Posted Content•
Women on the Move: The Neglected Gender Dimension of the Brain Drain
TL;DR: In this article, the gender dimension of the brain drain has been investigated and it was shown that women are over-represented in the brain-drone phenomenon in many less developed countries.
Abstract: Two trends in international migration flows have attracted much attention recently: (i) the growing feminisation of migration flows; and (ii) the increasing selectivity of migration towards the highly skilled, which in turn has given rise to renewed concerns about the “brain drain” consequences for the sending countries. The two issues have not been considered jointly, however, mainly due to the lack of relevant data. This paper addresses this shortcoming by looking at the gender dimension of the brain drain, based on a new comparable data set that has been collected by the OECD and which allows us to identify people by country of residence, place of birth, gender and level of education. The evidence summarized in this paper shows that female migration to OECD countries has been increasing significantly in recent decades, so that migrant stocks are now more or less gender-balanced. A more surprising result is that this is also true for the highly skilled. Taking into account the fact that women still face an unequal access to tertiary education in many less developed countries, it appears that women are over-represented in the brain drain. This result is reinforced by econometric estimates showing that emigration of highly skilled women is higher, the poorer is their country of origin. This effect is also observed for men but to a lesser extent. It is not observed, however, at lower educational levels, where the traditional migration hump is identifiable. Econometric estimates also report a negative impact of emigration of highly skilled women on three key education and health indicators: infant mortality, under-5 mortality and secondary school enrolment rate by gender. These results raise concerns about a potentially significant negative impact of the female brain drain on the poorest countries.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: This article found that women represent an increasing share of the immigration stock in the OECD countries and exhibit higher skilled emigration rates than men, but women's mobility has generally been overlooked in the literature.
Abstract: Although women form a large and increasing proportion of international migrants, women's mobility has generally been overlooked in the literature. Quantifying and characterizing female migration should lead to a better understanding of the forces that shape international migration. We build an original data set providing gender-disaggregated indicators of international migration by educational attainment for 195 source countries in 1990 and 2000. We find that women represent an increasing share of the immigration stock in the OECD countries and exhibit higher skilled emigration rates than men.
309 citations
TL;DR: The authors presented a global overview of human capital mobility through bilateral migration stocks by gender and education in 1990 and 2000, and calculation of nuanced brain drain indicators, using a novel estimation procedure based on a pseudo-gravity model, then identified key determinants of international migration, and subsequently uses estimated parameters to impute missing data.
185 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that women self-initiate expatriation more often than men when they are assigned abroad by their company and usually as often as men self-expatriate.
Abstract: Women are underrepresented in managerial positions and company international assignments, in part due to gender discrimination. There is a lack of fair and just treatment of women in selection, assignment and promotion processes, as well as a lack of virtue shown by business leaders in not upholding the principle of assigning comparable women and men equally to positions in management and postings abroad. Female professionals, however, initiate their own expatriation more often than they are assigned abroad by their company, and usually as often as men self-expatriate. What causes women to self-initiate expatriation? Women’s proactivity, in part an attempt to redress the disadvantage they face in managerial career advancement, appears influential, as are career and family motivations. Indeed, during expatriation, women fare well in their career and they repatriate only at the same rate as men. Compared with men, however, women repatriate less often for career than for family reasons. On their return, despite their international experience, women do not gain as much of a financial return on their investment in self-expatriation as do men, suggesting that women may suffer unfair, non-meritorious treatment at home. Overall, self-initiated expatriation provides a new, gendered, social context for researching women’s career advancement. The ethical issues associated with women’s self-expatriation – a lack of fairness and justice in selection, assignment and promotion decisions, and a lack of virtue shown by business leaders in upholding fair and just human resource decisions by gender – suggest practical avenues to resolve these issues.
152 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the experiences of skilled women moving from South Africa to New Zealand using data from interviews conducted using the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) and argued that BNIM's in-depth interviewing and meticulous analysis extends this scholarship by illuminating the iterative relationship between migrant women's work and home lives and their ongoing attempts to achieve a balance between the practical and emotional obligations inherent in each.
Abstract: Synopsis The impact of international migration on the lives of professional women has been given scant attention in the academic literature, notwithstanding the now considerable body of scholarship on gender and migration. This article focuses on this neglected area, examining the experiences of skilled women moving from South Africa to New Zealand using data from interviews conducted using the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM). In line with the small number of studies on professional migrant women, the research participants experienced disrupted or damaged careers and/or an increase or intensification of domestic responsibilities, shifts variously theorised in the literature as “de-skilling”, “feminization”, “re-domestication” or “compromised careers”. It is argued here that BNIM's in-depth interviewing and meticulous analysis extends this scholarship by illuminating the iterative relationship between migrant women's work and home lives and their ongoing attempts to achieve a balance between the practical and emotional obligations inherent in each.
135 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the process of migration, and how that can be gender-differentiated, is discussed with particular reference to the various types of female migration that are common: marriage migration, family migration, forced migration, migration for work.
Abstract: Women are increasingly significant as national and international migrants, and it is now evident
that the complex relationship between migration and human development operates in genderdifferentiated
ways. However, because migration policy has typically been gender-blind, an
explicit gender perspective is necessary. This paper attempts this, beginning with an examination
of recent trends in women’s migration, internationally and within nations. It then considers the
implications of the socio-economic context of the sending location for women migrants. The
process of migration, and how that can be gender-differentiated, is discussed with particular
reference to the various types of female migration that are common: marriage migration, family
migration, forced migration, migration for work. These can be further disaggregated into legal
and irregular migration, all of which affect and the issues and problems of women migrants in
the process of migration and in the destination country. The manifold and complex gendered
effects of migration are discussed with reference to varied experiences. Women migrants’
relations with the sending households and the issues relevant for returning migrants are also
considered. The final section provides some recommendations for public policy for migration
through a gender lens.
84 citations