Racially marginalized migrant women: Human rights abuses at the intersection of race, gender, and migration

Racially marginalized migrant women experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination rooted in systemic racism, sexism, and other systems of inequality. Discrimination occurs at all stages of migration and may include racial abuse, sexual and gender-based violence, stigmatization, limited access to health and social services, inequitable labour conditions, criminalization, and detention.

Exclusionary migration pathways based on race and gender, limited disaggregated data, discriminatory state laws and inadequate international protections are some of the contributing factors that erase and obscure the experiences of racially marginalized migrant women.

States, international actors, and civil society organizations must seek to expand their understanding of the intersection of race and gender in migration governance and implement urgent reforms to improve access to services and human rights protections for women who are marginalized based upon their race, gender, and migration status.