Thematic brief on gender, economic migration and development

This Thematic Brief provides quick guidance on the most important issues relating to gender, economic migration and development

This Brief is addressed to staff from development cooperation agencies who are involved in programmes and projects with a focus on migration.

This Brief provides information to development practitioners on the most important gender issues at stake and how to address them, including indicators that can be used to monitor whether a programme is integrating gender dimensions, examples of gender-sensitive development actions and references to further information and tools related to gender, economic migration and development. It focuses primarily on international, rather than internal, migration1.

This Brief focuses mainly on the labour and job-related aspects of economic migration, rather than considering patterns of migration of refugees and asylum-seekers. It is important to recognise that refugees and asylum-seekers can face different issues to economic migrants, including violation of basic human rights, threats to their safety, displacement and political/cultural/religious exclusion. Although not the subject of this Brief, gender analysis also has the potential to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of development interventions that focus on this aspect of migration.

Contents

Introduction 

Gender issues in economic migration

A roadmap for gender mainstreaming in development programmes with a focus on migration

Questions for gender analysis in migration

Gender-sensitive indicators in migration and development

Examples of gender-sensitive projects in migration and development