A/HRC/41/38 motivated by a desire to escape family control, or deep-seated discrimination that restricts their access to resources, education and political participation. 20 In studies conducted in Guatemala and the Republic of Moldova, IOM found that single mothers, widows or divorcees who experienced discrimination were using migration to escape social stigmatization.21 34. While discriminatory social institutions may serve as a driving factor causing women and girls to migrate to countries with fewer discriminatory institutions, that is only true up to an extent. When it reaches a certain threshold, the high level of discrimination in the country of origin rather hinders migration. For example, bias and harmful gender stereotypes may prevent women from migrating because of concern that they may be “morally corrupted” or they may face difficulties in getting married at a later point. 35. In 2015, unmarried women in 30 countries were unable to choose where they wanted to live, at least 6 countries required women to obtain the permission of their male and female guardians to travel internationally, and in 18 countries, domestic legislation prevented women from taking a job without their guardian or husband's permission. In addition, women in several countries were unable to pass their citizenship to their spouses or children.22 During his visit to Nepal in 2018, the Special Rapporteur noted that women below the age of 24 and with a child below the age of 2 were banned from taking up domestic work in foreign employment. Although the ban was allegedly intended as a protection mechanism, the solution to the problems faced by domestic workers should not be to discriminate against them through the imposition of bans or other means of violating their right to leave the country (see A/HRC/38/41/Add.1). 36. Societal norms and gender-based discrimination are not the only factors that may influence the migration of women and girls. Labour policies of receiving countries can also strongly contribute to the migration of women and girls rather than that of men and boys. Immigration laws in some countries make it extremely difficult to enter regularly and obtain permanent legal status. Legal residency is often based on being employed in the formal economy. If one of the few ways to enter a country regularly is through annual quotas established in sectors of the economy with apparent labour shortages, that has an influence on who will migrate to that country. For those who enter without proper documentation or stay past the period of their initial employment through those quotas, regularization programmes are periodically launched.23 37. A number of the sectors that have formal employment opportunities that are open to migrants are segmented by gender, as well as class and ethnicity (for example, the domestic work and the health and care industries). The demand for migrant women in femaledominated sectors was facilitated by the entry of many women into the labour market in their countries of destination. Since societies still tend to expect women to perform domestic tasks, such tasks are often taken care of by women migrant workers. 38. According to research, education levels influence women’s decisions to migrate in different ways to how they influence men. According to some studies, for women, but not for men, there is a significant correlation between higher education and migration. 24 In a study of 14,000 individuals in 43 Mexican villages, it was found that educated women experienced greater gender discrimination and few occupational rewards, which might have 20 21 22 23 24 2004 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development: Women and International Migration (United Nations publication, sales No. E.04.IV.4), pp. 16–17. Irena Omelaniuk, “Gender, poverty reduction and migration” (World Bank, 2005), p. 3. See World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2016: Getting to Equal (Washington, D.C., 2015). Kitty Calavita, “Gender, migration, and law: crossing borders and bridging disciplines” in The International Migration Review, vol. 40, No. 1 (2006), p. 118. See Avdullah Hoti, “Determinants of emigration and its economic consequences: evidence from Kosova” in Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, vol. 9, No. 4 (2009), pp. 435–458; Yamauchi, Futoshi and Yanyan, Liu, “School quality, labor markets and human capital investment: long-term impacts of an early stage education investment in the Philippines”, Policy Research Working Paper, No. 6247 (Washington, D.C., World Bank, October 2012); and Bina Gubhaju and Gordon F. De Jong, “Individual versus household migration decision rules: gender and marital status differences in intentions to migrate in South Africa” in International Migration, vol. 47, No. 1 (2009), pp. 31–61. 9