2006-07-04-皮尤-Gender_and_Migration_42页_257kb

According to the Pew Hispanic Center's analysis, while women increasingly constituted a growing share of the global migrant population between 1980 and 2005 (rising from 47.2% to 49.6%), the United States defied this trend by seeing a decline in female migrants during the same period (from 53.2% to 50.2%), making U.S. women migrants the rare exception among industrialized nations.

This decline is primarily attributed to the gender imbalance escalating among the over-11 million undocumented immigrants whose numbers were surging since the mid-1990s. Among these, 58% are male, significantly skewing the overall gender composition towards men.

Examining key sending countries:

1. Mexico: Once again, Mexico plays a large role. In the two decades to 2004, the proportion of female Mexican migrants dropped from 45% to 42%, meaning approximately one in five new arrivals in 2004 was female, down from one in three in 1980. In 1990, this decline was particularly steep nationally, dropping from 38% female arrivals to 30% in 2000.

2. Central/South America: While flows from other regions initially saw more female migrants, they too became increasingly male-dominated between 1980 and 2000.

3. Caribbean: Migration from the Caribbean remained largely female-majority, though Panama stood out due to an increase in its female share.

4. Asia: While overall female arrivals from Asia edged closer to 50% between 1975 and 2005, specific countries like Korea, the Philippines, India, Thailand, and Hong Kong saw significant declines in the female proportion within their new arrivals.

In contrast, legal migration shows a different picture. Here, female immigrants consistently composed a larger share than males, exceeding 50% of legal admittances since fiscal year 1990, reaching 55.6% in fiscal year 2004. However, these gains were often submerged by the much larger and male-biased undocumented flow.

Moreover, the profile of recent female immigrants has changed. Compared to arrivals in 1975-1980, the latest arrivals were better educated and older, had fewer children still in their homeland, and were slightly less likely to be in agriculture, though they increasingly entered service fields.