Characterizing Gendered Migration Journeys
Meera Gregerson, Kwesi Afrifa, & Sarah Lohmar
The Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are known as the Northern Triangle.
In a recent survey conducted by the World Food Program within the Northern Triangle,
43% of respondents indicated that, given the opportunity, they would
like to move for an extended time to another country.
Various economic, political, and social factors drive hundreds of thousands
of people from this region each year to leave home in pursuit of better
prospects. The journey is long and often expensive, lonely, and dangerous.
Most often, external migrants from this region have the USA as their destination.
One size does not fit all when it comes to aiding a huge number of people.
An effective aid strategy must take into account the experiences of multiple
groups of people, in particular more vulnerable groups. It is thus
critical to examine how one's gender affects one's migration experience.
Using survey data generously offered by WFP, we look into the differing
experiences of male and female migrants to foreign countries.
In WPF's survey, a very small percentage of respondents identified as both genders,
or preferred not to say. The experiences of these migrants are equally important,
however for this exploration we have chosen to only examine those of people
who fall within the binary, as there are enough survey respondents to get an
understanding of the broader experience by gender.
Various economic, political, and social factors drive hundreds of thousands of people from this region each year to leave home in pursuit of better prospects. The journey is long and often expensive, lonely, and dangerous. Most often, external migrants from this region have the USA as their destination.
One size does not fit all when it comes to aiding a huge number of people. An effective aid strategy must take into account the experiences of multiple groups of people, in particular more vulnerable groups. It is thus critical to examine how one's gender affects one's migration experience.
Using survey data generously offered by WFP, we look into the differing experiences of male and female migrants to foreign countries.
In WPF's survey, a very small percentage of respondents identified as both genders, or preferred not to say. The experiences of these migrants are equally important, however for this exploration we have chosen to only examine those of people who fall within the binary, as there are enough survey respondents to get an understanding of the broader experience by gender.
Journey Cost
The median cost per female migrantion attempt was $3505.50, while that of men was $6000.00, representing a 42% difference in cost.
We see that men are disproportionately represented at the higher end of the journey cost scale, a fact which can be partially explained by the fact that men travel more often with coyotes compared to women. 10 outliers have been removed for histogram clarity. The maximum among these was a staggering $70,000. From this, we can clearly see that there is a wide wealth gap among migrants.
Companionship
Women are likelier to be traveling with family members than are men and much likelier to be traveling with a child. On the other hand, men are likelier than women to travel with strangers or "coyotes", a term for people who smuggle migrants across international borders.
The high costs coyotes charge for their services goes a long way in explaining men's higher migration expenses. It's also possible the more precarious circumstances of men's immigration lead to the higher rates of violence they experience.
Violence
Men experience violence at a rate slightly higher than that of women (22% of men reported violence on the journey, compared with 13% of women). The types of violence they faced were also very similar.
Both women and men most frequently reported being robbed by armed assailants, extorted and physically assaulted on the journey, but men had disproportionately higher incidence of attempted murder and kidnapping. There were also 8 incidences of sexual assault for women, compared with none for men.
Occupation Changes
Women are likelier to change occupation than men, though both groups change at rates above 50%. Women mostly gravitated toward unpaid home care, informal work, and salaried employment post-migration, while men mostly did agricultural labor, informal work and salaried employment.
The higher prevalence of unpaid work among the women migrants as opposed to men is one possible explanation for the discrepancy in remittance amounts sent back home we see shortly.
Remittance
The median regular remittance sent by women is $121.50, while that of men is $143.50 . This could be due to a variety of factors, such as lesser-paying jobs at the destination or the fact that women were more often accompanied by family, meaning they would have a larger household to provide for in the destination country.
24 outliers have been removed for histogram clarity. The maximum among these is an impressive $7,800 .