Gendered Aspects of Migration: Law and the Female Migrant

Although female migrants share common goals and concerns, the gendered aspects of migration have been largely ignored by legislators and policy makers. This is illustrated by the regulation of migration for the purpose of performing domestic labor (the maid trade ) and migration to export processing zones, two predominantly female migration streams. The aim of this article is to expose the ways in which the legal regulation of migration reproduces and exacerbates the social and cultural inequalities that dis-empower female migrants. It is concluded that legislators and policy makers at all levels must develop an awareness and a more sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of female migration before the law can be transformed into a tool for ensuring the physical and economic security of the deeply subordinated female migrant