OECD Development Centre Working Papers
The OECD Development Centre links OECD members with developing and emerging economies and fosters debate and discussion to seek creative policy solutions to emerging global issues and development challenges. This series of working papers is intended to disseminate the OECD Development Centre’s research findings rapidly among specialists in the field concerned. These papers are generally available in the original English or French, with a summary in the other language.
- ISSN: 18151949 (online)
- https://doi.org/10.1787/18151949
How do female migration and gender discrimination in social institutions mutually influence each other?
Using the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) from the OECD Development Centre, this paper provides evidence of the two-way relationship between gender inequality in social institutions and South-South migration. Discriminatory social institutions in both origin and destination countries are one additional determinant of female migration. Gender inequality appears to be both a pull and a push factor for migrant women. On one hand, higher gender discrimination at home reduces female emigration, since women’s restricted opportunities and low decision-power limit their possibility to move abroad. On the other hand, lower discrimination in the destination country attracts female immigration. However, they have no significant impact on male migration, suggesting that male and female incentives to migrate differ.
Keywords: South-South migration, social institutions, gender inequality
JEL:
F22: International Economics / International Factor Movements and International Business / International Migration;
J16: Labor and Demographic Economics / Demographic Economics / Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination;
O15: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Economic Development / Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
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