Elsevier

World Development

Volume 72, August 2015, Pages 240-254
World Development

South–South Migration and Discrimination Against Women in Social Institutions: A Two-way Relationship

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.03.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We study the linkages between migration and discriminatory social institutions.

  • Discriminatory gender norms are a driver of female South–South migration.

  • Male and female determinants of migration differ.

  • Migration to low-discriminatory countries promotes gender equality at origin.

  • There is a transfer of discriminatory norms from high-discriminatory countries.

Summary

Using the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) from the OECD Development Centre, this paper provides evidence on the two-way relationship between discrimination against women in social institutions and South–South migration. On the one hand, discriminatory social institutions in both origin and destination countries are an additional determinant of female migration. On the other hand, migration implies changes in discrimination against women according to the level of gender inequalities at destination. Specifically, migration toward countries with low levels of discrimination promotes gender equality in social institutions at home, while migration toward destinations with high levels of discrimination has the reverse effect.

Introduction

There is widespread consensus that gender equality is a prerequisite for development, economic growth, and poverty reduction. In recent decades, policy makers and researchers have increasingly turned attention and resources to closing gender gaps on key economic and social indicators. Discriminatory social institutions, defined as formal and informal laws, social norms, and practices that shape or restrict the decisions, choices, and behaviors of women (Jütting, Morrisson, Dayton-Johnson, & Drechsler, 2008), have gained prominence as a useful analytical framework to understand gender gaps (Abadian, 1996, Branisa, Kabeer, 1999, Maertens, 2013, Morrisson and Jütting, 2005). In parallel to the increasing focus on the consequences of gender equality in social institutions, the even bigger question of how to shift them has come to the fore.

Besides the economic and political reasons pushing men and women to migrate (Mayda, 2010, Péridy, 2010), other determinants, including poor conditions related to gender-based discrimination, also play a role. Gender as a social construct organizes relationships between men and women, and, therefore, differentiates the causes, processes, and impacts of migration between the two genders (Jolly & Reeves, 2005). Studying migration from a gender perspective implies looking beyond the differences in migration behaviour between men and women, such as the likelihood and type of migration, and to examine further the inequalities underlying those differences (Baudassé and Bazillier, 2014, Donato).

Despite being at the center of the debate on gender and development, discriminatory social institutions and norms have been completely neglected by migration studies, which instead have so far focused on the impact of gender discrimination in the workplace on female migration (Baudassé and Bazillier, 2014, Kanaiaupuni, 2000). However, discriminatory social institutions do affect migration decisions by defining which behaviors are acceptable for each gender, as well as restricting women’s access to power and resources necessary to migrate.

Moreover, the role of migration as agent of transformative social change, challenging discriminatory social norms, and gender roles has been neglected. Understanding how discriminatory social institutions evolve is critical to tackle persistent discrimination and promote gender equality on key economic and social indicators. The relevance of international migration goes well beyond the movement of people as migration also represents a powerful mechanism to transmit ideas across borders (Beine, Levitt, 1998).

This paper is the first attempt to investigate this two-way influence between discrimination against women in social institutions and migration. This exercise brings along a threefold contribution. First, using the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) as a proxy for discriminatory social institutions, this paper highlights their significant impact on female South–South migration. This emphasizes the gender-sensitive aspect of migration determinants, while the literature remains predominantly gender blind, assuming that migrants are an homogeneous group having the same incentives to migrate. Discrimination against women in social institutions only influence female migration: high levels of discrimination in the home communities restrict female emigration and low levels of discrimination in the destination countries attracts female immigration, while they have no significant effect on male migration.

Second, this paper contributes to the migration literature on “transfers of norms” (Beine, Bertoli and Marchetta, 2015, Lodigiani and Salomone, 2012, Spilimbergo, 2009). Migration may be a channel of norms transmission challenging discrimination against women in social institutions at home when it is toward countries having low levels of discrimination. It can also reinforce them when it is toward countries with high levels of discrimination.

Finally, this paper contributes to the small literature exploring the neglected issue of gender and South–South migration (Facchini, Gindling, 2009). Naghsh Nejad, 2013, Naghsh Nejad and Young, 2014 focus on institutionalized gender inequality in OECD countries. This paper considers migration flows between developing regions not only because South–South migration represents more than 50% of migration flows comparing to South–North migration (Ratha & Shaw, 2007), but also because discriminatory social institutions in non-OECD countries are different than those in place in high-income areas (such as female genital mutilation, early marriage, inheritance laws).1

The paper is structured as follows: the second section presents the theoretical links between discrimination against women in social institutions and migration, and the third section the data. The fourth section presents the empirical analysis and results. Finally, the last section concludes.

Section snippets

Discriminatory social institutions: a driver of migration

Migration is determined by incentives and constraints (Beine, Docquier, & Özden, 2011). Potential migrants attempt to maximize their utility and choose to migrate whenever the pay-off abroad is greater than the pay-off in the origin country. Clearly, both monetary and psychological costs are associated with the migration experience, and hence play a role in influencing the migration decision. Several factors are taken into consideration in the decision process: economic features such as income,

Data

The United Nations Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) produces migration data which disaggregate international migrant stocks by sex, origin, and destination countries for the period 1990, 2000, and 2010.

Empirical strategy

Two empirical frameworks are used to assess the two-way relationship between discriminatory social institutions and migration. While Eqn. (1) models the influence of discriminatory social institutions on female migration, Eqn. (2) estimates the transmission role of migration regarding discrimination against women in social institutions in origin countries.

Conclusion

Migration is a complex field of research that requires greater attention to the particular gender dynamics of social institutions. This paper leads to relevant findings on the interaction between social institutions, gender and South–South migration. On the one hand, discrimination against women in social institutions in both origin and destination countries plays a key role in the selection process of migrants. While discrimination against women in social norms constrains female migration, it

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mario Pezzini, Carl Dahlman, Alexandre Kolev, Keiko Nowacka, David Khoudour, Jason Gagnon (all from the OECD, France) for their comments on previous versions of the paper, as well as Sara Salomone (IRES UCLouvain, Belgium), Maryam Naghsh Nejad (Institute for Study of Labor IZA, Germany), Remi Bazillier (University of Orleans, France), Yasser Moullan (International Migration Institute, UK), and Hector Calvo Pardo (University of Southampton, UK). They would also

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