Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI): A tool to monitor progress on the reduction of forced labour and human trafficking

Evidence on the number of migrant women affected by forced labour and human trafficking is scant. Even more alarmingly, little is known about the role of women’s agency in migration. In this paper, we develop the conceptual framework and key elements of a Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI) that aims to reflect the multiple dimensions of agency of female migrants. We argue that WEMI is integral to monitoring progress towards SDG 8.7 on the eradication of forced labour, modern slavery, and human trafficking. Since the 1990s there has been a particular focus on women’s empowerment in agriculture with burgeoning evidence on the negative consequences of the gender gap and increasing feminisation of agriculture. Existing country-level indices like the Gender Development Index (GDI) or the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) have been widely adapted for measuring progress, but are inadequate to measure empowerment at the individual level as defined by Kabeer (1999). Kabeer (1999) defines empowerment “as a process by which people expand their ability to make strategic life choices” (Malapit et al. 2019). Kabeer’s framework has been used as a basis for the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), a multidimensional index based on individual-level data of male and female household members (Alkire et al. 2013). Based on the notion of three types of agency (Malapit et al. 2019), intrinsic agency (power within); instrumental agency (power to); and collective agency (power with) this paper develops, to our knowledge, the first tool to measure empowerment of migrant women. The WEMI includes five dimensions beyond the WEAI, including control over the use of remittances, the experience of abuse at work, access to social networks, physical mobility and time-use agency. As women’s empowerment affects and is affected by different stages of the migration process, the WEMI aims to reflect changes in the agency of women across different stages of migration: pre-departure/potential migrants (in the country of origin), migrants during the migration stage (from departure training, to being fully integrated at the country of work), at work in host country and following the return to the country of origin. The WEMI will advance research over earlier assessments of women’s experiences in the migration process beyond more seemingly objective indicators, such as income, health and nutrition to incorporate subjective wellbeing statements in the migration literature. The framework and index will be tested in Bangladesh in districts with high international migration of women to Middle Eastern countries, including the garment sector in Jordan and as domestic care workers in Lebanon