Revisiting the Migration–Development Nexus Debate Through the Prism of Gender, Politics and Agency

Academic and policy circles have debated the link between migration and development for decades, and thanks to the ‘rise’ in feminist critiques, there has been greater gender awareness and attention being paid to the need for a gender analysis. Yet, as we will argue, governmental and international organisational actors involved in the migration–development nexus debate at the global level have not taken up feminist critiques of gender specific power structures and intersectional forms of agency in a sufficiently comprehensive manner, demonstrating the persisting divide between practice and research. A more nuanced understanding of migrant agency at the intersection of key debates around migrant rights, care and development—which have tended to take place in siloes—is required. Such understanding would also have the potential to inform the design of policy interventions that would result in better gender outcomes.