The difference that skills make: gender, family migration strategies and regulated labour markets

Abstract

Although skilled migration now represents the only ‘acceptable’ form of migration into the UK there has so far been little analysis of the ways in which the shift in the skills of the primary migrant reconfigures family migration. In this paper I outline some reasons for this neglect, highlighting the ways in which two related sets of debates, that on gender and international migration into Europe and that on tied migration, have not yet adequately addressed the changing role of migrant women in contemporary labour markets. Both offer a critique of patriarchy within the household but neither have examined the ways in which immigration regulations intersect with labour market conditions in influencing family strategies around labour market participation of men and women in migrant households. Through the example of medical labour markets I argue that such an analysis is necessary for understanding family migration amongst the skilled.