Migration and gender relations in out-migrant households in southwest Cameroon

Migration by sub-Saharan Africans to Europe and North America has gained significant media attention and interest from migration scholars in the past two decades. African migrants represent about one-third of global migrants. Migration statistics from mid-year 2020 suggest that Africans make up at least 25.4 million of the 281 million people residing outside their countries of birth. The feminization of international migration has equally been increasing over the past twenty years, resulting in a growing interest in gender-responsive approaches to migration studies among feminist migration scholars. The need for more scholarship on the gendered experiences of male and female migrants, likewise the effects of migration on transformation in gender roles and gender relations are constantly being echoed by feminist migration scholars. This paper is an attempt in this direction. It interrogates how the out-migration of men and women from South West Cameroon affect gender role, gender relation, and hierarchies in migrant households, based on the narratives of non-migrant household members left behind. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ninety-seven participants (68 from male-led and 29 from female-led migrant households). The assessment of the relationship between gender and migration indicates that gender intersects with patriarchy in shaping household migration decisions, privileging more males and single females, than married females as potential migrants. Findings further suggest that while traditional gender roles of non-migrant women are most likely to be redefined due to male migration, this is not associated with transformations in power relations over household decision-making in favour of women. Conversely, female-led migrants, who are daughters, tend to have more influence in household decision-making as they assume the new status of breadwinners.