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Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & Migration in the Developing World

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Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & Migration in the Developing World Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & MiGrAtion in the developinG World A GIRLS COUNT report on Adolescent Girls MiriAM teMin MArk r. MontGoMery sArAh enGebretsen kAthryn M. bArker POPULATION COUNCIL Photo Credit: Jane Hahn Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & MiGrAtion in the developinG Wo r l d Take Action for MiGrAnt Girls 1 3 Prepare and equip girls Create time and space for before they migrate migrant girls to meet friends Migrant girls need education, good health, and life and mentors skills before they move so they can navigate risks Migration disrupts girls’ social networks, leaving and opportunities in their new lives. Maximize girls’ some isolated and vulnerable to abuse and exploita- chances of successful migration by preparing them tion. Rebuilding migrant girls’ social networks is es- with education, knowledge of their human rights, sential to their safety and well-being. Reduce isolation life skills training, and information about what they by connecting migrant girls to dedicated safe spaces1 will encounter during the journey and on arrival. where they can meet peers and female mentors, Equip girls with personal documentation to facilitate expand their social networks, and receive training, their access to health and education services and education, and referrals to health and other services. social benefits in their new communities. 4 2 Make services “migrant Ensure a smooth landing: girl friendly” a safe place to stay and A significant number of people in selected groups social connections of international interest – including children in A girl’s new environment can be risky without exploitative and dangerous employment, the urban the guarantee of a safe place to stay and a reliable poor, and of course migrants – are migrant adolescent connection to trusted individuals on arrival. Migrant girls. But services for these groups rarely recognize girls may be immediately absorbed into an urban the unique needs of adolescent girls nor of migrants. environment when they arrive, essentially hidden Adapting initiatives to integrate migrant girls is a from programs and excluded from support services. relatively low-cost way to improve their access to Develop mechanisms to identify migrant girls opportunities. Design programs with age, gender, immediately on arrival before they fall into harm’s and migration status in mind so migrant girls can way. Then connect them to safe places to stay benefit from child protection, education, and and services and networks to help them thrive— economic empowerment activities. such as migrant groups, employee networks, and neighborhood associations of the poor. 1 “Safe space” programs provide girls with a place where they are respected and where they can develop life and livelihood skills, form friendships and gain peer support, enjoy freedom of expression and movement, and receive support and education from trusted female mentors (Brady 2003). ii 5 7 Test innovative ways to Fill critical evidence gaps prepare migrant girls for Important evidence gaps on adolescent girls’ success migration remain. Research is needed that reflects the diversity of migrant girls’ experiences. This would Programs for migrant girls tend to be reactive enable funders, policymakers, and programmers to rather than proactive, treating problems instead more strategically allocate limited resources. USAID’s of preventing them. Implement new programs and Demographic and Health Surveys and UNICEF’s research on innovative approaches to develop girls’ Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys should be designed assets early in the migration process. Test innovative to illuminate age- and sex-disaggregated internal solutions such as providing migrant girls with migration rates. Analyze data from these surveys to mobile technology and mobile savings products reveal which sub-populations of migrant girls face the pre-departure, safe spaces, and personal documenta- greatest risk, what those risks are, and where the tion immediately on arrival, and social capital building most vulnerable migrant girls reside in the greatest opportunities such as connections to associations of numbers. Conduct longitudinal surveys on the the urban poor. Enable migrant girls to shape program implications of migration for girls’ social, economic, design based on their own experiences. Evidence and health outcomes. Conduct qualitative research from these experiments will enable policymakers and to better understand migrant girls’ experiences and programmers to determine how best to make girls’ needs. Evaluate programs to assess their impact by migration a positive experience. migrant age, origin, and timing of move, as well as the sustainability of benefits over time. 6 Focus on the most isolated 8 and vulnerable Increase migrant girls’ The most socially isolated and vulnerable sub-groups visibility through policy of migrant adolescent girls—domestic workers, child brides, and sexually exploited girls—are at greatest and advocacy risk of experiencing the worst outcomes, including Migrant adolescent girls barely feature in advocacy trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. Advocacy and policies on migration, working children, girls’ efforts must consider all migrant adolescent girls, education, and child marriage. The failure to consider but they should not overlook these girls’ unique migrant girls in policy and advocacy prevents them needs. Carefully design girl-only approaches to reach from maximizing the benefits of migration. Make the most vulnerable, socially isolated migrant girls migrant girls more visible in policy efforts by taking using targeted, purposeful recruitment to locate and account of age, gender, and migration status. engage them. Ensure special consideration of adolescent girls in migration policy and advocacy: reducing barriers to internal population movement, facilitating remittance flows, and improving living conditions in migrant arrival areas. iii Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & MiGrAtion in the developinG World A GIRLS COUNT report on Adolescent Girls MiriAM teMin MArk r. MontGoMery sArAh enGebretsen kAthryn M. bArker The Population Council confronts critical health and development issues—from stopping Support for this project was generously the spread of HIV to improving reproductive health and ensuring that young people lead provided by the Nike Foundation and the full and productive lives. Through biomedical, social science, and public health research United Nations Foundation. The views in 50 countries, we work with our partners to deliver solutions that lead to more effective expressed are those of the authors and policies, programs, and technologies that improve lives around the world. Established should not be attributed to the funders in 1952 and headquartered in New York, the Council is a nongovernmental, nonprofit of this report. organization governed by an international board of trustees. www.popcouncil.org © 2013 The Population Council, Inc. v Photo Credit: Jane Hahn CONTENTS Girls on the Move CONTENTS ii Take Action for Migrant Girls 48 Community Groups to Facilitate Connections ix Boxes and figures 50 Chapter 5: Migrant Girls’ x Foreword employment xiii Acknowledgements 52 Migrant Labor: Limited Options and the “Three Ds” xv Preface 54 Common Jobs for Migrant Girls 1 Executive summary 62 Chapter 6: Migrant Girls’ human capital: 4 chapter 1: Migrant Adolescent Girls: education and health An important population in a rapidly Urbanizing World 64 More Educated than Rural Girls, Less Educated than Urban Girls 7 Assessing the Demographic Evidence 67 Migrant Girls’ Health 12 A Highly Diverse Group 74 Chapter 7: the state of Migrant 15 Putting Migrant Girls on the Map Adolescent Girl programming 18 Chapter 2: deciding to leave: Why 76 Current Programming Approaches Girls Migrate 85 Programs and Policies Often Miss the Mark 20 Why Girls Migrate 86 Chapter 8: Accelerating Action for Girls 25 Making the Decision to Move on the Move 28 Adolescent Girls’ Migration and Marriage 88 The Time Is Right 32 Chapter 3: on the Move: Migrant Girls 88 Multiple Actors for Migrant Girls in transit 89 The Action Agenda for Migrant 34 The Characteristics of Migrant Girls’ Adolescent Girls Journeys 94 Key definitions 37 Most Girls Don’t Move Alone, Creating Opportunity and Risk 95 Annex 39 Worst-Case Scenarios 96 References 42 Chapter 4: settling in: connections and 110 Advisors social capital 114 About the Authors 44 Migrant Girls on Arrival 45 Neighborhoods and Social Networks vii Photo Credit: Melodie McDaniel BOXES & fiGUres Girls on the Move BOXES & fiGUres Boxes 13 1.4 The majority of urban in-migrant girls come not from rural villages but from 8 1.1 What about migrant adolescent boys? other cities and towns 27 2.1 Fostering 14 1.5 The diversity of adolescent girls requires a variety of responses 36 3.1 The value of personal documentation 17 1.6 Programs may need to work in 38 3.2 Social networks ease the way for different neighborhoods to reach Haitian girls in the Dominican Republic disadvantaged girls and migrant girls 47 4.1 Mobile phones connect and empower 23 2.1 School and work opportunities are migrant girls primary reasons for adolescent migration 48 4.2 Indigenous identities and adjustment 29 2.2 The majority of urban in-migrant girls move before marriage 54 5.1 Remittances 37 3.1 Adolescent girls may encounter 55 5.2 Getting ahead in Bangladesh’s barriers to safe and successful migration, garment industry most of which are preventable 57 5.3 Recognizing child domestic workers’ 39 3.2 As girls age, they begin
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