Factors behind the growing feminisation of migration in Africa

African migration has a long history. Migration from Africa has historically been a male-dominated phenomenon, but the pattern has changed significantly in recent decades. African women are leaving their countries of birth to create new lives elsewhere. Economic opportunities are primarily available in childcare, domestic and sex work. These trends should be of special interest to those in the policy-making spaces who are concerned about the wellbeing of female migrants. Migration patterns in present day Africa are still greatly influenced by historical factors such as colonialism and its creation of arbitrary borders that sought to divide ethnically linked populations into different countries. Over the past few decades there has been an overall rise in ‘feminisation’ of migration in Africa as millions of women gradually became economic beings with a responsibility to contribute financially to their families. As it stands now, nearly half (49%) of all migrant workers are women. An activity that used to be largely male dominated has become increasingly feminine. It was the norm especially in the colonial era for male labourers to leave their families behind and cross international boundaries looking for work, especially in the Southern African region where the South African mines proved to be a magnet for employment. Women are now more than ever migrating independently as a means of meeting their own economic needs rather than migrating to join a husband and family. This paper will therefore discuss the factors behind the growing feminisation of migration in Africa.

Economic pressures on the one hand, and demand factors, on the other, changed the migration opportunities of women and men, and in the process, also changed age-old norms about the spaces allowed to women and men. In Africa, for example, the traditional pattern of migration within and from the continent was ‘male-dominated, long distance and long term’, leaving women behind to assume family responsibilities and agricultural work. Shrinking job opportunities for men, however, has recently prompted increasing female migration both within and beyond national borders (Adepoju, 2004). Whereas traditional or customary migration seems to privilege men’s options, labour migration has somewhat equalised the migration motivations of women and men. Male and female migrants alike generally articulate economic reasons for migration in developing regions, migration is usually undertaken to improve the family’s economic conditions. Women’s reasons for migration, however, may be motivated by other non-economic factors. An important, though less explicit, motivation for women’s migration might also be the search for more open milieus. 

Gender-related factors, such as surveillance of daughters, or lack of socially accepted options to get out of a bad marriage, or fleeing from domestic violence, are conditions that can ‘push’ women out. In this regard, migration functions not just as an economic safety valve, but as an avenue to allow women passage into safer, more enabling environments. Gendered norms about migration not only influence individual motivations or household decisions but also state policies. Oishi (2002) has suggested that men’s migration is seen more in terms of economic criteria while policymaking regarding women’s migration is value-driven, i.e., influenced by values on women’s employment and their socio-economic status.

Movements of people from one area to another if it isn‘t caused by some natural disaster are primarily the direct result of inadequate economic and social opportunities in the country of origin and (presumably) superior opportunities in the area of immigration. Women migrate with the hope for better living conditions, to support their children, to escape political chaos etc. However, as the recent Human Development Report highlights, there exists the dynamic interaction between individual decisions and the socio-economic context in which they are taken. Impoverishment and the need to support family provide women with strong reasons for migrating. However, poverty does not always contribute to decisions and capabilities of women to migrate. It also depends on state and community settings, traditions and on family and individual circumstances (Waddington, 2003). 

Among other factors that may contribute significantly to the decision to migrate are for example, increasing labour demand on the service market in countries of destination, family obligations, unemployment, low wages, limited social and economic opportunities and the desire to expand their horizons. Women generally face more drastic decision-making and financial restrictions than do men, which can pose obstacles to freedom of movement. Yet income-earning opportunities can empower women and loosen traditional constraints on female mobility. Economic and social upheaval can also provide the impetus to leave: educated women unable to overcome employment discrimination in their own country migrate in search of an opportunity to find work that is more likely to better utilise their skills and that is better paid. Female migration is also motivated by other non-economic factors, including surveillance by communities and patriarchal traditions that limit opportunity and freedom, getting out of a bad and abusive marriage, fleeing from domestic violence, and desiring equal opportunities (Waddington, 2003).

Discrimination against certain groups of women – single mothers, unmarried women, widows or divorcees also drives many to move elsewhere. A significant number of women still migrate as wives, and therefore their migration status is tied to that of their spouses. In many countries, if domestic violence occurs, women risk losing their residence rights if they decide to leave their spouses. Women also migrate for the purpose of marriage. Arranged marriages are quite common in some cultures, especially among emigrants from the Indian subcontinent, where both men and women migrate for this purpose. For many, arranged marriages can lead to a lifelong supportive partnership, but some of them can be accurately described as forced (Waddington, 2003).

Moreover, mail-order bride businesses can act as facades for recruiting and trafficking women. Other contributory factors that are usually taken into account when considering migration are women‘s age, their power position within the family and their stage in the life cycle (whether they are leaving children behind or not), the capacity of the household to do without them, and the presence of other women able to replace them in their domestic activities. Migration processes with a female focus should be more closely scrutinised in order to prevent hidden risks and promote new opportunities for women and their families (Waddington, 2003).

 Women‘s decisions to migrate depend on many factors: labour market conditions, discrimination and exclusion, unfavourable legislation, risks, the impact on people left behind, etc. The growing desire to acquire an education and rapidly rising levels of literacy schooling across Africa has gained in importance as a driving force of mobility and migration of women. This often starts with local and intra-regional education. For instance, the absence of primary and secondary schools in rural areas is often a reason for women to migrate to towns, particularly when good transport is lacking, either by living in with family or community members already living there, or to by staying at boarding schools or other collective facilities (Haas, 2010).

Public debates and media representations of African women migration have paid extensive attention to the links between environmental degradation, climate change and migration. Climate change is often seen as one of main drivers of contemporary migration from African and other poor countries. This has frequently led to dire predictions that tens, if not hundreds of millions of ‘environmental refugees’ will get on the move (Myers 2002). Also the recent increase in unauthorized crossings of the Mediterranean has often been attributed to a combination of climate change, environmental degradation and population growth. 

Mobility deprivation also explains the complex effects of violence and political oppression on trends and patterns of migration. The recent history of African women migration exemplifies the relevance of violent conflict and political oppression in generating significant population mobility. Although the vast majority of Africans primarily for reasons of work, family, or study, even in regions known for refugee migration (Bakewell and Bonfiglio 2013) violence and political oppression plays an important role in generating refugee migration and internal displacement, particularly in regions such as the Great Lakes district, the Horn of Africa and certain areas in West Africa (such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, and parts of Nigeria) and, until the 1990s, in Southern Africa (Waddington, 2003). People may be denied basic human rights and the access to education and to a dignified life may be prevented, especially for females. Fundamentalism is such countries may easily grow, as it is the case with the deadly activities of Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria, that it is estimated to have caused the internal displacement of nearly 2 million people. It is to be noted that the majority of displaced people in warring nations are relocated within national borders, thus officially they are not considered international migrants, but rather internal refugees (Waddington, 2003).

Land grabbing is a phenomenon that has become increasingly important since the beginning of the new millennium. The term ‘land grabbing’ refers to the intensive exploitation of vast areas of land in rural areas of low-income countries by private international enterprises or even by foreign governments in order to implement large-scale intensive cultivations (mainly biofuels and food crops) or to exploit minerals, forestry or the touristic industry. This happens to the detriment of the poor local population, which is poorly (and often forcedly) compensated and virtually obliged to leave the rural areas to reach the degraded urban peripheries within their own countries, where they often live a difficult life in a different setting from the one they and their families have experienced for centuries. Psychological and physical impairment is frequent in such communities and international female migration may then occur (Adepoju, 2004).

A number of countries have a quite restrictive policy on sexual identity and LTB people (lesbians, transgender and bisexual people) face psychological and even physical violence, forcing them to hide their sexual identity. The impact of such policies on international migration has recently been the subject of some investigation that is in its infancy. No doubt, however, that an impact exists, especially from countries where ‘machismo’ is considered a value (Adepoju, 2004). The influence of the ethnic group, the family support both economic and societal is of the upmost importance for a specific individual to make the final choice to migrate or to stay. Educational level and access to financial means permitting to afford the migration travel have already been discussed above, but other factors such as ethnic and social customs are also important. The aspiration and desire to migrate by women is a crucial key factor that interacts with other external drivers of migration to build the final decision to actually migrate (Adepoju, 2004).

The majority of women migrate as workers or with their families, driven by economic necessity. The failure of states to fulfil economic, social and political human rights play a key role in pushing women to migrate. Thus, discussion of migration and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be limited to those points that explicitly mention migrants. Fulfillment of all of the SDGs is necessary to create an environment where women can choose to migrate or remain at home. The growing power of corporations to displace people and undermine livelihoods, while demanding cheap labour elsewhere, is a central factor in driving migration, including irregular migration. Women migrant workers’ role in development cannot be instrumentalized as “agents of development,” but must be seen in the complex nexus of their choices, their lack of choices, their family relationships and their ability to claim rights, including economic and social human rights (Adepoju, 2004).

The discussion above has indicated that female migration in Africa has come of age as women are forced to take a leading role in meeting the livelihood needs of their families. Over the past decades, female-headed households have become the norm and hence the pressure to cross boundaries in search of work ranging from domestic care work to prostitution has increased for many African women. Understanding the drivers of migration within the African context will help to clarify policy choices and also enable to efforts to encourage safe, orderly and regular migration while discouraging irregular and other forms of involuntary migration. The commitments outlined here demonstrate the need for states on the continent to focus on long term development efforts in line with the SDGs goals, environmental protection initiatives, and conflict resolutions efforts in order to create the necessary environment in which the rising African women migration takes place with a view to harnessing the catalytic role of migration in development. 

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