[Kabar-indonesia] "Feminization" of Migration Occurring in Asia: UNFPA [3 reports]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: BBC: Women 'invisible face of migration'; and Millions of
migrant women exploited and abused in overseas jobs

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
September 6, 2006

"Feminization" of migration occurring in Asia, says UNFPA

Bangkok -- Female migrants outnumber their male counterparts in Asia,
with Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka leading the regional
diaspora of women, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
disclosed on Wednesday.

"The general trend we see in the region is the feminization of
migration," said Irena Vojackova-Sollorano, Bangkok chief of mission
for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Speaking at the regional launch of the UNFPA's State of the World
Population Report, which this year focused on the issue of women in
international migration, Sollorano said the "feminization" of
migration was a growing trend in Asia because of demand from the
service sector, especially for domestics and nurses.

Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka are the major source
countries for women migrants in Asia, said Sollorano, leading to
numerous social problems at home including the obvious drawback that
"more and more children are going without their mother."

According to the UNFPA's report, over 79 per cent of all migrants
leaving Indonesia are female, 65 per cent in the Philippines and 66
per cent from Sri Lanka.

The UNFPA report points out that there are good and bad factors in the
feminization of migration.

For instance, while more women are now exposed to exploitation, poor
health care and run the risk of being trafficked to the sex industry,
on the other hand, migration also can lead to empowerment, greater
gender equality once they get home and a more sensible use of
remittances.

The UNFPA report noted that while women migrants were more inclined to
invest their remittance in their children, "men, on the other hand,
tend to spend remittance income on consumer items such as cars and
television sets."

"It is up to these governments to turn the remittances into something
positive, in terms of investments in their own economies," said
Sollorano.

The World Bank estimates that in 2005, formally transferred
remittances amounted to 232 billion dollars, of which developing
countries received 167 billion.

"What is missing, are mechanisms capable of harnessing the potential
of remittances to promote longer-term economic growth," said the
UNFPA.

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BBC News Online
September 6, 2006

Women 'invisible face of migration'

By Emily Buchanan, World affairs correspondent, BBC News

"In today's globalised world, goods and capital flow freely and
receive more protection than people crossing borders" - that is the
stark conclusion of a report by the UN's Population Fund.

And those who have the least protection are the 95 million women and
girls who make up half of all international migrants.

When it comes to policy making and discussions on migration, they are
widely ignored, says the report.

In the UNFPA's latest State of the World Population study, executive
director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid calls on governments to "recognise the
contributions of migrant women and girls and respect their human
rights".

The report says that women contribute billions in remittances sent
back to their home countries, contributing a higher proportion of
their low earnings than men, while working as cleaners, carers or
waitresses.

The UN study cites one example of Bangladeshi women working in the
Middle East sending home 72% on average of their pay.

While a great proportion of migrant women do better themselves and
their families back home, millions are still vulnerable to
exploitation and abuse.

The report says that domestic workers are rarely protected by labour
laws or allowed to unionise. Many have been assaulted, raped,
overworked and denied pay and rest days.

The worst area of abuse concerns the hundreds of thousands of female
migrants every year who cannot find a legal way to travel abroad and
resort to the "modern-day enslavement of trafficking", the UNFPA says.

Desperate for work, they then find themselves in debt and are
frequently forced into sex work or sweatshops.

Ms Obaid says that "although awareness against trafficking is growing
there is an urgent need to do more to end this terrible crime".

Two-way process

The issue of international migration is creeping up the global agenda
and the UNFPA hopes that this report, coming just before next week's
192-country High Level Dialogue on International Migration and
Development in New York, will put the spotlight on the issue of women
migrants.

The complicating factor in addressing the abuses of migration is that
policies need to change in both the sending and the receiving
countries.

The report's authors argue that much more needs to be done to address
poverty and discrimination in the sending countries, so fewer people
want to leave, and that more emphasis must be placed on the rights of
migrants in receiving countries.

The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families has been in force since
2003, but still it has not been ratified by most developed nations.

One of the most worrying trends is that the intention to migrate is
especially high among health workers surveyed in regions hit hard by
HIV/Aids.

When nurses decamp because of poor pay and conditions, patients suffer
and health care systems crumble.

In 2000, twice as many nurses left Ghana as graduated. More than half
of all nursing vacancies in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were
unfilled in 2003.

At the same time the demand for nurses from the ageing industrialised
countries is projected to soar.

The report also highlights the growing trend of young people deciding
to move countries. Those aged between 10 and 24 now make up a third of
all migrants.

Developed countries with ageing populations benefit from this youthful
migration, but because of their age young people are often denied
opportunities to migrate legally and can also end up being exploited.

The overall message of this wide-ranging report is that the world
needs to address the problems of migration urgently, as they are not
just going to disappear.

Having doubled in the last 50 years, the movement of people across
borders is likely just to keep growing.

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Millions of migrant women exploited and abused in overseas jobs

By SUE LEEMAN
Associated Press Writer

LONDON, September 6 (AP) - Some 95 million migrant women toil around
the world, often in poor conditions involving exploitation, abuse or
discrimination, according to a report published Wednesday by the U.N.
Population Fund, UNFPA

In its annual "State of World Population" report, the agency said
women now make up 49.6 percent of all migrants, who together sent home
a total of around US$232 billion (euro181 billion) in 2005.

Yet despite being economically active, most female migrant workers
still have little say on their conditions or their future and are
often ill-treated, the report said.

"These women make a major contribution to their countries' economies
and to poverty reduction, but to a large extent they are invisible,"
said UNFPA researcher Maria Jose Alcala, the report's lead author.

Alcala said the women are commonly employed in unskilled work, such as
domestic labor.

The report is being published ahead of a United Nations debate on
migration issues on Sept. 14 and 15.

An estimated 2.45 million trafficking victims are working in
exploitative conditions around the world, the International Labour
Organization said.

The ILO said human trafficking is now the third most lucrative illicit
trade after drugs and arms smuggling, generating around US$12 billion
(euro9 billion) in profits.

Migrant women with legitimate work are also often put in grave danger,
the UNFPA report said.

"Domestic workers have been assaulted; raped; overworked, denied pay,
rest days, privacy and access to medical services; verbally and
psychologically abused; and had their passports withheld," the report
said.

"The most extreme forms of exploitation have resulted in severe injury
and even death."

Only 19 countries have laws or regulations dealing specifically with
domestic work, so abused employers are rarely prosecuted, the report
said. However, it said in Hong Kong, China and Singapore several cases
of severe ill treatment had been brought to court

Assessing overall migration trends, the report said some 25 million
people have migrated from poorer areas of Latin America and the
Caribbean, 4 percent of the total population of the region.

In some parts of the Caribbean, one in five people had left their
country of origin, creating a skills gap. In 2003, Jamaica and
Trinidad and Tobago reported nursing vacancies of 58 percent and 53
percent respectively.

More than half of all immigrants living in the United States -- some
18 million people -- are from this region, the report said. Together,
they sent nearly US$45 billion (euro35 billion) home in 2005 alone.

The report said that between 1990 and 2002 more than 3,000 people,
most of them Mexicans, have died or disappeared along the border
between Mexico and the United States, adding that U.S. border patrols
were forcing would-be migrants to use more dangerous routes.

Fourteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa report losing more than 15
percent of their skilled workers to OECD countries in 2000. They
include Somalia (59 percent), Ghana (43 percent), Mozambique (42
percent), Sierra Leone (41 percent) and Nigeria (36 percent) and
Madagascar (36 percent).

The report added that more than 20 million Asian workers now live
outside their home countries.

Asia's 1997 financial crisis led to the emigration of many women from
poorer countries, particularly the Philippines, Sri Lanka and
Indonesia, and by 2000, an estimated two million Asian women were
working in neighboring countries.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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