ABSTRACT
The literature on the international mobility of females is relatively limited and mostly focuses on the mobility of less skilled women migrants. The gap in both academic and public discourse regarding skilled female participation in the international labour market may in part be explained by the stereotypical notion that female migrants are mostly low skilled and fall outside the legal and social protection systems in host countries. This chapter focuses on this less-studied phenomenon of international skilled female mobility and highlights the need to have a gender-sensitive perspective on international skilled migration. It examines key features and patterns of this migration for specific occupations, namely, information technology (IT) and engineering, health and education. Several studies that take a gendered approach to understanding skilled migration highlight the issue of deskilling and discrimination of skilled women in the host country. The limited occupation-specific studies available on this issue confirm the presence of gender-based discrimination in the workplace for skilled migrant workers.
