ABSTRACT
As feminist migration scholars have highlighted, in contrast to gender-blind conceptions of migration, women have formed, and continue to form, a significant part of migratory flows. Furthermore, the conditions that structure migrants’ options, positions and experiences in both sending and receiving countries are gendered (see, e.g., Phizacklea 1983; Morokvasic 1984; Kofman 1999; Kofman et al. 2000). Cultural constraints, in particular, related to dominant ideas about male and female roles in the private and public spheres are underpinned by, and help to reproduce, gendered power relations and inequalities. These affect the nature and extent of men’s and women’s economic, social and political participation in sending countries and imply differences in their experiences and resources held, in turn impacting upon the migration and settlement process. Furthermore, while there are tendencies to emphasise the (gendered) cultural baggage that migrants bring with them to Western ‘host’ societies, gender inequalities in the West also continue to shape the position and experience of both migrant and non-migrant women.
