Migration should be a choice for men and women, not a necessity. It is thus critical to address the adverse drivers of migration, including conflicts, crises, poverty, food insecurity, inequality, unemployment, lack of social protection, environmental degradation and climate change. Migration can create opportunities to build sustainable livelihoods, but also challenges for rural and farming communities, migrants and their families. Safe and regular migration pathways are needed to fill labour gaps while protecting migrants’ rights. Support provided in rural areas to family members remaining behind, facilitating migrant investment back home, and assisting the reintegration of migrants can help minimize the negative effects of migration and maximize its benefits.  

Migration has important gender dimensions. Men and women experience migration differently depending on the context, and women and girls face additional vulnerabilities. Migrant women encounter many challenges accessing decent jobs and face “double discrimination” as women and migrants, including lower pay than men for comparable work. Time scarcity of migrant women, who are often responsible for productive work and household food provision, may have negative nutrition outcomes in new food environments. The youth, women and internal migrants are also the most likely to be out of education, employment or training (SYAF 2025). Women and girls face heightened risk of gender-based violence and trafficking and they are more likely affected by conflict or disasters in the context of migration, including at origin, in transit and at destination.  When disasters strike, women often cannot evacuate due to gender-related factors reducing their mobility, being trapped by their care responsibilities, or real and perceived lack of safety at shelters where their needs are not catered for.   

For women who remain behind, male outmigration from rural communities may imply a redistribution of household labour, placing a heavier burden on women who must balance reproductive roles with additional farm responsibilities and paid work (i.e. as waged laborers). When they do not receive remittances, women face greater risk of poverty and food insecurity. Girls and boys may be pulled out of school to replace their mothers or fathers, negatively impacting their future. 

Migration has mixed impacts on women’s financial independence and agency. Migrant women may gain financial independence and greater say in household decisions with meaningful shifts in gender stereotypes. Women also tend to send a higher proportion of their income as remittances, despite earning less than men. Migrated women may empower other women at destination by freeing their care responsibilities, enabling them to participate or be more involved in the labour force, and in areas of origin by investing in businesses employing women or sharing knowledge from destination cultures. However, many women resume their traditional roles and face stigma and marginalization if they return. Similarly, due to male outmigration, rural women who stay behind may or may not gain increased agency and decision-making power over the use of remittances, depending on the context. In some cases, young wives may be absorbed into their in-laws’ household and often lose their autonomy. Even in nuclear households, men often continue to decide about investments, farming and resource management in absentia (Fakir and Abedin 2020). Women who remain behind may be excluded from community decisions about, and have limited access to, financial services, agricultural extension services and training. These constraints affect their ability to manage productive resources and climate adaptation, limiting the potential contribution of migration to women’s empowerment and sustainable agrifood systems development.  

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports governments and strategic partners to address the rural dimensions of migration and its implications for rural people and agrifood systems, and strengthens the positive contribution of migrants to rural development through safe, orderly and regular migration.