State of the World's population 2006: Protecting the rights of female migrants

State of the World’s population 2006



Protecting the rights of female migrants
By Isabella Gyau Orhin

The movement of people from one place to the other has been part of human history for thousands of years. According to Historians, it has been an important part of human and economic development.
Migration in Ghana and Africa at large is not a new phenomenon. It dates as far back as the beginning of existence of the continent, from the days when war precipitated migration from one part of Africa to the other and before colonial boundaries were drawn.

Today, millions of Africans, particularly women working overseas according the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) send hundreds of millions of dollars as remittances to their homes and communities.
“These funds go to feed and educate children, provide healthcare, build homes, foster small businesses and generally improve living standards of loved ones left behind,” says the State of the World’s Population,” 2006 prepared by the UNFPA.
Migrant women toil in the households of working families, soothe the sick and comfort the elderly, the report released in September 6, said adding, they contribute their technical and professional expertise, pay taxes and quietly support a quality of life many take for granted.

According to the Chairperson of the National Population Council, Virginia Ofosu –Amaah, it should not be forgotten, that many developed countries could not have achieved their present levels of development without migrant labour from all parts of the world.
“There is a growing awareness of the large number of women migrants and their problems and special needs as well as difficulties they encounter on their outward journeys to seek better opportunities,” she said.
It is estimated that, the number of people living out side their country of birth has doubled in the last 50 years increasing to 191 million in 2005 with women accounting for 50 percent.

The UN Resident Coordinator Mr. Daouda Toure said some countries need migrants and must guarantee their human rights.
“Immigration comes with frustrations and African migrants suffer most,” he said.
He announced that the UN Development Programme is working with national and international partners on a migration for development programme which focuses on the development of a national policy on migration to support the effective management of migration in and outside Ghana among others.

The Minister for Interior Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah said total remittances from Ghanaians abroad have hit the one billion dollar mark and it expected to hit two billion dollars by the year 2007.
“While we celebrate the gains, the question we need to answer is, who are those sending the money and under what conditions are they working?” “What dangers do our women and youth face as they make the monies they transfer back home?.”
According to Mr. Dapaah the cost involved in the loss of trained health personnel cannot be compensated for by the gains.
He said efforts therefore need to be put in place to arrest the push factors in the health sector which include, low salaries, poor working environment, shortage of health inputs and lack of professional opportunities among others.


According to an African scholar, Aderanti Adepoju, Chief Executive of Human Resources Development Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, the traditional pattern of migration within and from Africa — male-dominated, long-term, and long-distance — is increasingly becoming feminized. Anecdotal evidence reveals a striking increase in migration by women, who had traditionally remained at home while men moved around in search of paid work. A significant share of these women is made up of migrants who move independently to fulfil their own economic needs; they are not simply joining a husband or other family members. According to Adepoju whose background is in Economics and Demography, the increase in independent female migration is not confined by national borders: professional women from Nigeria and Ghana now engage in international migration, often leaving their spouses at home to care for the children.

Female nurses and doctors have been recruited from Nigeria to work in Saudi Arabia, while their counterparts in Ghana are taking advantage of the better pay packages in the UK and United States to accumulate enough savings to survive harsh economic conditions at home. He explains that the relatively new phenomenon of female migration constitutes an important change in gender roles for Africa, creating new challenges for public policy.

According to the international Office of Migration (IOM), estimates indicate that since 1960, thus for more than 40 years, female migrants have been nearly as numerous as male migrants. Already in 1960 women nearly comprised 47% of people living outside their country of origin. Since then, the proportion of female migrants has grown consistently, reaching 48% in 1990 and nearly 49% in 2000.
The countries hosting the greatest number of immigrants are: United States, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, France, India, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Pakistan. The countries with the greatest proportion of migrants in their total population are: United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, Singapore, Oman, Estonia, Saudi Arabia, Latvia and Switzerland

African men, along with women, increasingly participate in migration as a family survival strategy. At the same time, an increasing scarcity of traditional male labor has also promoted new roles for the women they leave behind. As the job market in destination countries became tighter during the 1980s and 1990s, and remittances thinned out, many families came to rely on women and their farming activities for day-to-day support.


These women became the de facto resource managers and decision makers, particularly within the agricultural sector. The gendered division of family labor has also been upset by the loss of male employment through urban job retrenchment and structural adjustment, forcing women to seek additional income-generating activities to support the family. Migration also involve human trafficking. Africa's human trafficking and smuggling map is complicated, involving diverse origins within and outside the region. Little was known until recently about the dynamics of this trafficking. Today, analysts are looking into trafficking in children (mainly for farm labor and domestic work within and across countries); trafficking in women and young persons for sexual exploitation mainly outside the region; and trafficking in women from outside the region for the sex industry of South Africa. African policy makers face the urgent task of resolving the unemployment crisis in order to productively engage their teeming educated but unemployed young people, who fall easy prey to trafficking scams. They are also confronting the challenge of leaders enhancing the economic, political, and social environments of their respective countries in order to retain and lure home the skilled professionals required for national development. Another looming task is halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, which is taking a huge toll on the region's prime human resources fuelled by migration especially among females. All of these factors will help determine the course of migration in Africa in the years ahead.

“We need to look at the migration phenomenon as something which is here to stay,” says Daouda Toure adding, “It should be managed such that the rights of all parties are protected.”