Women’s Labour Migration from Asia and the Pacific: Opportunities and Challenges

In an era of unprecedented human mobility, migration from and within the Asia-Pacific region has assumed gendered dimensions, with implications for migration flows, trends and patterns. Gender roles, inequalities and relations affect who migrates, why and how, and migration also has significant implications for women migrant workers (WMWs) themselves. Migration can provide opportunities to improve their lives and that of their families, help them escape from social and economic vulnerabilities, and offer avenues for greater autonomy and empowerment. Migration also, however, exposes these women to different types of vulnerabilities, discrimination and risk, both in their origin and destination countries, particularly where such migration carries stigma and patriarchal norms are deep-seated.