Motion for a resolution | Doc. 14095 | 21 June 2016

Migrations in a gender perspective

Signatories: Ms Elena CENTEMERO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Jean-Charles ALLAVENA, Monaco, EPP/CD ; Ms Sílvia Eloïsa BONET, Andorra, SOC ; Mr Paolo CORSINI, Italy, SOC ; Ms Adele GAMBARO, Italy, ALDE ; Mr Francesco Maria GIRO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Hans Fredrik GRØVAN, Norway, EPP/CD ; Ms Gabriela HEINRICH, Germany, SOC ; Mr Frank J. JENSSEN, Norway, EPP/CD ; Mr Georgii LOGVYNSKYI, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Mr Zsolt NÉMETH, Hungary, EPP/CD ; Mr Joseph O'REILLY, Ireland, EPP/CD ; Ms Liliana PALIHOVICI, Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD ; Ms Mechthild RAWERT, Germany, SOC ; Ms Ingjerd SCHOU, Norway, EPP/CD ; Mr Senad ŠEPIĆ, Bosnia and Herzegovina, EPP/CD ; Mr Serhiy SOBOLEV, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Mr Damien THIÉRY, Belgium, ALDE ; Mr Stefaan VERCAMER, Belgium, EPP/CD ; Mr Leonid YEMETS, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Ms Svitlana ZALISCHUK, Ukraine, EPP/CD

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

Migrations may have an impact on human rights and non-discrimination in Council of Europe member States. This concerns women and men, both European citizens and foreigners seeking refuge in Europe from wars or political and economic hardship. Migrant and asylum seeker women are not visible, as they are only mentioned when they become victims of violence. In families of migrants and asylum seekers, women often have a lower status than men. They are involved in migration by men rather than taking the initiative, which contributes to making them less keen to migrate and less ready to integrate in the new context. Laws and regulations on the reception of migrants often focus on men and apply to women only as family joining the original migrant. This may reinforce the idea that migrant women only have a role in the family and not in the labour market, and contribute to limiting the type of jobs that they have access to, typically domestic work or nursing. Women asylum seekers also have difficult access to refugee status, as the forms of persecution experienced by them often take place in private settings and are less likely to be recognised as qualifying for refugee status.

The Parliamentary Assembly has worked on issues concerning migrant women on several occasions. The Assembly should analyse the current situation and suggest ways of involving migrant and asylum seeker women in the work market, which would help empowering them and change the share of responsibility within the family. The role of these women in the education and integration of children should also be taken into account, as well as the issue of domestic violence.