Migrant Women’s Vulnerabilities: A research reconnaissance in Addis Ababa

A large number of rural young women are migrating every year to Addis. They migrate for various reasons- economic as well as non-economic (gendered). Regardless of the increasing figure of women migrants, sufficient attention has not been given in the literature to the experience of women migration; and the few studies done emphasizes on the economic aspect of migration, which is the remittance they send to their families. This paper tries to assess the vulnerabilities of women migrants giving the necessary attention to the gendered reasons of migration. Migration makes women vulnerable in different ways. This paper is focused on exploring the migration experiences of young women migrants in relation to their vulnerabilities. The Asset Vulnerability Framework is used for the analysis. The study attempts to identify the coping strategies that migrant women use to reduce their vulnerabilities and the factors that helps or hinders them to become less vulnerable. The study was done by conducting an in-depth interview with sample of 15 women migrants residing in a particular area in Addis called Zenebework.