Skilled female labour migration.

Women migrants now constitute almost half (49.6% in 2005) of all international migrants. The increase in female labour migration, i.e. of women moving in search of jobs, has caught the imagination of academics, the media and international and national policy makers across the globe. However, much of this attention has focused on migrant women who enter the lesser skilled sectors of the labour market, especially in work that is dangerous, dirty and low-paid. But this focus ignores the many other sectors of the labour market where women are also present, including the more skilled sectors. In this policy brief we aim to address this gap by highlighting the presence of skilled migrant women within migration streams.