Labor migration in Latin America is “feminized,” says ILO

More and more women migrate in Latin America in search of job opportunities, and have already become 40% of the total, in a trend that is increasing, the International Labor Organization indicated this Wednesday (ILO).

“It shows the feminization of migration,” said the ILO regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Ana Virginia Moreiraduring the presentation of a new regional strategy until 2030.

These migrant women move “increasingly alone and not as part of a family group,” Moreira commented, which is why the ILO indicated that they require “differentiated responses.”

“They really have a double vulnerability as women and as migrants,” added the ILO regional migration specialist, Francesco Carella.

While migrating, women “are victims of violence and harassment,” Carella explained, and at their destination they are “also victims of hypersexualization”he added.

Furthermore, an “overload of responsibility” for unpaid domestic and care work is generated in women when they migrate as a family. The lack of resources causes the family nucleus to generally prioritize the migratory regularization of men in the country of destination, leaving women in the informal sector.

“The immigration experience reinforces the traditional sexual division of labor,” Carella said.

From the ILO they mentioned the example of Venezuelan migrant women, who among the more than 6.5 million people who left the country represent more than 50%, with a profile that is usually more qualified than men, but with fewer job opportunities in destination countries.

“They work in jobs for which they are overqualified,” said Carella.

They also highlighted during the presentation of the strategy that A migrant “has three times the risk of being a victim of forced labor than a non-migrant”Moreira clarified.

Illegal benefits through forced labor of migrants in the world are US$37 billion, according to the ILO, and of them, US$27.2 billion come from forced commercial sexual exploitation, to which women and girls are more exposed.

A recent report published by Doctors Without Borders warned that only in the passage of migrants through the Darién jungle that separates Colombia and Panamawhere more than half a million people passed through in 2023, there has been an increase in sexual assaults on migrants.