Gender, migration and policymaking in light of the 60th anniversary of international migration
| Published date | 01 October 2021 |
| Author | Eleonore Kofman |
| Date | 01 October 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12918 |
International Migration. 2021;59:273–276.
|
273
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Received: 3 Augu st 2021
|
Accepted: 8 Augus t 2021
DOI: 10.1111/imig.12918
COMMENTARY
Gender, migration and policymaking in light of the
60th anniversary of international migration
Eleonore Kofman
Middlesex Un iversity - Social Policy Research Ce ntre, London, UK
Correspondence
Eleonore Kofma n, Middlesex Univ ersity - Social Policy Re search Centre, Th e Burroughs, Lon don NW44BT, UK.
Email: E.Kofman@mdx.ac.uk
Gender and mig ration as a recognised sub - field or epist emic community is a relat ively recent development a s the
review of English language publications indicates (Pisarevskaya et al., 2020). It only really expanded substantially
from the beginning of the century, following the rapid growth of female labour migration, e specially in sectors of
domestic work and care. Theor etically, concepts such as the global care chains (Hochschild, 20 00; Parreñas, 2001)
and accompanying transnationalism, especially through transnational families (Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002; Huang
et al., 2008), framed these migr ations. Although women formed a substa ntial proportion in earlier migratio ns from
the 19 th century (Donato & Gab accia, 2015), they remaine d largely invisible and seen as dependents of men. The
slow but steady growt h of publications in the 1980s and 1990s focussed pri marily on women labour migrant s and
refugees.
By the begin ning of the 1990s, Cas tles and Miller (1993) incl uded the feminisati on of migration as on e of the
four major trends char acterising the current age of migration, due primarily to the growi ng presence of women
in labour mi gration in Europe, the Middle East a nd Japan. Portes (1997) too identified gen der and household s as
a key development at t he turn of the century. In 1998, ev idence on the percentag e of women in international mi-
gration stocks was rele ased by the UN Population Division for the years from 1965 to 1990. It clearly showed that
globally women already formed almost 46.5% of migration stock s in 1960 and that by 1990, this had increased
to 47.9% (49.1% UN revised fig ures) (Zlotnik, 2003). However, the evidence does not substantiate the view that
feminisation h as been linear, but rathe r that it is dynamic and co mplex. Some have sugge sted that we should dis-
tinguish bet ween the feminisation of mig ration and the feminisat ion of the ‘migratory disco urse’ in which women
are conceptuali sed as actors of migration ( Vause & Toma, 2015).
In terms of putting gender and migration on the agenda in English- language jo urnals, International Migration
Review led t he way wi th a spe cial issue in 1984 in trod uced by a path break ing ar ticl e by Mir jana Morok vasi c (1984) .
Since then, journals have played a major part in disseminating research and discussions on theoretical, empirical
and poli cymaking aspe cts of gen der and migr ation. International Migration has in particular encouraged au thors
to consider p olicy recommendat ions. So how has t his been applied to its productio n of knowledge over the past
30 years or so? And to what extent is one able to have an impact on policies affecting migration and rights? How
should t his be purs ued and wit h whom? Is there clarit y about how discussions o n gender asp ects of m igration,
circulation and p rocesses of settleme nt translate into policy?
© 2021 The Author s. Internationa l Migration © 2021 IOM
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