Paper short abstract:

The paper advances the understanding of the complexity and the implications of North-South and South-South gendered skilled labour migration, in the teaching, academic, and humanitarian sectors. It de-migranticises South women’s mobility and explores how this can de-colonises North-dominated fields.

Paper long abstract:

Mobility of high-skilled professionals is increasing in some Southern economies, such as Argentina and South Africa. Nonetheless, studies of these North-South and South-South circuits are scarce, as the view of migrant women in the South as under-skilled, unempowered social actors prevails. This paper seeks to advance the understanding of the complexity and the implications of North-South and South-South gendered skilled labour migration. Empirical research in a participatory, multi-country study was conducted (2020/2021) and involved women migrants in teaching and humanitarian sectors in Turkey, Lebanon, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Pakistan. In the study we looked beyond the workplace to encompass personal and family life, drivers of migration, agency and coping strategies, and uses of public spaces. The trajectories of the migrant women are complex and undo dominant, stereotypical narratives that pivot around mere economic and professional rationales for migrating. Their personal and existential dimensions intertwine with regional, post-colonial hierarchical configurations moulding gender migration and underpinning teaching, academic, and humanitarian aid sectors. These overlooked configurations are gendered, racialised, and religious hierarchies, embedded with the historical and geopolitical relations between states. The experiences of high-skilled migrant workers invite rethinking our lenses to be able to interrogate and understand gendered subjectivities on the move, beyond Global South vs North dualism. High-skilled woman mobility to and within the South not only de-migranticises, diversifies, and de-Westernises women’s mobility; it also poses questions on how South skilled women migrants can innovate and de-colonise the North-dominated field of academic knowledge production and humanitarian practices.