Gender and Migration - Essay Example

28 September Gender and Migration There has been a rapid increase in the global migration over the years, and the representation of women in it has been tremendous. Rena was one such woman who traveled from Philippines to Hong Kong. Before, it was primarily men that traveled abroad, but now women have started to follow them in the same footsteps. The dual working families have called for a need for the migrant housekeepers and nannies to babysit the children. The restructuring of global economy is a prime driving factor behind this mass-migration.

Migrant women have been able to be counted among “the global new rich” lately. Recently, temporary migration is the primary method of international migration particularly for the Asian women. The author has explored a number of probable causes of the migration of women traditionally. Poverty has conventionally been considered as the fundamental cause of the feminization of migration, but the scanty number of female migrants from the low-income countries like Bangladesh compliments this perception.

High unemployment rate is also falsified as a driving factor for the feminization of migration because Pakistani women’s representation is minimal in the global migrating women despite the fact that they are less than half as employed as Pakistani men in number. In fact, numerous push and pull factors are working simultaneously. Religion is also not always the determinant of the female migration pattern. Even the network approach does not offer sufficient explanation for the origination of migration.

Household roles significantly depict and impact the migration pattern. This book aims at making an integrative approach to determine the causal factors for Asian women’s migration. To accomplish this, the author simultaneously uses the method of agreement and the method of difference to identify the driving factors for Asian women’s migration. The author analyzes the state’s role at the macro level and the women’s autonomy and power of decision making at the micro level. Using social legitimacy, the author will tend to draw a link between the globalization forces and individual autonomy and state policy.

The author has identified a very unique topic to explore. Yes, there is an obvious difference between the numbers of female migrants among various Asian countries. I believe that the difference primarily originates in culture. Factors that control Asian women’s migration on the second and third level are religion and need respectively. Asian countries vary in their culture. Countries like Pakistan, Iran and Bangladesh particularly discourage women from moving abroad unless accompanied by men.

This culture is fundamentally influenced by and originates in the teachings of Islam which prohibit women from traveling alone because of safety concerns. Besides, the societal roles in most of the Asian countries have been defined in a way that makes the women primarily the men’s property. Men, being the dominating members of the society disallow women to migrate because this perceived as a potential blow to the strong family system which is the fundamental characteristic feature of all Asian countries in general, and the Muslim countries among them in particular.