Intersectionality and International Migrations:
Rethinking Globalization and Social
Inequalities.
VII South-South Institute
Bangkok, 3-8 November, 2014.
Gioconda Herrera
FLACSO-Ecuador
 Migration and Globalization
 Migration and Development
 Migration and Social Inequalities: Intersectional
approach
 Migration and Citizenship
I –International Migration and Globalization
Migration has become more global, more diverse, feminized
and politicized.
 More and more countries are sending and receiving
migrants at de same time, in spite of restrictive policies all
over the world.
Labor Migration has a long history, it is part and parcel
of colonialism and capitalist accumulation. But
transcontinental migration is easier nowadays because of
major changes in communications and transportation.
Major impact on social life.
Nowadays South –South migration is as important as
Migration and
Globalization
UN (2013) “More people than ever are living abroad”
In 2013, 232 million people, or 3.2 per cent of the world’s
population, were international migrants, compared with 175
million in 2000 and 154 million in 1990.
The North is home to 136 million international migrants,
compared to 96 million in the South.
Most international migrants are of working age (20 to 64 years)
and account for 74 per cent of the total.
Women account for 48 per cent of all international migrants.
International migration is more
and more diverse
The myth of the “poor”
1.Labor migration
2.Forced migration (political, environmental)
3.Skilled migration: “brain drain” brain circulation.
4.Other exclusions: gender violence, social violence, sexual
violence, cultural discrimination.
5.Smuggling and trafficking.
The Feminization of Migration:A matter of
numbers or a matter of social relations?
1. Women as independent migrants
2. Women as part of global chains of care:
transnationalization of social reproduction
3. Women and transnational families
4. Women as non migrant but part of migration
experience.
International Migration and
Politics
Part of domestic politics :xenofobia. (North and South).
Pro Migrant Rights discourse is not very popular (electoral)
discourse.
Resistance: Global migrant social movements and Human
Rights.
Role of states?
II - Migration and
Development
 Money sent home by migrants worldwide increased from US$102
billion in 1995 to an estimated US$232 billion in 2005.
 › The share of global remittances going to developing countries has
also increased, from 57 per cent in 1995 (US$58 billion) to 72 per cent
in 2005 (US$167 billion).
 › The top 20 recipient countries accounted for 66 per cent of world
remittances in 2004. Only eight of them are developed countries. One
third of global remittances went to only three countries: in order of
total money received, these were India, China, Mexico.
 › Remittances constituted a high share of gross domestic product in
only two of the major recipients: the Philippines, and Serbia and
Montenegro. Most of the 20 countries where remittances accounted
for at least a tenth of GDP are small developing economies.
The Myth of Remittances
1.1. Contributions of migrants in countries of destination
more important than contributions to their countries of
origin.
2.Migrants as “actors” of development in the absence of the
state.
3.Paradoxes of migration experience: Empowerment and
Exclusion.
Migration and Social
Inequalities
 Structural perspective
“Migrants are cheap labour merchandise,
disposable population that contributes to the
dynamics of accumulation. Extractivism is
therefore also present in the stance taken by
receiving nations: The more vulnerable migrants
are, the more their employers benefit; their social
exclusion leads to increased profits and fiscal
gains for both employers and host governments”.
(Delgado-Wise)
Intersectionality, Social Inequalities
and Migration
An intersectional approach looks at interlocking systems of
oppression as constitutive of migration systems.
Interconnections between different dimensions of
inequality; that is, to capture the multidimensionality of
social inequality .
To overcome the focus on the nationalities of migrant
groups and rather look at the intersection of race, class, and
gender, in order to understand internal group differences, as
well as the hierarchies and relations of power that emerge in
the interaction between migrant and non migrant groups,
within and beyond states in transnational fields
III- Migration and
Citizenship
The Myth of “Migration Management”
A ‘good migrant’, regardless of his or her status and conditions, is
respectful of the law, flexible to market needs, and eager to contribute to
the development of his country of origin;
Irregular migration is regarded as a problem generated outside the
migrant-receiving country, ignoring its internal motivations (corporate
demand for cheap and flexible labour) and the role of the state in spawning
‘illegality’ through limiting channels for ‘legal’ entrance far beyond actual
labour and demographic needs.
Transit countries should prevent irregular migration flows to destination
countries through the reinforcement of border control activities and
counter-smuggling and trafficking efforts.
Main Challenges ….
 How to rethink Citizenship? The place where one is born
determine the future as much as gender, class, race.
(education, employment, rights, etc…) Importance of
the nation state?
 The migrant condition as marker of social exclusion,
such as race, class, gender….
 Migration as Mobility Capital?
 Global citizenship. A new Myth?