So concludes Patricia Cortés Castellanos, a consultant for the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (Centro Latinoamericano y Caribeño de Demografía, CELADE), the Population Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in the publication Mujeres Migrantes de América Latina y el Caribe: derechos humanos, mitos y duras realidades (Migrant Women of Latin America and the Caribbean: Human Rights, Myths and Harsh Realities), which notes that this is the first region in the world to reach this kind of parity.

Most women make their decision autonomously, although a significant number still cross borders because of armed conflicts, poverty, environmental deterioration or natural disasters.

The report notes that some migrant women are forced to leave their countries when they become victims of family violence, sexual abuse and exploitation by international delinquents involved in trafficking in human beings.

Nonetheless, many of them achieve their goal and much more. Young single women with some professional training stand out in this sense. Their decision reflects their desire to find a better position, to adventure out and discover more of the world.

Women's Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean

Women's migration within the region is made easier by geographic proximity, cultural similarities and a common language, writes Cortés. These migrants are mainly young women, at the height of their productive powers, many of them single mothers or heads of families. In the case of women from Central America and the Caribbean, their preferred destination is Costa Rica, while South American women tend to prefer Chile.

Overall, the destinations preferred by the region's women are the United States, with three-quarters of total migration flows, Spain and Japan, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom.

The CELADE consultant indicates that the growing importance of women within migratory flows and the role they assume as the main providers for their families, through remittances, is helping to change the patterns of subordination that affect them, although she warns of some economic exploitation. The dilemma lies in whether migration is a liberating and autonomous choice or rather a new form of subordination and human rights vulnerability affecting this community.

Because of this, she emphasizes that strengthening the international agenda for promoting the human rights of migrant women is itself a major challenge. In the first place, philosophically speaking, this involves recognizing their vulnerability when it comes to full enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. In political terms, this requires consolidating juridical mechanisms to promote the human rights of these groups, and finally, in technical terms, it requires comprehension and recognition of their demands and needs to strengthen and focus the design, negotiation and execution of the respective public policies.

Finally, the expert notes, it is extremely important to promote the empowerment of migrant groups as subjects in law, especially women because of their double vulnerability: their status as women and migrants. However, it is also vital to recognize the important contribution that migrants make to their own countries' productivity, through the remittances they send.

More papers and information on this subject is available in Spanish on CELADE's website on international migration .