Migration, trafficking and gender construction : women in transition

Summary: Bringing together essays on India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Europe, Migration, Trafficking and Gender Construction: Women in Transition offers valuable insights on women’s migration and demonstrates how tremendous political upheavals—the partition of India, the creation of Burma or the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia—bring about new geography, demography and economies that are conducive to people’s displacement. Immigrants face racial-ethnic stratification, location segregation in ghettoes or camps and difficulties to access economic opportunities, leading usually to downward assimilation. Emphasizing intersectionality between gender and migration, the book highlights women’s experiences holistically and also shows how migration is closely aligned to trafficking. Through narratives, case studies and secondary data from different regions and countries, it points out the very different significance of female labour migration compared to men’s. Ongoing conflicts and forcible displacement against ‘newcomers’, where women are particularly vulnerable, are discussed, as are the complexities of ethnic identity. This book will give readers a comprehensive idea of the scale and complexity of women’s migration today.