Gender and Generations

The gendered nature and consequences of migration is a cross cutting theme within the work of the DRC and a number of projects have integrated gender within the framework of their investigations. Only one project specifically focuses on women migrants (8c below), but many others have used gender as a critical difference (projects 3e, 6d and the child migration projects – see above) and/or aim to explore different elements of the impact of migration on the relations of gender and generation.

The research in Bangladesh on Rural Poverty and Livelihoods, which examines the impact on households and families left behind when adult males migrate, has a focus on how the loss of the main household producer affects their wives, and changes in the relations of gender and generation that such migration produces (Project 1b). Other work on temporary labour migration in Bangladesh and India incorporates a gender dimension in its focus on social protection (Project 1a). Gender issues are also prominent in the work on forced migration, with project 6d specifically focussed on gender differences in experience of the return home of men and women who were forced to flee from the Sudan and the impact of this forced migration and the return on gender relations. Gender and generation are also key themes in the health project in India, which looks at migrant mothers’ health-seeking behaviour and its impact on infant health.

The inter-generational impact of migration is a further cross-cutting theme. While this is particularly evident in our work on child migration, it is also the focus of other projects which are concerned with the responsibilities between older and younger generations of adults (1b and 3d).