ABSTRACT
Gender is a socially constructed concept. The roles that women and men play in society, the different values and rewards for their actions—even when these actions are the same—and the types of mobility each enjoys are products of cultural institutions and social divisions of power as well as the product of nature (Guest 1993). Gender differences in migration are also the outcomes of socio-cultural relations. Many countries have poor women, for example, but not all offer the option for these women to migrate from village to city or overseas where income prospects are perceived to be higher (Sassen 1994). To do so requires a number of other conditions, including at least some degree of cultural acceptance, recruitment networks and information channels, and, for international migration in contemporary times, often the involvement of the state as a key agent. As such, a genuine historical perspective on gender and international migration rests on the inclusion of localized socio-cultural and political factors—including the national and the local state—into the framework of analysis.
