Transnational Migration, Gender and Rights

The last decades have shown an increase in the migration across the globe from poor and conflict ridden states to the affluent peaceful north. Part of this migration is constituted by refugees and asylum seekers, while the other part is constituted by labour migrants who seek to improve their lives and future prospects through their work power. There are not only push factors causing migrants to leave, but also pull factors such as when the middle classes enjoy an increase in their living standards which cause them to employ domestic help in their homes. Different regulations apply for migrants within different national contexts and within the same nation. These have varying impacts on the migrants' manoeuvring possibilities and rights, and leave some vulnerable to exploitation. Different motivations for migration often exist between men and women. Advances in Ecopolitics, Volume 10, examines the vulnerability caused by transnational migration, and how it affects rights and gender. In particular it examines the vulnerability of women and how this may cause forced migration and the ways in which this is dealt with by national authorities in affluent European states.