Rural women's network

Young rural women and migration: risks and opportunities:

In some regions of Europe, economic recession and cutbacks in public services have led to further rural decline, remoteness and poor infrastructure. Young people, and above all young women, migrate to the towns and cities in increasing numbers.
Migration of rural youth is a common phenomenon that affects all regions and most countries. The typical migrant young woman pushed by both poverty and social pressures to migrate, and drawn by the attractions of a better life. In the case of young women, the study found that their mothers encouraged them to marry city men so that they could escape rural drudgery. Physical work for women is seen as demeaning and of low status. Women aspire to stay in the home, and not have to collect water and fuel wood, and to be relieved from performing menial tasks such as processing of alfalfa, weaving mats and looking after animals. The rural women in the study viewed women who had gone to live in towns or larger rural centres as the lucky ones. However, most young women, and men, are ill prepared for city life. Literacy is generally low, especially among women. Children's household and productive tasks often restrict their education. Women said that they would like their daughters to go to school as "it would give them a chance to marry above their social class and live in the city".
Idealization of urban life and the social prestige awarded migration and the migrant also encourage out-migration. Migrants are seen as wealthy and of a higher status, which is only enhanced when they return for village celebrations, wearing better clothes and bearing gifts, or with money to enter into sharecropping arrangements. Having a daughter who has married a town dweller adds to the status of a family.
Usually young women from the rural areas are very vulnerable to human trafficking. Young women are estimated to have fallen victim to human trafficking. Most victims come from rural areas, where economic hardships and ignorance turn young girls into easy prey for traffickers.