The gendered experience of refugee resettlement
Migration, whether it be a choice for new opportunity or forced due to the climate-related disasters or conflict, is a gendered experience. Migration is a gender justice issue as deeply entrenched gender norms influence all aspects of a person’s migration including a reason to leave home, experiences while relocating, and the opportunities upon arrival in a host community. Discrimination, exploitation, and abuse along this migration journey dispproportiatley impacts cis- and trans- women and girls as well as trans- men and boys, and non-binary or gender fluid individuals. A person’s sexual orientation can also heavily influence their experience with migration, and people who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual can face additional vulnerabilities that vary based cultural norms of the location of migration. These varied experiences are based on the intersectional identities of each person migrating. A person’s gender identity, sexual oreintation, race, ethnicity, religion, age, ability, and so on can all shape the migration experience in different ways, leaving some migrants more vulnerable than others.
A PASSION TO DISMANTLE SYSTEMS OF INEQUALITY
To learn more about the intersection of gender and migration, Refugee Pathways had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Sylvia Maier who is an Associate Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs where she directs the MSGA Concentration in Global Gender Studies. Her interest in dismantling structures of inequality began when exploring Muslim women’s rights in family law and multicultural accommodations in Western Europe. Sylvia’s professional journey led to her expertise in women’s rights in the Middle East, South Central Asia and the Gulf States, where she centered her work around “culturally situated modes of resistance to patriarchy.” She approaches her work on gender through a grassroots advocacy perspective that is shaped by an intersectional understanding of how one’s identity influences their experience with governmental systems affiliated with migration. Throughout our conversation, Sylvia highlighted the impact of gender on migration, the importance of positive examples, and possibilities for the way forward to more gender inclusive migration processes, which is captured in the remainder of this piece.
THE IMPACT OF GENDER ON MIGRATION
There is shockingly little gender disaggregated data that captures the migration experience and most of the data that does exist is collected in binaries of female and male. What is known is that women and girls comprise roughly half of the 281 million migrants worldwide and face dismal experiences of migration. Women and girls often choose to migrate to escape gender-based violence in their home country, yet once migrating they also face heightened risk of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) “at the hands of smugglers, traffickers, border officials, and other state actors, as well as fellow migrants.” For example, UN Women estimates that 60 to 80% of migrant women and girls travelling through Mexico are raped. Along migration routes women and girls are exposed to harm, some of which include trafficking and human smuggling, SGBV, and gender insensitive designs of refugee camps that provide limited privacy or access to water and sanitation facilities. Upon arrival to a host country the risk of GBV may continue to be prevalent in the school and workplace or other public spaces. Survivors of violence along this migration journey often have limited access to health and social services, including mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) as well as barriers to justice for the abuse that they experienced. There is a dire need for profound rethinking of policy, programs, and projects that are geared towards people migrating which invokes a gender responsive and gender sensitive approach.
During the resettlement application process specifically, women often face regulatory and structural barriers at disproportionate rates to men. Upon arriving in a new country, the lived realities of women are often that of limited resources and support. Integration efforts to the labor market are often limited which limits access to job security and social services. Experiences of course differ across contexts, including refugee women employment which after one year of resettlement reaches 40% in the United States and as low as 6% in Germany, Jordan, and Lebanon. Restricted access to services and employment are just a few examples of how the resettlement process is a gendered experience.
THE IMPORTANCE OF POSITIVE EXAMPLES
There is a shared global responsibility to provide accepting and inclusive communities for refugees to resettle around the globe. International agencies, governments, and NGOs have the responsibility to ensure that all migrants–across genders and sexualitities–are welcomed as newcomers. With so much work to be done to reach this ideal, there is power in providing positive examples of opportunities for inclusion. Thankfully there are advocates who are on the frontlines leading the way on this front.
- She Matters is a Netherlands-based company which provides employment training for newcomer women refugees. The services they provide are crucial as just 4% of women refugees resettling in the Netherlands are employed, which is devastatingly low as livelihoods are an essential component of resettlement for women to support themselves and their families, integrate further into the host community, and provide a positive impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of women and their families. (Explore the work of She Matters further in a past Refugee Pathways blog.)
- Labor mobility pathways such as the UNHCR’s partnership with civil society organization Talent Beyond Borders which has a mission to create migration pathways for skilled refugee workers to pursue employment opportunities in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. This partnership recognizes that despite barriers of documentation, many refugees are highly-skilled workers who have the wealth of talent to contribute meaningfully to the community they live in or resettle to, and should have the opportunities to do so. This support in access to livelihoods can be monumental for women integrating into a new community. (Explore labor mobility pathways further in this Refugee Pathways blog.)
- Austria’s micro-credential accreditation program provides a meaningful opportunity for female refugees resettling in Austria to continue their professional journey after migration.
- Buddy systems organized by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) that pair refugees with local volunteers and provide an inclusion opportunity for female newcomers to the country.
- Gender-sensitive programming for refugee women and girls, such as sports-based social inclusion programs that prioritize an inclusive environment with female coaches and mentors.
These possible examples are a glimmer of hope that change is possible and change is happening at this very moment. As more people become aware of the gendered experience of migration, the way forward will continue to be paved with opportunities to dismantle systems of inequality and create opportunities of empowerment in their place.
THE WAY FORWARD
Sylvia ended our conversation with motivating words as a call to action for a more gender inclusive migration process, saying “there needs to be female solidarity where women support each other, especially women who are coming from a place of privilege.” The way forward requires actors coming together to bring change. Some examples of this change can look like the creation of public-private partnerships, the promotion of employment opportunities for migrant women, vocational and language skills programs, and early childhood opportunities for migrant communities so that parents have the opportunity to pursue employment. The ways forward can be creative and innovative in nature and can bring together many aspects of a community in order to support migrants. We need to continue to raise our voices to advocate for women, as well as people across genders, gender non-confirming, and people who face heightened risks due to their sexuality, and disrupt the barriers that are placed on their pathways to safety and relocation.
Written by Emily Ervin for Refugee Pathways
