By Ximena Canal Laiton

This report examines the experiences of migrant women in transit in South America. It is based on 4Mi1 surveys and interviews with migrant women and key informants conducted in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil between December 2024 and May 2025. Addressing the lack of information on women’s experience of migration in the region, this report presents findings on risks, sexual and reproductive health issues, the gender-based division of labour, mechanisms and barriers to self-protection, access to assistance, and the needs of migrant women in transit. The report provides empirical evidence to inform decision-makers and humanitarian actors. Key findings • Women are consistently affected by the general risks of migration routes in South America, in particular mentioning theft, extortion, bribery, and verbal violence. In addition, this research identified specific risks of sexual violence for women in transit, such as abuse and exploitation, which may go unnoticed by many migrant women despite being flagged by key informants. • The adverse conditions of migration have a major impact on the sexual and reproductive health of some women. During the journey, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menstruation often occur in inadequate circumstances, which increases the health risks for women or their babies, born or to be born, including morbidity, mortality, low birth weight, malnutrition, vaginal infections, and toxic shock syndrome, among others. • Constant stress, the uncertainty of migration, migratory grief, and other related factors negatively impact women’s mental health during migration. The data shows that migrant women experience feelings of sadness, frustration, fear, and guilt. • Women adopt various self-protection strategies to cope with the dangers of the journey. The main measures include staying in touch with family, planning the journey, and travelling with companions. While emotional care strategies exist, the women interviewed reported using very few and revealed a persistent lack of tools to manage emotional challenges. • The gender-based division of labour persists during migration, with women being assigned domestic and care tasks. Women are primarily responsible for caring for children and other dependents, as well as organising meals and groceries for the travel group. • Despite the meaningful humanitarian response along migration routes in South America, these services still need to be strengthened. Almost half of the women respondents reported not receiving assistance during their journey, while most stated that they had unmet needs at the time of the survey, mainly needing cash, accommodation, and medical care.

London: Mixed Migration Centre, 2025. 28p.

By Unions NSW

This report on workplace exploitation and the experience of migrant women living in Australia on temporary visas identifies an unacceptable level of sexual harassment, exacerbated by visa status, and calls for immediate policy action. The report makes recommendations to create a safer and more equitable working environment for migrant women.

The study underscores the need to implement policy changes that target intersecting issues experienced by migrant women in Australia. Migrant women on temporary visas are forced to endure sexual harassment in silence due to numerous factors, including uncertainty regarding their immigration status, precarious work, and racial and gender workplace discrimination. The research also underscores the need to allocate more resources to developing services to provide advice, education, and training to empower migrant women to report sexual harassment.

Key findings

• 51% of respondents reported having experienced sexual harassment at work.

• Sexual harassment was commonly reported in the construction, hospitality, horticulture, retail, and cleaning industries.

• 82% of respondents who worked in the construction industry experienced sexual harassment.

• Participants experienced a range of repercussions when they tried to defend themselves, rejected the behaviour or reported the harasser’s conduct.

• 48% working in the construction and horticulture industries decided to leave their job because they felt unsafe.

• 50% of those who experienced workplace sexual harassment were concerned that reporting could result in losing their job, and 75% did not report the incident.

Recommendations

1. Migrant worker centres should be established in each state.

2. Culturally appropriate education and training should be developed in each state in collaboration with migrant worker groups.

3. Implement a legal framework and policies to protect migrant women.

4. Develop reporting pathways that reflect the needs of migrant women.

5. Introduce reforms to ensure migrant women have access to existing legal avenues to address sexual harassment.

6. Facilitate migrant women's access to employment opportunities.

7. Provide temporary migrant women with visa protections to ensure they can report sexual harassment without fear of visa cancellations or other negative impacts to their immigration status.

8. Remove the requirement for working holiday makers to undertake ‘specified work’ in regional areas.

9. Remove the working hours cap on student visas.

Sydney: Unions NSW, 2024. 56p.

By Marie Segrave, Shih Joo Tan, Rebecca Wickes, Chloe Keel, Nuria Alarcón Lopez

This report presents the findings of research on migrant and refugee women’s attitudes about, experiences of and responses to workplace sexual harassment, highlighting the complexity of what it means to be “safe” at work and illustrating the ways in which sexual harassment intersects with other forms of workplace harms, such as racial discrimination and exploitative work conditions.

Disempowerment and power imbalances, such as those related to race, gender, disability or sexuality, can amplify the impacts of workplace sexual harassment; despite this, little evidence exists to guide government and employers in preventing and addressing the specific harms of workplace sexual harassment for migrant and refugee women.

The first report from this project, released in 2023, surveyed 701 women who identified as migrant or refugee and found that 46 per cent of respondents had experienced workplace sexual harassment. This final report from the project brings together the survey data with the qualitative phase of the study. While the findings from this report are not generalisable, they offer important insights into migrant and refugee women’s experiences of safety in the workplace.

Key practice and policy recommendations

Reduce siloing of different policy areas that seek to address various forms of workplace harm for migrant and refugee women

Evaluate, redevelop and better align the existing reporting mechanisms that respond to aspects of unsafe or exploitative work practices

Invest in safe work services external to employers that can ensure culturally responsive approaches for working women in every state and territory.

Emphasise proactive and transparent action in response to workplace sexual harassment that ensures women can remain employed and their career progression unimpacted

Extend exit interviews and complaints timelines to capture longer periods following cessation of employment so that women have the opportunity to report once they feel safe in another job or have citizenship or permanent residency.

Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's SafetyANROWS, 2024.

By Ana María Ibáñez, Sandra V. Rozo and Dany Bahar

Do undocumented migrants change their propensity to report or commit a crime after receiving a regular migratory status? This paper studies a massive amnesty program that gave regular migratory status to over 281,000 undocumented Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. Findings suggest that the amnesty did not result in more crimes committed by Venezuelan migrants, only an increase in the number of crimes they reported. Results are very strong for reports of domestic violence and sex crimes and are almost entirely driven by Venezuelan women, suggesting that empowerment is an important mechanism underlying the behavior change.

Policy Research Working Paper 9833. New York: The World Bank, 2021. 48p.