That skilled female labour migrants remain a relatively under-studied group has in part been to due with the fact that little data is available, especially in European states. In traditional countries of immigration, on the other hand, even if there are not a large number of studies, gendered immigration data are readily available.
For example, Citizenship and Immigration Canada publishes facts and figures on skilled migration disaggregated by gender on a yearly basis. In European states where large-scale skilled immigration exists, as in the UK, gender disaggregated data has to be requested. The OECD has begun to address the issue of data deficiency in relation to skilled migrants and labour markets
As mentioned previously, family-related, not labour-related, admission categories are the most important means of entry for female migrants. As mainly family migrants, women are not necessarily presumed to possess the skills needed to contribute meaningfully to the labour market. However, statistics suggest that this presumed link between skill level and admission categories may not be so clear. The share of women immigrants holding a tertiary degree in OECD countries is only three percentage points below that of men. In Australia it is almost equal. Among all permanent residents over 15 years of age entering Canada in all entrance categories in 2007 (total 188,480), the number of skilled men and women were almost equal. 13% of men had a BA, 6% an MA and 1% a PhD. In comparison, 16% of women had a BA, 5% an MA and 0.8% a PhD.
Moreover, in some countries there is an equal or even higher proportion of foreign-born non-OECD female migrants in skilled occupations than native-born. This is the case in the UK and Portugal. In Belgium the proportions are almost the same. At the other extreme, there are markedly lower proportions of migrant women in skilled occupations in most Southern European countries, which tend to be countries with high levels of de-skilling and a concentration of female migrants in less skilled sectors.
|Percentage of women (15-64) in highly skilled occupations by origin, 2004|
|"-" indicates that figure is not significant|
".." no explanation
Source: Table I.15. SOPEMI 2006
|Main origin countries for highly skilled immigrants in OECD countries by gender, 2000|
|Country of Birth||Female||Total||%|
|Source: Dumont u.a. (2007:11)|
Women's employment in the health sector, in particular, has significantly contributed to altering the gender balance in skilled migration. Throughout the 1960s, the UK depended on Caribbean and Irish female nurse migration. Canada, too imported female nurses from countries in the global South to cut costs and even out fluctuating shortages in the 1980s.
Since the late 1990s, reduced investment in states like Australia, Canada and the UK in doctor, nurse and teacher training has led to significant shortages in the education, heath and social work sectors which cannot be met locally, forcing these and other states to recruit (often female) workers abroad. Over 90% of migrants in the nursing sector are women, and in many countries this constitutes the largest single health profession.
Women also form a small but significant minority amongst migrant Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals entering any of the major countries of immigration in any year.