Gendered Migrations. Towards gender sensitive policies in the UK. Working paper 6 of the 'Asylum and Migration' series

Article

This working paper examines the factors that underlie the neglect of gender and the consequences of this neglect for our understanding of migration processes and outcomes.

Migrants and the migration process are implicitly - and sometimes explicitly - assumed to be male. From analyses of economic migration and its impacts on the labour market through to assumptions about the persecution of politically active men, the description of the factors underlying migration to the UK, the experiences of migrants themselves and the costs and benefits that they bring to our society and economy are based on a model of male migration. Unfortunately, this model rarely, if ever, reflects the reality of what is actually going on.

Policy and practice relating to immigration control and management inevitably reflect and reinforce these tendencies. Whilst recent research has highlighted, in particular, the feminisation of labour flows and the need for an interpretation of the 1951 Refugee Convention that takes into account gendered experiences of persecution, the complex relationship between gender and migration remains relatively under researched or taken adequately into account in policymaking.

View the other papers in the series here. All are available free of charge.

Related items

  1. Adults standing in a circle and talking to each other about their mental wellbeing. There is a staff member sitting to the left of them in the frame sitting next to a table. The community centre is located in Seaton Deleval in the North East of England.

    What is the left for?: The case for a politics of reciprocism

    Liberal democratic capitalism has failed to give many people good lives, and the future looks less promising than the past. 

  2. Wildfires and climate change | Dave Hawkey from IPPR Scotland speaks to Lewis Goodall on LBC

    Europe’s heatwaves and the wildfires in the Cairngorms are a stark reminder that climate extremes are here.  The Scottish government must act now with a clear plan to prepare for what's coming.

  3. “I feel quite unsettled and unsafe”: Young people, belonging, and the broken promise of childhood

    Young people in England feel less secure, supported and connected than a decade ago. Based on nearly 200 conversations, this blog explores why childhood feels more stressful and less joyful.