The Intersection of Gender, Conflict and Development Shape Patterns of Forced Migration - Essay Example

?The Intersection of Gender, Conflict and Development Shape Patterns of Forced Migration: Discuss Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Intersection of Gender in Forced Migration 4 Intersection of Conflicts on the Trend of Forced Migration 6 Intersection of Development in Forced Migration Trend 8 Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction Migration has been an inherent facet of the human civilisation since ancient times. Initially, migration was a mechanism to survive or way of living which used to take place voluntarily among humans. However, with the passage of time and growth of industrialisation, humans were also forced to migrate from one place to another in order to satisfy the needs for domestic labourers or sex workers in the host region. Such an act of transporting humans by force is denoted as ‘forced migration’. The consequences of forced migration vary with respect to political, cultural as well as socio-economic contexts (Korac, 2004). Additionally, factors including gender, race, class, ethnicity and age are other factors which are often identified to intersect the intentions underlying forced migration. It has been observed that since 1980s, women have been the primary victims of forced migration. Even at times, men are also reported to be forcefully migrated for illegal purposes such as smuggling or others. However, children tend to be the easy victims of the conduct who are often migrated to satisfy the needs for sex based businesses and domestic labour (Diaz, 2013). Thus, it can apparently be observed that gender aspects, apart from age, tend to intersect the process of forced migration at almost every level. With due emphasis to these affirmations, the study will intend to discuss on the various gender based factors related with forced migration which result in gender conflicts. The sole aim of the study will be to identify and assess the influences caused due to the intersection of gender, development and conflicts on the trend of forced migration. Discussion Forced migration or displacement is identified to violate different factors which include human, political, economic and social rights of common public. As per the recent reports, forced migration are no more confined to poor or under-developed nations, but are also getting spread to developed nations where people are forcefully uprooted from their home countries or regions and transported to a different place, due to various factors including political, cultural, religious as well as ethnic persecutions, which at times, result in gender conflicts. It is worth mentioning in this context that forceful migration is not only conducted by people due to the lack of humanitarian ideologies in the society, but are often identified to be a consequence of natural disasters such as earthquake, tsunami, flood or any other natural disaster (Bouta & et. al., 2005). According to the report published by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), it has been signified that around 45.2 million people were under the conditions of displacement in the year 2012, as compared to 42.5 million by the end of 2011, indicating a 0.5 million difference in the aggregate amounts (UNHCR, 2013). Intersection of Gender in Forced Migration Notably, two major reasons were identified concerning the forced migration activities, which included sex marketing and household labour. However, in the modern era, the primary reason for forced migration has become majorly concentrated on sex crimes, to which, women and children are identified to be the common victims. Hence, forced migration can be examined to impose significant negative effects on social contexts, in today’s so called developed society. Various economic and political factors can also be identified as adjacent to the forced migration conducts, where social exclusion and poverty play a primitive role to motivate such conducts. Moreover, long terms displacements of a particular gender, commonly women, at a large volume from one particular economic region, is also quite likely to cause a significant change in the gender role of men and women causing social conflicts. It is worth mentioning in this context that during conflict or war, forced migration is used intentionally with the objective of targeting gender relations, so that family breakdown can be controlled effectively and also to cause a decay of social factors in the enemy region, as a tactic during war. Displacement also leads to changes in demographic factors resulting in change of role of gender where women have often been identified to become the head of the family owing to the reducing number of men due to forced migration (Kemirere, 2007). In this regard, the intersection of gender, development and conflict can be explicitly witnessed when assessing the trend of forced migration. From a critical perspective, it can be evidently observed that with the hindrances in the social structure due to the interferences caused by forced migration, very commonly give rise to ‘Gender-Based Violences’ (GBVs). This particular aspect is in general recognised as physical, emotional as well as sexual violence, many of which fall in the category of felony crime, are committed against both men and women. At times of conflict situations, GBV is observed to be committed against both civilians as well as soldiers not as a side effect of war but as a crime against individuals, community and nation. In GBV, women are recognised to be more vulnerable as compared to men due to displacement or trafficking and sexual exploitation, wherein girls at their adolescence and women are preferred as easy victims, especially when they belong to a poor family or are abandoned by the society due to particular reasons, lacking support from their family or friends or community members. The aforementioned factors are determined to increase during conflict situations which make the community more susceptible towards ‘sexually transmitted diseases’ (Torres, 2007). Therefore, forced migration of women in particular, as sexual workers, not only lead to imbalances in the social structure but also gives rise to crimes and health issues in the society, inhibiting the development rate in the society by a substantial extent. It can also be affirmed in this context that gender imbalances, if defined as a particular intersection form of gender in forced migration trend, encourages such crimes not only in regional but also in the international contexts. Intersection of Conflicts on the Trend of Forced Migration Regions, which have been facing continuous battle, often have to suffer lack of men to join their armed forces and support the military in conquering the enemies. Thus, to satisfy the need for combatants, either the forces tend to forcefully migrate men from other regions or force women to join the combat forces. However, in common instances, men from different regions are transported forcefully which mainly comprise the boys or men belonging to poor families and lack employment opportunities to earn their living. Such kind of forceful migration has often been reported to be a regular activity in terrorist groups, where the regular need for combatants are substantiated by transporting men at their very young age from poverty stricken regions. In the long-run, continuation of the process tends to contribute to large conflicts in the social system as well as bring in vast changes in the social structure. For instance, in the absence of men as the head of the family, most in Asian nations, women have to play the role as the head of their family which in turn causes social conflicts and hampers development to a certain extent. Additionally, in some societal structures, with no men in the family, women are perceived to be insecure and thus, women and girls in such society become much prone to sexual crimes (Kemirere, 2007). In conflict as well as non-conflict societies, political institutions have often been alleged to reveal a reluctant attitude towards protecting women through formal peace processes; even though, participation in informal peace processes have been observed as higher. In this respect, women often lack in obtaining firm support from societies and political institutions, thereby limiting the reach and the enforceability of the informal peace processes to restrict forced migration, especially of women for sex crimes (Bouta & et. al., 2005). Thus, gender differences in formal peace processes also play a vital role in widening the scope for forced migration of women. In an informal peace process, there are more women as compared to men who are devoted in forming suitable peace accords for the development of people, society as well as community. In this context, at times of conflicts arising due to forced migration, individual women as well as women from ‘Civil Society Organisations’ (CSOs) have been reported to undertake relief works and formulate appropriate provisions and rights more aggressively in comparison to men, with the intention of developing the society and nation on the basis of better gender equalities (Bouta & et. al., 2005). This indicates that intersection of gender in combating forced migration, through informal peace process participation can be considered as a tool to generate awareness in the community and increase the applicability as well as strictness of laws restricting such crimes (Molyneux & Razavi, 2003). Intersection of Development in Forced Migration Trend Societies, which render due significance to gender equality have also been observed to be much developed in terms of their legal frameworks to counter forced migration. Statistical research results reported by IFRC further reveal that a strong linkage between development trends and the rate of forced migration can be witnessed in the current phenomenon. Where in many cases, developed nations are observed to play host to many forced immigrants, developing nations, in the similar context are regarded to be suffering a vast quantity of victims to forced migration. For instance, only three developing nations, as per the statistical review of 2012, were reported to host almost 50% of the total immigrants who were forcefully transported from different national regions as well as from foreign societies. These three nations include Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Next in the category are those nations which have to face frequent natural disasters and play host to many refugees being forcefully displaced from their native places. However, these types of displacements most commonly occur in national contexts, wherein the neighbouring countries play host to the forced refugees only to assist the other nation in combating forced migration (IFRC, 2012). In this context, where development can be effortlessly related as a countering measure to mitigate forced migration, on the other hand, it can also be examined as restricted by the same. As revealed in the study of El-Bushra (2000), gender imbalances act in the rudiment as the effect of forced migration which further increases crime rates based on gender and therefore, lead to the gradual failure of the societal structure. This in turn inhibits the overall development in the region suffering from forced migration, either due to human interventions or due to natural disasters. Hence, rising number of forced migration tend to significantly hamper the development of the society in the long-run. Contradictorily, development may also be regarded as a major influencing factor to the rising percentage of forced migration in the worldwide context from a critical point of view. For instance, researches conducted in the recent era have revealed that globalisation, increase of trade activities and technological development have considerable influence towards the increasing rate of forced migration amid people in different nations. As argued by Jacobs & et. al. (2000), with greater improvement in living standards, the threats for erosion and conflicts amid people to develop as well as grow also takes pace. If considered the labor supply trend in the modern world, this particular aspect can be examined more comprehensibly. With the increasing rate of development in a particular region, the standard of living for natives in that society also increases substantially resulting in high cost labourers. Thus, to avail low cost labourers for tasks which are not skill intensive, people are often forcefully transported from poor regions where availability of low cost labourers is in abundance. In this regard, it has been observed that men as well as women are migrated from rural areas to urban areas with better employment and living standards. However, the movement of women is seemed to pose greater threat to the societal structure being prone to sexual crimes (Jacobs & et. al., 2000). Conclusion Conclusively, it should be noted that numerous policies as well as norms are being formulated and implemented with the objective of increasing awareness among people concerning forced migration, which are often conducted through bribing the victim either emotionally or financially or through physical threats. Legal actions are also being considered with regards to preserve gender equality for offering equal employment as well as income opportunities to both men and women. Such initiatives are quite likely to reduce conflicts in the society and thereby control intersection of gender as well as conflict in the encouraging the trend of forced migration. Nevertheless, irrespective of such initiatives, the rate of forced migration tends to rise steadily at certain parts of the world. In this respect, right-based strategies should be implemented with the aim of providing justice to feminist groups, both in formal and informal peace processes by global organisations as well as political institutions. In this context, with effective human right movement as well as liberal rights, conflicts and inequalities of gender can be minimised to certain extent which will facilitate in reducing forced migration or displacement. References Bouta, T. & et. al., 2005. Gender, Conflict and Development. The World Bank. Diaz, M., 2013. Discussion Guide 2: Gender and Forced Migration. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.forcedmigration.org/rfgexp/pdfs/1_4.pdf [Accessed July 16, 2013]. El-Bushra, J., 2000. Gender and forced migration: editorial. Forced Migration Review, pp. 4-7. IFRC, 2012. World Disasters Report Focus On Forced Migration And Displacement 2012. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Jacobs, S. & et. al., 2000. States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance. Palgrave Macmillan. Kemirere, B. F., 2007. The Impact of Forced Migration on Women in Northern Uganda. Development Studies. [Online] Available at: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/1947/thesis.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed July 16, 2013]. Korac, M., 2004. War, Flight, and Exile: Gendered Violence among Refugee Women from Post-Yugoslav States, in: Giles, W. and Hyndman, J. (Eds.) Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones. University of California Press, pp. 249-272. Molyneux, M. & Razavi, S., 2003. Gender Justice, Development and Rights. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Torres, A. B., 2002. FMO Thematic Guide: Gender and Forced Migration. Research Resources. [Online] Available at: http://www.forcedmigration.org/research-resources/expert-guides/gender-and-forced-migration/fmo007.pdf [Accessed July 16, 2013]. UNHCR, 2013. New UNHCR Report Says Global Forced Displacement At 18-Year High. News Stories. [Online] Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/51c071816.html [Accessed July 16, 2013]. Read More