Experiences of Migrant Women who are in Transit and Arrested

in Mexico

Gabriela Díaz and Gretchen Kuhner

RNCOM

Migration Forum, Mexico

Questions:

• How many women migrate through Mexico trying to reach the United States?

• Who are they?• Why do they migrate?• How do they make the decision to migrate?• How do they travel, with what resources and support?• What are their expectations regarding migration?• What risks do they face when traveling through Mexico?• What are their needs for protection?

Mexico in Migration

• Sender of migrants searching for better economic and social conditions in the United States.

• Receiver of a small but qualitatively significant number of migrants.

• Transit of migrants, with one of the most restrictive migration policies at an international level.

Estimates: Migrants in Transit

• INM: 400,000 Central American migrants illegally crossed the Mexico-Guatemala border in 2004.

• INM: 240,269 arrests in 2005.

• DHS: 154,994 arrests to OTM in AF2005.

• PEW: 400,000 (OTM) Non-Mexicans enter the US in an irregular manner, most of them through Mexico.

If we aggregate data the estimate would be 600,000 – 800,000 migrants per year.

Women in Migration

• STOCK: The number of migrant women has been as high as the number of migrant men in the past 40 years (54% of the migrants in the US were women in 2002).

• FLOW: Approximately 20% of migrants in transit through Mexico are women.

Do more women migrate today?

• Statistics from EMDF show an increase in the number of women arrested in the past years.

• The percentage of women increased from 16.3% in 2003 to 21.3% in 2005.

• With the increase of migrant women the number of cases of abuse and exploitation has increased as well (human rights violations, corruption, smuggling of migrants, and trafficking in persons).

• The increase can be a result not only of the increase in migration of women through Mexico but also of changes in INM arresting and registration procedures.

Increases under the Magnifying Glass

• The number of arrested women has duplicated.

• The number of arrested under-age women has triplicated.

• The number of arrested men has increased 43% in the same period.

• The number of under-age men has increased 127%.

Feminization of Migration: Myth or Reality?

• Contributing to MYTH:• The idea that women

migrate more today than before.

• An increased interest in studying the phenomenon of migration of women.

• New literature.• New theoretical

perspectives are shedding light on different aspects of the phenomenon.

REALITY:

• Motives, forms, and results of migration of women have changed.

Changes in Migration of Women

• Today women migrate in search of jobs, to earn a living for themselves and their families – and not only because of family reunification (this is proven through the fact that they send remittances).

• More and more women, mothers of small children, migrate leaving their children behind in their place of origin.

2005

• We interviewed 90 migrant women who had been arrested at the Migration Station of the Federal District (Iztapalapa).

• Public and international officers

• NGOs

Typologies of Women Arrested at the Migration Station of the

Federal District• Migrants in Transit

Smuggled migrants (more than half of the total number)Persons applying for refugee statusMigrants with a valid tourist visa (Brazil)

• Migrants in Mexico

Migrant women in possible situations of trafficking in persons

Migrant women living in Mexico in an irregular mannerMigrant women working in unauthorized professions in

Mexico

Where do the women come from?

• 91% come from Latin America

• 42% Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans (these nationalities represent 94% of the total number)

• 9% come from extra-regional countries such as China, Eritrea, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, and the US.

Young Mothers who are Alone

• Young women in productive and reproductive ages. 70% of the interviewed migrant women were 18-29 years old.

• INM: 16% are under-age.• Young mothers, most of them single or coming from

broken relationships; only 25% lived with a partner before migrating.

• 64% with an average of two children.• 94% of Central American women left their children

behind when migrating.• Half of the women left children under 5 years of age.

Women with Jobs

“What I see is that at the moment of migrating, the lack of education and economic dependency on men make things more difficult for some women. It is better if they work.”

María Dina, Peruvian, 30 years old

• Women who migrate are not among the poorest, neither are they unemployed.

• Two thirds of women were employed in their countries of origin at the moment of migrating (with a salary of more than US$10 per day).

• They participate in family decisions: 40% of the women earn more than half of the household income.

While they are not among the poorest…• They belong to populations living in

conditions of relative poverty in various aspects, such as: education, employment situation, housing, health, malnutrition, domestic violence, lack of public security, etc.

• This is more serious in the case of Central American women.

Why do Women Migrate?

• ECONOMIC REASONS:• They migrate in search of

fair salaries which allow them to provide shelter and education to their children. They want to offer their children a different life than the one they have had.

• Other factors relating to their decision to migrate are:

• Domestic violence.• Lack of public security

related to “Maras” (gangs).

• Family reunification (only 3 women migrated for this sole purpose, mainly Cubans).

Motherhood

“My strength [to migrate] comes from wanting to see my children

improve.”

(Judith, Guatemalan, 32 years old)

• For most women the motive for migration is closely linked to motherhood and the responsibility they feel to fight for the wellbeing and future of their children.

• However, one of the highest costs of migration of women is separation from their children.

Autonomy and Negotiation in the Decision to Migrate

• 71% of the women decided to migrate autonomously, in most cases supported by their families.

• They had to make deals with their mothers to take care of their children.

• The decision to migrate caused conflict in families of approximately 33% of the women.

• Others avoided this by migrating without telling their families.

Networks

• Women are supported by family networks that help them with information and means to migrate and to settle in the US.

• 93% of Central Americans and 79% of all women had one family member living in the US.

• Family members living in the US helped by hiring a smuggler, sending women money throughout their journey, and promising to find jobs for them – or help them find jobs – upon their arrival.

Preparing the Journey

• 25% of the women had a lot of information before starting the journey (this was not their first attempt).

• Health prevention measures which were taken by some women should be highlighted. This illustrates the different conditions – and the drama – that migration can involve for many women.

• 28% of Central American women had not received any orientation regarding the journey.

• 50% received very basic orientation.

Expectations regarding Migration

• Temporary stay: Women intend to stay in the US for 3 to 5 years.

• They think that they will have a better life based on what they have seen and/or imagine that has happened to family members and friends.

• TV images of a different world are equally stimulating.• In this phase of migration they do not search for a

specific type of job or to study or develop professionally.• They are willing to try as many times as necessary.

Primary Risks during the Journey:

• Trafficking and labor or sexual exploitation• Physical and sexual violence• Separation from their children or other family members• An increase in human rights violations in migrants who

hire traffickers• Extortion• Theft• Starvation• Disease• Train accidents• Arbitrary arrest• Xenophobia

The Need for Protection

• To provide access to health centers for migrant women in cases of accidents, rape, or disease.

• To train staff of health centers in high transit areas on registration of migrant patients to know the health situation of women and to be able to better meet their needs for protection.

• To fight against corruption.• To allow humanitarian organizations that support

migrants – with identity documents or undocumented – to carry out their work in the areas of housing, food, and basic medical support.

• To search for solutions to improve security in trains.

Primary Risks during Detention

• No private interviews in their native language to identify situations of trafficking, a justified fear to return to their country of origin (asylum seekers), domestic violence, human rights violations, the possibility for a legal stay or regularization of stay.

• Separation from their children, since children are placed in different quarters due to lack of space for families.

• Lack of medical care – or violating human rights.• Verbal, physical, and sexual abuse by INM agents and

staff.• No access to consular protection.

Proposals

• To develop national statistics disaggregated by gender that can provide better information on the situation of migrant women in Mexico.

• To provide access to health services for migrant women.• To stop detaining migrants in prisons.• To delimit authorities involved in migration verification

and control.• To fight against corruption among Mexican authorities.• To consider proposals to decriminalize irregular

migration.

The End