Snapshots of Women’s Economic Migration in Latin America
I was pleased that UNFPA chose to focus its annual State of the World's Population Report on women and migration this year (read Tyler's full coverage of the report here). Even though half of all international migrants are women, there's an unfortunate (but not necessarily surprising) lack of data on how women experience migration differently than their male counterparts. Another UN study released this week hones in on the phenomenon in the Dominican Republic, where remittances constitute 13 percent of the gross national product, and more than half of the money comes from women. As the study reveals, even when women's labor is keeping their families afloat economically, social problems at home are still blamed on women's absence. Sheesh.
I was pleased that UNFPA chose to focus its annual State of the World's Population Report on women and migration this year (read Tyler's full coverage of the report here). Even though half of all international migrants are women, there's an unfortunate (but not necessarily surprising) lack of data on how women experience migration differently than their male counterparts. Another UN study released this week hones in on the phenomenon in the Dominican Republic, where remittances constitute 13 percent of the gross national product, and more than half of the money comes from women. As the study reveals, even when women's labor is keeping their families afloat economically, social problems at home are still blamed on women's absence. Sheesh.
As economic inequalities between countries become increasingly stark, migration for economic reasons affects the lives of more and more women, men, and children worldwide-whether they are forced to leave their countries and families out of economic necessity, or whether they are left behind by family members who do. Here in Nicaragua, economic migration is a major issue. Thanks to a history of U.S.-funded dictatorships (1940s-1970s), U.S.-funded conflict (1980s), natural disasters (a devastating earthquake in 1972 and a devastating hurricane in 1998), and disastrous conditions linked to World Bank and IMF loans (1990s to the present), Nicaraguans currently face few viable educational and employment opportunities in their own country, where people earn an average of $2 a day. Often, the only way for families to get ahead is to send someone to the United States or Costa Rica-where Nicaraguans are often stigmatized as job-stealing immigrants-to look for work. The money they send home represents 18 percent of Nicaragua's GDP. Many of these migrants are women.
For the report-averse, the video below, produced by Puntos de Encuentro, puts a human face on Nicaraguan women's economic migration, linking it to a host of challenges young people face, including unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, violence, and sexual abuse.