This research project will investigate what determines the shift in gender imbalances in migration at the micro level. More specifically, the overall research question is: how do unequal contextual factors in origin and destination alter gender (im)balances in migration decision making? The project is divided into three work packages. The first work package follows the idea that the various operationalizations of migration decision making measure different nuances of the concept and argues that these are linked to gender. I re-examine existing evidence with a meta-analysis and a Probing Experiment and put shed a new light on it. The second work package takes an origin country perspective and investigates how gendered social norms are linked to migration decision making. The third work package focusses on the influence of the potential destination country. It studies to what extent and by what means gendered labour demand and ungendered migration policies of the destination country shape migration decision making in origin. To study the second and third work package, I apply survey experiments and combine the results with structural factors. All experiments are implemented in three countries from the different key geographic areas of the ‘European Neighbourhood’ (North Africa, South-Eastern Balkans, Eastern Europe).
The project proposal was revised following the feedback from the Scientific Advisory Board and is currently under review. With the assistance of a research assistant, I am compiling a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on the operationalization of migration decisions in survey studies. A paper using survey data on migration decision-making from another project explores the theoretical argument for the first time and is currently under review.
