Factsheet: Gender aspects of migration in Asia

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Women represent two thirds of the poor in Asia. Over 50% of all international migrants in Asia are women – the bulk of whom are employed as domestic workers.
Women are driven to migrate by a range of factors – poverty, lack of decent work and sustainable livelihoods, political instability, and climate change and environmental degradation. Gender inequality can also be a powerful factor driving migration, when women have economic, political, socio-cultural expectations that are not met because of a lack of independence and opportunities in countries of origin.
Increasingly, women, especially young women, are migrating independently, both internationally and internally, as a survival strategy to support themselves and their families and comcommunities in their countries of origin.