Women immigrants have now exceeded men
in the population of immigrants coming to France. In a data analysis report on
the survey Trajectoires et Origines
(Paths and Origins), Cris Beauchemin, Catherine Borrel and Corinne Régnard[1]
found, contrary to what one might think, the rise in women immigrants is not just
for family-based admissions. More women are immigrating of their own accord and
autonomously, to work and complete their education.
More women arriving on France’s shores
are single, better pioneers of sorts, often preempting the “traditional” role of
their male partners. The rise in the number of educated women in their
countries of origin, their access to higher education (along with their proven
capacity to stay the course) is no doubt decisive. So much so, that joining
their partners in high-income countries is no longer exclusively the lot of
women – since 1988 men have made up a third of partners immigrating to join
their wives and that figure has continued to grow even among the French-born
population.
Though French figures have improved,
they still lag behind those in the US. Immigrant women in the US show
themselves not only to be at the “forefront of advocacy” according to the
Center for American Progress[2],
they also make up over half the total immigrant population, 55% to be exact,
and more of them start businesses than their American-born counterparts. What
is definitely true in both countries is that women immigrants tend to represent
a stabilizing factor – they embrace citizenship better, are better integrated,
better educated and make greater sacrifices for their families, by staying at
home to take care of them, if need be.
There is, of course, a flipside. More
immigrant families are vulnerable; immigrants are subject to abuse at work, but
more worryingly, at home at the hands of abusive partners. Worse yet, among
those numbers filling the glowing ranks of these hopefuls, it is difficult to
estimate the numbers, as many of them enter the country undocumented from the
outset, comprising victims of human trafficking.
By Candice Lewis
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