A critique of gender-blind migration theories and data sources

Despite this being the era of migration, no systematic theory of international migration has emerged, nor is there an academic or political agreement on ways in which migration is a ‘gendered’ process. Both theoretically and as inputs in the policy-making process, gender-blind approaches have actually rendered the gender dimension of migration more or less invisible. Through an in-depth examination of the place of gender in the key theories of migration and relevant sources of data, the paper seeks to take stock of how these theories treat this dimension and investigate the cross-sectional challenges in uncovering gender in international migration data. It, therefore, provides a critical review of both theory and data by shedding much-needed light on their neglect of the gender aspects. Our findings based on a conceptual review of the literature and a case study based on Eurostat data on migration drivers demonstrate that migration theories and statistics typically equate gender with sex, which limits our ability to develop a comprehensive understanding of how complex gender dimensions shape the migration process. Moreover, given the extent to which existing data and theories overlook the intersectionality between the drivers of migration and diversity within migrant groups, this gap in knowledge presents an obstacle to gender-responsive migration governance. In light of this, the paper discusses priorities for ‘gendering’ international migration research. We argue that in addition to improving accuracy and coverage of sex-disaggregated statistics on international migration, both regular and irregular, it is crucial to develop quantitative as well as qualitative indicators to monitor the gender dimension in this area.