GAATW has a long history of advocating for women’s right to work and mobility as part of its broader anti-trafficking efforts. Since its founding in 1994, GAATW has engaged extensively with migration issues, recognising the linkages between trafficking, labour rights, and systemic inequalities. Over the years, GAATW continues to play a key role in shifting the conversation on trafficking – from a protectionist, victim-focused approach to one that emphasises the aspirations and agency of people on the move, and the need for rights protection in migration and at workplaces.
GAATW’s key advocacy efforts have centred on participatory research on migrant women's lived experiences and challenges, knowledge building, and creating opportunities for inter-movement dialogues across feminist social justice movements. GAATW incorporates gender analysis in the discussions on trafficking, migration, and labour. The existing neoliberal economic system increasingly pushes more people, particularly women, into situations of degraded labour.
Our focus is on the connections between migration practices and the deterioration of labour rights protections, with the aim of bringing conceptual clarity and strengthening solidarity for social and gender justice for migrant women.
The Women on the Move programme provides a structural framing for GAATW’s work on migration. Through this programme, GAATW will build its advocacy for gender-responsive and non-discriminatory migration policies and work closely with migrant women’s organisations.
GAATW’s Women on the Move programme focuses on three key areas:
- Centring on Rights and the Well-Being of Migrant Women in the Care Economy
- Strengthening State Accountability on the Effects of Forced Migration and Displacement
- Securitisation of Migration – Prioritising Rights over Borders
Centring on Rights and the Well-Being of Migrant Women in the Care Economy
GAATW emphasises the critical role of care work, particularly by migrant women, in the global economy. Over the years, GAATW has advocated for the recognition and fair treatment of domestic workers by supporting collective organising and political education efforts among migrant women workers.
This focus area will examine care work in the migration context, addressing regulatory gaps and working conditions for migrant care workers beyond domestic work settings. GAATW aims to strengthen solidarity across social justice movements, promote decent work, and advocate for rights-based migration policies. The core objective is to enhance recognition and rights for migrant women in care work and challenge structural inequalities in the global care economy.
Strengthening State Accountability on the Effects of Forced Migration and Displacement
GAATW seeks to understand forced migration in the context of displacement. This key area will examine how environmental and politically induced displacement disrupts communities and disproportionately affects women. This helps focus on the root causes of displacement, including government-led projects that may promote economic growth and environmental conservation, but have resulted in land dispossession and displacement of marginalised communities.
GAATW calls for greater accountability from states and other actors driving displacement. It aims to ground its findings in the lived experiences of women migrants, particularly in conflict and climate-affected regions, to highlight patterns of exclusion and resistance.
Securitisation of Migration – Prioritising Rights over Borders
GAATW has consistently critiqued the securitisation of migration, highlighting how this approach undermines the rights and safety of migrants, especially women.[1] It also limits legal pathways, forcing many into irregular migration channels, which increases their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. Consequently, GAATW emphasises the need for migration policies that prioritise human rights and the protection of migrant workers, rather than focusing on punitive and security-focused measures.
This key area outlines the historical justifications for securitised borders and the narratives that frame migrants as security threats. It also examines how anti-trafficking policies have supported migrant workers amid increased securitisation.
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[1] GAATW, Facilitating Migration and Fulfilling Rights – To Reduce Smuggling of Migrants and Prevent Trafficking in Persons, 2017, https://www.gaatw.org/news/889-facilitating-migration-and-fulfilling-rights