The major drivers of women’s migration from Honduras to the USA were gender inequalities that stem from structural forms of inequality, such as labour market discrimination, in Honduras, coupled with the neoliberal restructuring of the Honduran economy. Additionally, they migrate due to economic needs that derive from structural gender inequalities within families, such as divorce, domestic violence, spousal abandonment, and families’ control over young women’s mobility.
Feminised financial flows: how gender affects remittances in Honduran–US transnational families
(She/Her)
PhD Researcher
Wilfrid Laurier University
Allison Petrozziello is a feminist migration researcher and human rights advocate who is pursuing a PhD in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
American
About
This article provides a gender analysis of how transnational families of Honduran migrants in Alexandria, Virginia USA and Nacaome, Valle, Honduras. It identifies gender dimensions, such as gender motives for migration, reproductive labour, empowerment of women, and intra-familial power negotiations.
This article explores the gender issues in the context of the transfer of remittances from Honduran immigrants in Alexandria, Virginia USA to their family members in Nacaome, Valle. This gendered analysis is required to understand the potential of migrant remittances to effect change and development in Honduras.
Key Findings
The major drivers of women’s migration from Honduras to the USA were gender inequalities that stem from structural forms of inequality, such as labour market discrimination, in Honduras, coupled with the neoliberal restructuring of the Honduran economy. Additionally, they migrate due to economic needs that derive from structural gender inequalities within families, such as divorce, domestic violence, spousal abandonment, and families’ control over young women’s mobility.
The major drivers of women’s migration from Honduras to the USA were gender inequalities that stem from structural forms of inequality, such as labour market discrimination, in Honduras, coupled with the neoliberal restructuring of the Honduran economy. Additionally, they migrate due to economic needs that derive from structural gender inequalities within families, such as divorce, domestic violence, spousal abandonment, and families’ control over young women’s mobility.
The major drivers of women’s migration from Honduras to the USA were gender inequalities that stem from structural forms of inequality, such as labour market discrimination, in Honduras, coupled with the neoliberal restructuring of the Honduran economy. Additionally, they migrate due to economic needs that derive from structural gender inequalities within families, such as divorce, domestic violence, spousal abandonment, and families’ control over young women’s mobility.
How to use
Consider remittances not as a magic solution for development, but as a phenomenon that exposes needs and gaps at the local level, especially in terms of gender inequalities and other rights violations.
Strengthen public institutions so they can fulfil their role as guarantor of people’s well-being, and secure people’s rights to health and education, which are principal items of remittance expenditure. Create local development plans with a holistic, not economist vision in which job creation and gender equality are central.
Promote dialogue and collaboration between local, national and transnational actors in the identification and implementation of migration and development initiatives, including women’s groups and migrant associations. Develop remittance-funded initiatives related to reproductive activities, such as child care cooperatives.
Support small- and medium-scale finance institutions that are committed to local development and gender equity, and that offer other support services such as training.
Direct state investment to medium-scale job creation, in order to move beyond micro-entrepreneurship and promote a more sustainable model of economic development.
This research is relevant for local economic development programs in countries with high levels of emigration. As well as state and civil society organisations engaged in the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration, which has as a guiding principle “gender-responsiveness”
The full paper is not available open access
Allison Petrozziello (2011) ‘Feminised financial flows: how gender affects remittances in Honduran–US transnational families’, Gender & Development, 19:1, pp. 53-67
About this research
This research was independently conducted and did not receive funding from outside of the university.
Recommended for
UN Sustainable Development Goals
This research contributes to the following SDGs
About this research
This research was independently conducted and did not receive funding from outside of the university.
Recommended for
What it means
Migration alters the gender relations and balance of power in families but has mixed results in terms of women’s empowerment. Many of the women in Alexandria reported a greater sense of autonomy and equality that they attribute to earning their own income, as well as no longer tolerating behaviour associated with machismo in their relationships or their husbands’ philandering. However, the women still faced discrimination in the labour market due to their sex and their foreign, often undocumented status.
Although these migrant women had an increased sense of empowerment due to wage-earning and remitting, there were also new forms of dependence resulting from their precarious legal position and economic vulnerability, leading to their disempowerment.
Most remittance recipients in Nacaome, almost always female, did not report great changes in their lives that could be interpreted as a process of empowerment. However, most do feel greater security because of the stable remittance income, which has improved their families’ living conditions, even though they have had to sacrifice in terms of their own relationships, longer work days in cases where they have taken on the migrant’s productive activities, and conflicts with their in-laws.
‘Remittance for development’ initiatives ignore the reasons for migration in the first place and the needs of the migrants and their families. They also perpetuate old paradigms of development practice by instrumentalising migrants and their families, rather than empowering them. Migration cannot be counted on as a sustainable means of development, given its dependence on women’s unpaid labour, increasingly restrictive migration policies, and need for continued migration and remittances.
Methodology
Three months of field research among 20 transnational families in Alexandra, VA (USA) and Nacaome, Valle (Honduras). Also, 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, 2 focus groups and 2 months of full-time ethnographic observations carried out in Alexandria (USA). Interviewees were half men and half women. In Nacaome (Honduras) 1 focus group and 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with the family members identified as the primary remittance recipient by the migrants in Alexandria. All but one of the interviewees were women.
However, important to note: this is a case study based on a relatively small sample size, and should be read alongside other research.
Glossary
Feminisation of migration
Most of today’s migrant women are autonomous workers and providers for their families.
Transnational families
Most of today’s migrant women are autonomous workers and providers for their families.
Remittances for development
Most of today’s migrant women are autonomous workers and providers for their families.
Let your research make a social impact
Jasmyn Spanswick prepared this research following an interview with Allison Petrozziello.
