Stream Summaries: Migration and Displacement
Hub Co-Directors: Professor Eleonore Kofman, Middlesex University and Professor Kopalapillai Amirthalingam, University of Colombo.
The three projects in the Migration and Displacement stream collectively analyse understudied gendered aspects of different forms of internal and international displacement and migration in the Middle East and South Asia. They make recommendations to develop policies addressing gendered issues that go beyond top-down discourses and initiatives at the international level to work with community groups and local organisations.
The project on Gender and Forced Displacement sought to understand and measure how gender inequalities are affected by forced displacement in Afghanistan, Kurdistan-Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey, and to examine how these inequalities might be addressed in policies of international protection and assistance so as to facilitate the empowerment and acquisition of skills of displaced girls and women. It found that global discourse on displacement is not embedded in the realities on the ground and that this damaging gap between rhetoric and action is built upon the incorrect assumptions that high level discourse is both indicative of forthcoming policy and that it drives decisions. The granular details of displacement camps living conditions are overlooked in place of broader messages on displacement management.
Across all contexts there were profound differences in terms of health and education by gender amongst displaced groups, and compromised health and sanitation, access to clean water and reproductive health. Displacement accelerated existing gender inequalities and vulnerabilities and, in some contexts, precipitated early marriage. There were vast differences between male and female participants’ ages at the time of their marriage, especially in Afghanistan where early marriage remained a significant reason for girls dropping out of school.
Two key recommendations are that gender inclusive polices and training on forced displacement need to be better implemented at the national level. There is a need for better training and communication of gender inclusive policies at the international level, and for national and local governments to improve both awareness and understanding of why gender analysis in forced displacement policies is so important. Furthermore, in Afghanistan in particular, urgent support is needed to prevent famine and to address systemic inadequate healthcare. While female health professionals are still permitted to work, greater emphasis should be placed on women’s access to health, including antenatal care.
The Return, Reintegration and Socio-Political Restructuring project went beyond studying return to economically and politically stable countries, to cover gendered experiences of return migration to conflict-affected contexts and how this related to development, gender equality, and justice and inclusive peace in Afghanistan, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It also reviewed return policies of these countries to understand the possibilities, challenges and obstacles for returnees in the process of participating in reconstruction through their human, social and cultural capital.
Return migration is motivated by conditions in both origin and host countries. Factors driving return migration in the host country include poor living conditions, racism, and discrimination (heightened during COVID-19), and improved or stable conditions in the origin county, which can make return either feasible, profitable or both. Many return to their homeland for jobs where they can use the skills learnt in their settlement countries to contribute to the economic and political stability of their post-conflict homeland and participate in the job market.
This project found that women return as frequently as men, but gender norms negatively impact women upon return. A lack of return migration policies and assistance limits some migrants from returning to their homeland with limited opportunities in the labour market and access to housing and education. Some returnees feel alienated from their homeland due to language barriers and/or because of competition between returnees and local people. In Afghanistan, those who returned until 2020 (pre-return of the Taliban) experienced high levels of social mobility but encountered hindered labour roles, with women more likely to be working part-time than men. Women also faced challenging social norms, discrimination and issues concerning safety and violence.
The third project, Gendered Dynamics of International Labour Migration, sought to advance a gender-sensitive understanding of the interaction between economic and socio-cultural drivers of labour migrations and the experiences of work and living in selected capital or large cities, such as Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq; Beirut, Lebanon; Islamabad, Pakistan and Istanbul, Turkey. While migration remains a key issue globally, less work has been done on gendered migrations in the Global South, and what has been done has largely focused on domestic and care work. However gendered migrations are diverse in terms of educational level, occupations, nationalities and rights, and include migrant women from the Global South and North. Evidence from the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) suggests that women’s migration is particularly affected by socially discriminatory institutions. Recruitment agencies have a lot of power in facilitating migration and under what conditions migrant women do so, particularly in countries with kafala systems, such as Lebanon.
Women’s agency can be both amplified and strained in migration contexts 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. Personal networks based on nationality play more of a key role in women’s lives, rather than formal organisations, to build community and improve their working conditions and livelihoods. More research is needed on the diversity of gendered migration in the Global South, along with greater efforts to improve the living and working conditions of domestic workers who are not covered by standard labour laws. In part, this should be done with community groups in order to better understand the lived experiences and distinct needs of migrant women in these contexts, and therefore to create support systems and policies that are cognisant of their needs.
Related publications
Related Research
Gender and Forced Displacement
Gendered Dynamics of International Labour Migration
Return, Reintegration and Political Restructuring
