Migrant women as learners: Individual pathways and prospects

Women account for almost half of the constantly growing migrant population. In 2020, the number of female migrants in the world reached 135 million or 48 per cent of the migrant population. Despite the importance of female labour migration – accounting for 42% of the total in 2021, the question of skills development among women has so far been neglected. There is a lack of specific support measures to upskill and reskill migrant women to help them make the best of their migration experience. This leads to underutilization of female migrants’ skills and qualifications with negative effects on salary levels, professional development and living conditions.

To harness the untapped potential of female migrant workers’ knowledge and expertise, the European Training Foundation (ETF) launched a research project - Migrant women as learners: Individual pathways and prospects. The distinct contribution of this research project is in analysing migrant women’s skills development and use from an individual perspective. A set of in-depth ethnographic interviews is used with migrant women. The research exercise covers three countries in the EU Southern (Morocco and Tunisia) and Eastern (Georgia) neighbourhoods. The migrant categories in the sample of interviewees include seasonal agricultural workers, returnee caregivers and potential migrants.