The third Millennium Development Goal is to “promote gender equality and empower women”. To what extent might international migration play a role in helping this goal to be achieved?

There are many possible approaches to this question.

It would be expected that responses show a clear understanding of this particular MDG and some understanding of outcomes for gender empowerment and/or equality. This can be stated or implied. It would also be expected that most responses make use of valid recent example(s) of international migrations that could impact upon the migrants themselves or on women either in the source country or the destination, ie the impact may not be isolated to just the migrants (for example the migration of Indonesian and Filipino women to Hong Kong as domestic workers has had numerous positive and negative outcomes for gender empowerment within the host society). Voluntary or forced migrations may be discussed in the response but the examples referenced must involve movement across an international border.

The focus of the argument will depend on the examples chosen. Candidates may look at the large-scale movement of women from countries such as the Philippines or Indonesia to other regions to do domestic work. Alternatively the essay may focus on the movement of economic migrants of both genders from, for example, Mexico to the USA, and how this migration and the flow of remittances and ideas impacts upon gender roles/empowerment for both the migrants and those still in the country of origin.

There are some obvious positive and negative outcomes for gender as a result of migration:

Example: Domestic workers from Indonesia to Hong Kong:
For the female migrants:
+ independence, travel, financial security;
– abuse, trauma of being away from families, low wages, live-in policy, right of abode
For the destination:
+ Most households have two working adults, with women having successful careers;
– Domestic and childcare work is still seen as “women’s work” and grossly underpaid.

These gender-related outcomes would be determined by the movement(s) being utilized in the response.

At band D, expect an example/examples of international migrations and a description of impacts of this movement on gender empowerment.

At band E, expect an example/examples of international migrations and some explanation of both positive and negative impacts of this/these movements on gender empowerment.

At band F, expect an example/examples of international migrations and some explanation of both positive and negative impacts of this/these movements on gender empowerment and there should be some attempt at an evaluation of the “to what extent” part of the statement.

Marks should be allocated according to the markbands.

This question was the second most popular and we saw some excellent responses that were each quite unique in how they tackled the question. They tended to demonstrate a good working knowledge of the MDGs related to gender and were able to effectively evaluate how international migration has allowed these targets to be either more of less achievable. It was possible for responses to answer the question without referring to a specific female migration but rather to look at the impacts of international migration in the country of origin in terms of remittances leading to girls' education, change in family power structures etc. Unfortunately there were some very general and superficial responses characterized by a lack of understanding of both the goals and international migration. Weaker responses lacked focus and often had no exemplification. There were often some overly simplistic responses that showed ignorance towards the diversity of gender issues that exist in some regions such as the Middle East.