CNR-JSPS Bilateral Program 2018-2019: “Damage assessment and conservation of underground space as valuable resources for human activities use in Italy and Japan” Presentation at the first visit of the Italian team in Japan (June 2018) Bruno Venditto (CNR-ISSM): "Internal migration and gender empowerment: Empirical finding from Namibia". ABSTRACT: The presentation show how social mobility, and gender empowerment, emerged as the most relevant amongst the effects of migration on the family structures, and inside the home community; an indication of both the relevance that social rather than economic reasons alone, have in explaining the drivers to migrate, and of the capacity of migration to transform the external social structures. The agency migrant is at the same time dependent from the social norms, but looks for and creates a separateness environment, balancing the responsibilities towards the family and the own personal plans. The social norms are embedded in the migrant self, but when coming to the decision to move, the agency acts to achieve the own personal objectives, which are not limited to the financial satisfaction, in this way migration decision is also separated from the structural economic constrains.

1. Internal migration and
gender empowerment:
Empirical finding from
Namibia
CNR-JSPS Bilateral program 2018-2019
Bruno Venditto
venditto@issm.cnr.it
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

2. • Migration in a gender perspective
• The Namibian study’s context
• The methodology
• The findings
– Extrapolation of gender results
• Conclusion
• References
Introduction

3. Until the late 1970s, most writings on international migration either focused
explicitly only on male migrants (usually conceived of as workers) or seemed
to assume implicitly that most migrants were male. That assumption was
particularly prevalent when attention was focused on the economic aspects of
international migration, because it was widely believed that the participation
of women in international labor migration was negligible. (Zlotnik, 2003)
Migration in a gender perspective
data on
international
migrants often
were not classified
by sex
The first such set, containing estimates for the period
1965-1990, was released by the United Nations
Population Division in 1998.

4. Migration in a gender perspective
Since 2000 the female/male
proportion has remained the same
with a slight decline in 2015 to 48%

5. • Neoclassic migration theories emphasising on the wage differential between
the areas of origin and those of destinations, as well as the Newly Economic
Labour Migration associating the movement to the family’s strategy to face
external constrains, apparently do not differentiate between female and
male migrants.
• Migration, being the result of an economic rational individual decision or a
family strategy decision, the need to support family provide women and men
alike with strong reasons for migrating.
• However, poverty does not always lead individuals to the decisions of
migrate, this is particularly true for women migrants.
Migration in a gender perspective
This is one of the
Namibian empirical
findings
Nowadays trend in Japan migration rates is in decrease. nevertheless Tokyo area and
Aichi area population share is in constant increase.

6. Namibia is a relatively young country, previously known as South West
Africa was a German colony till 1915, after WWI it was administrated
as a South African protectorate, de facto it was a South African province
and was subject to the same apartheid regime. In 1990 after a prolonged
liberation struggle started in the sixty, Namibia gained its independence.
In this 28 years the country had to tackle the structural imbalances
determined by more than 100 years of colonisation which had left it with
a dual economy dependent of extraction of raw materials (diamonds,
among the main one).
The Namibian Context
Life expectancy 62 years
Literacy rate 89%
Gini coefficient 0.597
Unemployment rate 28%
Poor households 18.3%
2.4 mil people
GDP pc 11,830 (projection 17)
Dual economic sector
Export Raw materials
Little value added
Net importer of agricultural
Products
High urbanisation

7. • Grounded theory has been chosen, which rather than using
the data to verify if an existing theory is valid, utilizes an
inductive, from-the-ground-up approach using everyday
behaviours or organizational patterns to generate theory.
• Charmaz’s (2014), constructivist version has been adopted
for the investigation of the socio economic impact of
migration on the Namibian family structure perceived by the
individuals who are the actors in it
• Grounded theory tries to understand issues that give insight
into people’s experiences of events that impact on their lives,
emphasising the central role that the participants’
perspective assumes.
The Methodology
A reflexive strategy of constant
comparison, allow the objectivity of
the core categories embedded in the
data to manifest to the researcher,
bringing to the emergence of the
substantive theory

8. The Findings

9. • At home and in the village I was a very shy and a
quiet person, now I am open to everyone and enjoy
my freedom with no fear. The major change this has
produced is the respect people inside and outside the
family, are showing to me.
• They say that now I am responsible as a man.
• … before I had to follow what my parents used to
tell me, whatever their decision was. Now I am also
part of the decisions. Participant 1
Extrapolation of gender results
Different person
Self confident

10. Extrapolation of gender results
They respect me more because of my role and
responsibilities, I can decide and give advice,
which I did not do before. In a normal
context they would look at a woman as less
important than a man. Now that you are
educated, and a provider, they look at you
with more respect; this is because in general a
breadwinner is considered with more respect.
Participant 2
Different person
Educated, empowered

11. Extrapolation of gender results
I have seen how the world is going forward, not like
before. I decided to come up with different ideas
making sure I will work hard for my goals. Now I have
seen that I can do something when it come to the
development of our country; I could become someone
important everywhere, someone who could change the
situation.
People believe that a woman cannot leave a house
because the man would not believe she went to earn a
living but to look for something else; they may end up in
disagreement with each other and affecting the
relationship very badly. In my case i have shown that
this is not true.
Participant 6a
Different person
Challenging the status quo

12. Extrapolation of gender results
Emerges a common sense of empowerment
understood as ‘conscientization’ described by
Freire (1973), as the capacity of the women of
critically assessing their ‘subordinated’ condition
and actively engaging to modify it.
At the same time transpires the agent-structure
interaction, where the participant, the agent,
individually takes cognisance of the self, and her
path to empowerment, is negotiated within the
stringent structural constraints. (Yu, 2007 )
Duality of agent / structure
relationship

13. Extrapolation of gender results
Gender relationship have changed in the sense that now it is accepted that
women do the things done by the men, somehow the differences between men
and women was also caused by apartheid because we were thought to believe
that women could only do certain things for example being nurses or
teachers, or maid. Living in a different environment and with access to
education, has opened my mind more.
Participant 11
My vision of women has changed a lot, in the village you do not think of
women as persons, you only think of them as ‘sex object’ but now I have seen
a lot of value in women and since I have moved to Windhoek I have a lot of
respect for them. In the village now I encourage them to study and I also
speak with the guys I know that beat their girlfriends to explain that this is
not correct, at least while I am in the village they do not do it anymore. Those
are small changes that can also change the life in the village but it will take
time because when I am not there I do not know how they behave.
Participant 13
Change in Male gender
perspective

14. Conclusion
Without overlooking to the agency capacity to make the
decision, even in the presence of modest economic family
conditions, the findings lead to believe that individual had a
predominant role in the decision to move. Migration does not
appear as a collective decision taken by the migrant’s family
Structural
constraints
Agency
FAMILY
STRATEGY
RATIONAL
DECISION
Dependent - Separateness

15. Conclusion
The agency migrant is at the same time dependent from the social
norms, but looks for and creates a separateness environment, balancing
the responsibilities towards the family and the own personal plans. The
social norms are embedded in the migrant self, but when coming to the
decision to move, the agency acts to achieve the own personal
objectives, which are not limited to the financial satisfaction, in this
way migration decision is also separated from the structural economic
constrains
Social mobility, and gender empowerment, emerged as the most relevant
amongst the effects of migration on the family structures, and inside
the home community; an indication of both the relevance that social
rather than economic reasons alone, have in explaining the drivers to
migrate, and of the capacity of migration to transform the external
social structures
Existing
Norms
Own social and
personal
motivation
Dependent - Separateness