Good Practices in Providing Social Services aimed at Migrant Women and their Diversities
In the context of integration programmes aimed at accompanying migrant women to their autonomy, further measures need to be taken in order to enable women to achieve positive outcomes as a result of their choice to emigrate.
Adopting methodologies and strategies based on a gender-sensitive approach while working with migrant women allows for focusing on their specific needs in emigration. The very first goal in this domain is to break the stereotype of migrant woman as a passive victim. Further on, it is essential to work on migrant women’s empowerment and emancipatory potentials so as to let them achieve a good level of autonomy in making decisions about her professional and personal choices.
To do so, migrant women must be aware of their human rights and gender equalities.
The following are some good practices aimed at supporting and promoting migrant women’s human rights and gender equality in host societies, hence useful for combating the exploitation of migrant women and promoting their general well-being in emigration:
- Legal advice: often free of charge and usually offered by NGOs, legal advice is a widespread practice in several European countries now. The main goal is providing legal guidance and assistance to migrants/migrant women in bureaucratic procedures. Most importantly, this practice brings migrant women closer to their rights and to their potential violations. In this sense, the purpose is to promote migrant women's empowerment by knowing their fundamental rights in any field (stay, employment, healthcare, education, childcare, etc.), and especially in case of gender-based violence, racism, exploitation or abuse in the work context.
- Socio-political involvement and Awareness-raising campaigns: the practice of socio-political involvement of migrant women, primarily promoted by migrant women's support networks and cultural associations, is a helpful tool in raising awareness about migrant women's active role in society, about their rights and gender equality. These actions are important for countering and combating discrimination, stereotypes and gender inequalities at various operational levels, including international/EU ones. In doing so, the role of both “traditional” and more recent social media in the dissemination of useful information becomes crucial in this field.
- Higher education courses and training in migration studies intended for practitioners (educators, medical staff, social workers, etc.) who are going to work with migrant population. While addressing specifically migrant women, a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach should help to create more knowledge and skills on the phenomenon of female migration: accordingly, it is essential that the relationship between gender, migration and human rights is properly approached in the curricula so that future professionals may become fully aware of specific migrant women’s needs, and able to arrange adequate interventions to be carried out with them.
Cooperation against trafficking in human beings: cooperation aimed at combating human trafficking with special attention to migrant women is an established practice involving different social actors (both public and private) at different operational and territorial levels (international, national, interregional). The goal is to strengthen the system of collaborative networks around the issue of human trafficking, and to develop relevant measures aimed at combating the phenomenon and assisting migrant women that happened to be its victims (e.g. anti-violence centres, shelters).
Online Resources
EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality), 2019, Gender-sensitive education and training for the integration of third-country nationals, Gender mainstreaming, European Institute for Gender Equality, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
(https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-sensitive-education-and-training-integration-third-country-nationals-study)
This publication looks at how gender equality and women’s empowerment are considered in the policies and actions supporting the integration of third-country nationals, and proposes Gender-sensitive education and training as professional competence to employ in this specific field.
Mackay A., 2019, Border Management and Gender, Tool 6: Gender and Security Toolkit, DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN Women.
(https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/c/4/447049.pdf)
As part of the DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR & UN Women toolkits, this one is dedicated to Borders, gender and security, and comprises nine Tools and a series of Policy Briefs.
Boyd M., Grieco E., 2003, Women and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration Theory, March 1, 2003, MPI.
(https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/women-and-migration-incorporating-gender-international-migration-theory)
The paper aims to develop a gender-sensitive approach to the study of international migrations in order to better understand the correlation between gender relations, roles and hierarchies during a migration process, and the impacts and outcomes produced in terms of migratory probabilities of women and men.