business organizations which have their own interest at heart rather than the interest of their clients (Momsen.1999. Pg33). Most of these organizations deal with human and drug trafficking. Women fall victim of organizations and thus they are shipped to foreign nations where they are subjected to harsh treatment, physical and mental abuse. They engage in prostitution and marketing of illegal drugs in there destined countries. A few are lucky enough to break away from these businesses but most women end up in prison after being used while others are deported back to their native countries to continue with their sentences. Another area that affects gender and migration is the job market. Gender inequality is the main aspect that affects job market in the current world. Men have dominated most of the businesses and women relay on them for employment. The perception that most tedious jobs are men oriented give women minimal options in the job market (Ghosh. 2009. Pg.56). Women find it very hard to secure well- paying jobs as they are sometimes forced to sexual harassment in exchange for top level job opportunities in companies or even organizations. This gives the desire to explore various parts of the world in the search for a different work atmosphere, where they cannot be subjected to abuse in order to secure job opportunities. Migration in this case is gender influenced as most migrant relocate from their native homelands because of gender related reasons. Gender and sexuality can also influence migration if various traditional practices are analyzed. Many communities in Africa have not abandoned their traditional forms of lifestyle. These communities take keen interest in their traditional practices and ignore health values. They engage in the practice of female genital mutilation. Women are circumcised against their will only to fulfill a traditional rite of passage from childhood to adulthood (International Organization for Migration. 2011. Pg. 7). Some of them end up dying in the process thus generating fear to the ones that are yet to undergo this traditional practice. This calls for them to escape and migrate to places where they are safe and cannot be subjected to such torture. Many organizations have come out to aid such communities into getting civilized and abolish such practices. Some communities have managed to abolish such traditions while others like the Somali have refrained from obliterating these practices. Gender and migration is also influenced by fear of the unknown. In countries like Australia the infant mortality rate for male children has been analyzed to be higher than that of female children. However, doctors and scientists have not yet discovered the causes behind these results but attribute the causes to environmental conditions. Most parents prefer to migrate to other places where the analysis is different due to fear of the unknown outcome. These factors have caused parents to develop gender sensitivity as most of them fear conserving male children with the fear of losing them. Other medical conditions like SCID-X1 are popular in some parts this country. Since it only affects the male children, parents often to migrate to different parts of the country where there are few cases of male children born with SCID-X1. Receiving countries tend to pose very high restriction on women in order to regulate on the population of immigrants. It they do this by ensuring that emigrant women find it hard to secure job opportunities. Emigrant women are subjected into service jobs like: domestic housekeeping, nursing, hotel and restaurant services. The jobs are not well paying thus makes the life of emigrant women unbearable. In many cases, most of the emigrant women carry no options to choose from thus go for cheap labour and that is provision of services. Those who are ambitious are lured into illegal businesses and prostitution since they carry a much higher pay. The issue of racial discrimination also has a lot of impact on emigrants and their way of survival. Most of the African and Asian countries do not have strong embassies in foreign European countries. In this case, it is very hard for people from these continents to acquire help while in the European nations as foreigners. Many women in foreign countries exist there illegally because they use dependent methods to acquire documents that allow them relocate from their native countries. Such people are not covered by the law while in the foreign countries and thus need assistance from their respective nation’s embassies in case of any legal representation resulting from mistreatment. If the embassies are not sufficient enough, they end up being slaves in native countries and have to succumb to whatever comes their way. Security Gender and migration is also influenced by the security of a place. In the Arabian countries, men are regarded as protectors of the land. The Arab Muslim religion believes that men were given the power by God to defend whatever belongs to the Arab community through fighting a holy war (Cook. 2007. Pg.118). During national wars, women are allowed to migrate with young children to secure locations. Men are not given the same option as it is their obligation to defend the nation as stated by the holy book that is the Quran. In such regions, migration of people is not only based on desires for adventure or the willingness to migrate but forceful circumstances are part of the reasons that can influence migration based on gender. Marriage is another aspect that greatly influences gender and migration. Many women in Africa have the desire to live the western kind of lifestyle and transform from the African traditions to western culture. Some men and women the European nations admire the kind of lifestyle that people have in Africa and would like to permanently settle in this region. Marriage grants people the legal rights to become citizens of the countries where their spouses come from. People use this notion to acquire citizenship in countries where they desire to spend their lives. Poverty Poverty is one of the greatest factors affecting the migration of people. Gender and sexuality in relation to migration can be used to explain how poverty plays a major role in the migration of people (Phillips. 2011. Pg.304). Developed countries are known to have high economic status than second and third class countries. People living in third world countries prefer to interrelate with citizens in developed countries so that they can secure citizenship in developed countries and in turn acquire jobs that will enable then to generate some income. This income can be used to create some investments back in their native countries since life is affordable. The difference I currency also contributes to this what can be considered to be a low income in the developed countries can do a lot in third world countries. Education system and migration Education systems and business also promote the migration of people from one geographical location to another. A number of countries in the northern and southern American continents experience this challenge. In countries like Brazil, high populations of elites are of female gender where as many businesses are controlled by men. The economic status of Brazil is not stable enough for the government to provide job opportunities to all the elites thus it relies on the private sector which is mostly controlled by men. There is a high rate of gender discrimination as men are still under the traditional perception that women are not good enough in the management of businesses. In this case women are left to work in coffee and sugarcane plantations. Brazil is one of the countries that have a high number of unemployed graduates with the total percentage fluctuating between 62% and 65%. This is due to gender bias which is a problem that the country has been unable to tackle for a longtime. Women in this country prefer doing their further studies in foreign nations where they have higher chances of securing job opportunities after completing their studies. The job market of Brazil has recently been expanding at a slow pace because of luck of ideology since most of the elite population is brain drained to foreign countries. Conclusion Gender and sexuality with their influence in migration are currently the most discussed topics in the media. They affect the social and economic status of many countries in the world. People who are learned and have the potential to make a difference in the economy are left to seek jobs is countries where their level of education and experience is highly valued. This is as a result of gender disparity in the labour market. The economy of such countries cannot advance because of insufficiency of people who can provide incentives on economic improvement. ‘The International Organization for Migration’ magazine gives an analysis of how gender, sexuality and migration are related and their influence in the social and economic environment. The magazine is related to news articles and books because it features the current emerging issues. Researchers have drawn their attention to investigating migration issues and their relation to gender and sexuality. References Pojmann W. A. 2006. Immigrant Women and Feminism in Italy: Research in Migration and Ethnic Relations Series: New York. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Sweetman C. 1998. Gender & Migration. Oxfam Focus On Gender Development Guidelines: London. Oxfam Willis K., Yeoh B S. 2000. International library of studies on migration: New York. Cheltenham Momsen J H. 1999. Volume 1 of International Studies of Women and Place Series: New York. Routledge Ghosh J. 2009. Human Development: Migration and Gender Empowerment: Recent Trends and Emerging Issues. New York.Nehru University press. Vol 3. Issue 5. Retrieved 12th Mar 2013. International Organization for Migration. 2011. Gender& Migration: ION Press. 2011. Vol 1. Issue 2. Retrieved on 12th Mar 2013 Agrawal A. 2008. Migrant Women and Work: Women and Migration in Asia: New York .SAGE Rajan S I. 2012. Migration, Identity and Conflict. New York. Routledge Cook N. 2007. Gender relations in global perspective: Toronto. Canadian scholars press Phillips A. 2011. Gender and culture. London. Cambridge press pub. Read More