International Migration, Gender and Family: A Miroir from Latin America

Abstract

Most of the studies on the links between gender and migration of the last four decades focus on understanding how it may lead to changes in women's status and in gender relations, especially between spouses. Using information from the United Nations database and a review of the literature on gender and migration, we analyze the sex and age composition of migration flows and stocks, we assess the feminization of migration among different regions and we suggest that migration patterns reflect gender ideologies, norms and family systems in sending and receiving countries. Based on an approach that links international migration to family dynamics, we look at recent research on how migration and the start of a union interact with women's status and gender relations and how looking at international migration and the family life cycle as linked processes may add to the understanding of the potential role that international migration plays in changing gender and generational relations. Although the chapter recovers empirical evidence and cases studies from all over the world, it is mainly based on research results from Latin American countries.