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Women migrants and remittances

Equal rights, equal voices: migrant women in the European Union

Improving migrant women’s rights in the European Union

Authors: ; EWL
Publisher: European Women’s Lobby, 2007

Full text of document

What impact do European Union (EU) immigration and integration policies have on the lives of migrant women at national level? 

This paper presents the results of a three-day event entitled “Equal Rights, Equal Voices - Migrant women in the European Union” organised by the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) in January 2007 in Brussels.

The first section of the paper provides basic information on EU legislation and policies in the field of immigration and integration of third-country nationals, and aims to demonstrate the added value of acting at European level for migrant women accessing their fundamental rights. The themes identified in the second section of the document relate to the main obstacles facing migrant women in everyday life at European level.

The issue of immigration is a critical area of concern in Europe particularly for women as not only is this policy being pursued in the framework of security and border control, it is, above all, an issue that is portrayed as gender neutral. Despite their contribution to economic and social development in EU Member States, female migrants experience high levels of poverty, social exclusion and violence and still tend to be invisible in the European debate on integration and immigration.

The participants of the workshops looked at the particular challenges that migrant women experience in the EU and agreed that:

  • all migrant women entering the EU should be granted independent legal status, whatever the reasons for the stay
  • the law of country of residence should be applied when it comes to personal status, so to secure fundamental rights
  • undocumented migrant women should have full access to their basic fundamental rights and channels for legal migration should be developed
  • all migrant women should enjoy full equality of rights - this involves the implementation of proactive policies including the recognition of qualifications, so rights can be accessed.

The paper documents the issues the participants agreed on concerning sexual and reproductive rights, violence, education and access to employment, working conditions and other important issues. The authors then present a roadmap on how to strengthen the voices of migrant women at national and European level.