About UN Women’s migration programme
What does UN Women do?
UN Women has championed the issue of gender and migration since its inception. The global migration portfolio is housed within the Economic Empowerment Section and focuses on addressing the structural barriers and gender inequalities that migrant women face globally, including accessing decent work and livelihood opportunities.
Since 2019, UN Women has been implementing the Making Migration Safe for Women programme, which focuses on creating gender-responsive migration policies and services, ensuring that migrant women and returnees have access to decent work and services, including essential services for returnees who are survivors of violence. In partnership with governments, UN entities and civil society organization, the programme seeks to strengthen international norms and standards to promote and protect migrant women's rights.
The innovative design of the Making Migration Safe for Women programme ensures that the emerging issues and specific challenges faced by migrant women and their organizations can inform the advocacy and policy work that is done as part of the program's global level work, and vice versa. Placing migrant women's voices, lived experiences and challenges at the heart of our programmatic and policy efforts, ensures that UN Women continues to be a leading champion of migrant women's rights from the ground up.
What are the issues?
Migration can be a transformative experience for many women, offering opportunities for economic empowerment, education, and leaving behind gender inequalities or gender-based violence. However, it also exposes them to significant challenges and risks. Women and girls often face gender-based discrimination at all stages of migration. These challenges are compounded by limited access to safe and regular migration pathways -exposing them to greater risks of gender-based violence, forced work and trafficking-language barriers, and inadequate access to services such as healthcare, education, and legal protections.
Migrant women are disproportionately employed in precarious, informal sectors like domestic and care work, where they often lack social and labour protections, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. Despite these barriers, migrant women contribute significantly to their new communities, filling labour gaps, fostering cultural exchange, and stimulating local economies through entrepreneurship.
To better protect migrant women, gender-responsive [1] migration policies are essential. These include expanding safe and regular migration pathways, ensuring access to coordinated services, strengthening labour protections, and providing full and accurate information to support informed decision-making. By addressing systemic inequalities and prioritizing women's empowerment, migration can become a safer, more equitable experience for women and girls worldwide.
What can you find on the Migration Knowledge Hub?
Our Migration Knowledge Hub provides you with a one-stop-shop for UN Women's extensive catalogue of publications on gender and migration, as well as those of partner organizations. You can learn more about issues facing migrant women in general by taking a look at our Migration FAQs or watching our animated video.
Notes
[1] Gender-responsive policies recognize and address the gender-specific needs, challenges and vulnerable situations of all migrants, while recognizing the heightened risks of human rights violations and gender-based discrimination faced by women, girls and gender diverse people.