Gender and Migration (Oxfam Focus on Gender)

The essays in this collection explore the wide range of reasons why women and men decide to move within and outside their native countries - whether for employment, upon marriage or in response to conflict. The authors stress the importance of seeing an individual migrant in her or his context as a member of a social network, spanning different locations. Understanding these links helps us to understand migration as part of a wider strategy for making a living. The contributors also explore how migration may offer women a chance to challenge oppressive gender relations: migrants are exposed to different ways of being and doing, which show that culture is neither universal or fixed. Conversely, migration may be a route into continuing gender-based discrimination, because women become isolated from their support systems.