There are many reasons behind immigration, men and women from different countries are usually motivated by the need for economic prosperity. Women, in their pursuit of better opportunities experience challenges related to barriers that exist in regards to immigration matters. The aim of this paper is to examine women’s situation in regard to immigration and ethnic relations.
Government migration policies and traditional gender expectations are often against the emigration of women. The regulations placed discriminate against women oriented occupations in the home countries. In the host countries, women are effectively locked out by policies that negatively target family reunification.
In addition to the issues stated earlier, women eventually migrate via human traffickers who often exploit them sexually. This underscores the challenges that women face, especially those women who emigrated alone. Furthermore, after those challenges women are often have to engage in exploitative, semi skilled and sometimes sexually abusive jobs. Indeed, the demand for female sexual emigrants has gone high causing physical and emotional losses to women who got in sexually abusive jobs.
The benefits of emigration may seem to be positive and varied but upon a closer look a dirty underbelly is revealed. Upon immigration, women have the chance to engage in economic activities that lead to raised economic status. Consequently, improved economic status leads to raised social profiles hence women get power to demand equality from men.
This may be regarded as female liberation in regard to immigrant women. However, taking into consideration the low paid, unskilled and often exploitative or abusive jobs available in host countries, the justification of female liberation is untenable.
Men often enjoy considerable privileges due to traditional gender expectations in many countries. When emigrated married women get good jobs and provide the families, they often have less time for household responsibilities and thus, these responsibilities are shared between wife and husband.
Hence, it is hard for men to accept changed domestic roles in their families. They may therefore resist efforts to bring gender equality resulting into double responsibilities and frustration for women. However, according to another opinion, women get a chance to gain from immigration and improve their economic and social statuses.
The causes of emigration for women especially those with families are to ensure care and family reunion. One of the main aims of the emigrated women, especially those who left their families, is to ensure care for their relatives and consequent reunion with them.
However, as usually low paid jobs are available for such women, they experience exploitation, abusive attitudes and often low payment which make their lives very difficult. In addition, gender discrimination and low regard from relatives who have traditional mentalities against women heavily exert on them. Therefore, women are under more pressure to conform when compared to immigrant men (Tsuda 45).
Women in addition to seeking economic success may be forced to move away from intolerant home countries to escape persecution, exploitation and sometimes environmental disasters. Men in pursuit of economic liberation usually abdicate their responsibilities thus leaving wives with the family burdens to handle alone.
This paper supports that women loose more than men in matters related to migration. On a high frequency, women’s rights are trampled upon in the search for prosperity and economic status when compared to men. Men are favored from either home or host countries and they sometimes contribute to gender inequality. They do not support women equality, as well as renounce their responsibilities in immigrant transnational families.
Works Cited
Tsuda, Takeyuki. Immigration and Ethnic Relations in the U.S (Revised Edition), New York: University Readers, 2012. Print.