Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & Migration in the Developing World

Girls on the Move reports on: the social and economic drivers of internal migration for adolescent girls in developing countries and the links between migration, risk, and opportunity. The report finds that, contrary to conventional wisdom, rural-to-urban migration can - provided necessary safety nets and resources are in place - be largely a positive experience for girls, ages 10-14 and 15-19. This Population Council-authored report was supported by the Nike Foundation and the United Nations Foundation. Girls on the Move is the sixth report in the Girls Count series published by the Coalition for Adolescent Girls.

The document suggests that if migrant girls are safe and successful in making their journey, their likelihood of being able to expand their potential increases, both economically and socially. "[A] successful migrant girl can be a powerful agent of social and economic change, transforming the prospects of her family and community." However, roadblocks to successful migration include: insufficient or wrong information, lack of material or family support, limited or no social network, and exploitation by employers or traffickers.

"Girls find a concentration of opportunities in cities: education and health institutions, diverse labor and capital markets, multiple levels of government and a range of NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and community groups. "However, they can find themselves to be more vulnerable, marginalised, and unable to access urban resources." The document attempts to answer: "What do migrant girls need?"

According to the report, girls need protective assets including some of the following:

• Human assets - skills, knowledge, self-esteem, bargaining power, and control over decisions.
• Social assets - trusted family, friends, mentors, social networks, group membership, access to public services and institutions.
• Physical assets - personal belongings including a mobile phone, housing, transport, personal documentation.
• Financial assets - cash, savings.

A possible action agenda for girls who migrate includes the following:

1. Prepare and equip girls before they migrate: They should be primed with education, life skills training including financial management, and information about what they will experience during the journey and on arrival, as well as knowledge of their human rights.
2. Ensure a smooth landing: a safe place to stay and social connections: Neighbourhood groups, including women’s groups and associations of the urban economically poor, can help migrant girls expand their social capital immediately on arrival before girls fall into harm's way.
3. Create time and space for migrant girls to meet friends: Community-based safe spaces can offer migrant girls places to gather with peers and trusted female mentors and can provide life skills and training programmes.
4. Make services "migrant girl friendly": Service providers in areas with many migrants could learn key phrases in the migrants’ language and become familiar with their cultural traditions to make them feel welcome.
5. Test innovative ways to prepare migrant girls for success: This new generation of programmes could test the impact of: providing migrant girls with life skills and building their human capital before migration; making safe spaces and personal documentation available immediately on arrival; building social capital including connections to associations of urban economically poor; and providing mobile technology, mobile savings products, and financial capabilities.
6. Focus on the most isolated and vulnerable: Many child domestic workers, child brides, and sexually exploited girls are migrants. According to the paper, for those who are vulnerable and socially isolated, safe space approaches are a programme priority. Given domestic workers' limited power, the impact of safe space approaches will be enhanced by requiring employers to give workers time off to participate in programmes. Married girls’ clubs are important in communities where young brides migrate to join their husbands. Strengthening social networks of sexually exploited girls can bolster their sources of protection, support, and assistance in times of need. Giving mobile phones to vulnerable, isolated migrant girls can allow them to keep in touch with families at home. To find and engage the most socially isolated migrant girls, programmes should use targeted, purposeful recruitment; routine approaches will continue to overlook the most excluded .
7. Fill critical evidence gaps: As stated here, disaggregated data, including mapped data, should be available to municipal authorities. Further research, both qualitative - on girls' experiences - and longitudinal surveys on social, economic, and health outcomes, as well as programme evaluations, are needed.
8. Increase migrant girls' visibility through policy and advocacy.

Click here to access this 136-page document in PDF format.

Click here to access the 2-page fact sheet, Adolescent Girls are on the Move in Developing Countries, in PDF format, associated with this document.