ABSTRACT
Gender matters in migration, and in the study of migration. Migration studies have largely assumed the migrant to be a man, with the woman left behind, or following after (Kelson and De Laet 1999). Now, half of all those moving across international borders each year are women, and some particular migrant fl ows are womendominated. Women experience migration – the decision to go, the process of moving, the consequences of displacement or resettlement – differently from men. This is partly because women are positioned differently in relation to many of the aspects or sites of migration, from family politics, through the mix of opportunities and constraints experienced at the border or in the new state, to wars which trigger large-scale fl ight, and the global political economy with its increasingly globalised division of labour.
