Gender, Family, and Migration

Abstract This article begins with three stories that represent intersectionality in women's experiences of migration, in relation not only to national origin, class, educational background, and age, but also to broader social and cultural issues as well as individual life experiences. It explores this intersectional diversity further while considering the significance of the analytic concept of gender to a more complete understanding of the migration process. First it discusses what has been labeled the “feminization of migration”, touching briefly on the importance of considering gender in relation to the governance of migration as well as on how the “culture of migration” that is in place in many sending societies is itself gendered. It then turns to an analysis of the gendered immigrant workplace, and finally to a discussion of the impact of migration on the family, particularly the nature of transnational families.