Feminization of Migration

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Abstract

<jats:p>The relative numbers of men and women in international migrations hold important clues to how gender ideology and inequalities drive emigration and facilitate immigrant integration for both men and women. Until recently, the feminization of migration, with men and women migrating in relatively equal numbers, was understood to be a product of economic restructuring taking place in the late twentieth century. Historical studies have pushed the onset of feminization back to the early twentieth century and revealed earlier periods of gender balance and both masculinization and feminization among long‐distance migrants. Across the twentieth century, international regimes of restriction – which enhanced national provisions for family unification and drove numbers of refugees higher –encouraged gender balance in international migration; after 1970, global demand for predominantly female care workers sometimes also produced female majorities in some migrations.</jats:p>