Gender, Migration and Social Change

Abstract

"This paper provides a critical review of existing studies about how migration alters women's position in the course of social change....First, the conceptual and methodological issues that bear on the assessment of changing gender relations are distilled from the existing literature. Second, for heuristic purposes we delineate three alternative outcomes for migrant women using the distribution-redistribution analytical framework....Finally, we provide a selective review of case studies illustrating alternative outcomes for migrant women in Africa and Latin America." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

The interrelationship of fertility, family maintenance and Mexico-U.S. Migration

“…Joint migration is most likely to occur before the onset of childbearing when the financial and psychic costs of migration are lowest and the time horizon over which the couples can realize the returns on migration is the longest. Once childbearing and child-rearing begin, studies show that the likelihood that a couple migrates declines, whereas the likelihood of men's solo migration increases (Arizpe 1981, Torrealba 1989, Root and De Jong 1991, Tienda and Booth 1991, Cerruti and Massey 2001). An important derivative of the principal of timing is the presence of key turning points in the lifecourse when decisions are made that have lasting repercussions for subsequent lifecourse options and trajectories.…”

Transnational Childhoods: The Participation of Children in Processes of Family Migration

“…This literature treats children, in effect, as luggage, as in phrases like "the immigrant sent for his wife and children." Feminist scholars helped women move to active conceptual presence in studies of migration (e.g., Hirsch 1999; Hondagneu- Sotelo 1994Sotelo , 1999Pedraza 1991;Tienda and Booth 1991). But children continue to be portrayed as burdens weighing down otherwise mobile adults.…”

Familia transnacional y redefinición de los roles de género: El caso de la migración boliviana en España

“…Tal como señalan Tienda y Booth (2008), la migración puede suponer tanto pérdidas como ganancias para las mujeres, lo que se traduce en un proceso permanente de reestructuración de asimetrías que va redefiniendo las relaciones sociales y que afecta tanto a las personas que emigran como a las que permanecen en las zonas de origen. Por otra parte, otra dificultad es pensar indicadores con vocación de universalidad, por cuanto lo que, para un contexto determinado, puede resultar emancipador, para otras realidades sociales puede significar todo lo contrario.…”