The feminisation of migration? A critical overview

Abstract

This chapter explores the key historical drivers of women’s migration from within both sending nations and receiving societies. The key to understanding the increased prominence of female migration is the evolving nature of gender relations across the spectrum as well as the critical role played by local, national, regional and transnational socio-economic factors in creating the need for a women-centric form of human mobility. Alongside this, the chapter also explores the issue of agency in relation to female migrants in both the Indonesian and Mexican contexts and how this is often masked by discourses of exploitation and victimisation.