A/HRC/41/38 arranged for migrant women to perform sexual activities for border agents as part of the migration process, without informing the women beforehand. 32 42. A network of migrant women in their countries of origin, or previous experience of women’s migration, can help to stimulate migration. Social networks, as a set of interpersonal ties that connect migrants, former migrants and non-migrants in origin, transit and destination countries through kinship, friendship or a shared community of origin, can prompt rural women to migrate across borders. Social networks can also offer migrants assistance in finding homes and jobs and in sending remittances. Many employers also use migrant networks, particularly those based on kinship, for recruitment. While on one hand social networks can help migrants with job training and provide them with support, they can also make integration more difficult and increase isolation. In Bangladesh, for example, where gender norms are more restrictive, members of the city household in which a migrant girl is working or living may assume an oversight role to closely monitor her behaviour and actions, allowing her parents back home in their village to feel reassured that their girl is behaving as expected in the city.33 The persons with whom migrant women travel also have an impact on their migration and integration experience. Sometimes, when a woman migrates with her husband, even to a country with fewer gender-specific discriminatory laws and practices, the discriminatory gender norms from her society of origin may continue to govern her household dynamics and her individual life, leaving the woman more likely to feel isolated and vulnerable.34 43. Whether they are migrating regularly or irregularly, evidence suggests that women migrants are at great risk of being subjected to acts of violence, including gender-based violence, exploitation, trafficking, slavery and detention, while in transit or upon arrival, and by public officials, private individuals or criminal gangs. In 2004, ILO reported that one in six irregular migrant women in the Russian Federation were coerced into sex work, usually in the entertainment or domestic service sectors. 35 The lack of adequate reception conditions in some countries results in serious consequences for women’s health, dignity and physical safety. 36 Some conditions and practices can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or torture. 44. In countries of destination, regardless of their migratory status, migrant women encounter multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, not only as women and as migrants, but also on other grounds, including age, race and ethnicity, nationality, religion, marital and family status, sexual orientation and gender identity. As a result, they are at risk of abuse and exploitation. It is well documented that migrant women in general struggle in many countries to have their credentials recognized, which leads to “deskilling” as a result of being underemployed.37 F. Gendered impact of migration on women and girls 1. Gendered aspects of migration and family life 45. The experience of migration may lead to a redefining of sex-differentiated roles in the family as husbands, wives and other members of the family trade responsibilities. Based 32 33 34 35 36 37 Fiona Samuels and others, “Stories of harassment, violence and discrimination: migrant experiences between India, Nepal and Bangladesh” (London, Overseas Development Institute, 2012), p. 2. Miriam Temin and others, Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls and Migration in the Developing World. A Girls Count Report on Adolescent Girls (Population Council, 2013), p. 45. O’Neil, Fleury and Foresti, “Women on the move”, p. 5. Irina Ivakhnyuk, The Russian Migration Policy and its Impact on Human Development: The Historical Perspective, Human Development Reports Research Paper 2009/14 (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2009), pp. 44–45. See Council of Europe, “Human rights of refugee and migrant women and girls need to be better protected”, 7 March 2016. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Global Education Monitoring Report Team, “The intersections between education, migration and displacement are not genderneutral”, document ED/GEM/MRT/2019/WP1, p. 4. 11