The United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) has called on governments, academic institutions, unions and the private sector to give more attention to female migrants, which represent more than half of the migrants in Latin America.

“Money sent back home by migrants cannot be expected to help fight poverty in the developing world as long as women migrants who return to their home countries remain largely excluded from traditional banking systems, capacity-building opportunities and property ownership rights,” said Carmen Moreno, the institute’s director, during the Global Forum on International Migration and Development in Brussels July 9-11.

She said that while remittances have been stressed as an instrument of development, the majority of studies on the trend do not have a gender perspective.

According to INSTRAW, 54 percent of the migrants in Latin America are women, and the majority of their remittances — 30 percent of their income, compared to 10 percent for men — are used for education, health care and small businesses that benefit their families.

The money female migrants send home is more than half of the total remittances that are sent home. In 2006, US$62.3 billion was sent home to Latin America and the Caribbean from abroad (LP, May 2, 2007).
One interesting fact, Moreno said, is that women do not send their money to their husbands, but instead to other women — relatives or friends — because many husbands form new families when their wives are away.