Box 1.6 Social Cleavages Run Deep

Migration flows and their impacts are often gendered (Morrison, Schiff, and Sjöblom 2007). Women may face discrimination in both origin and destination locations, with evidence suggesting that gender inequality can act as both an incentive and a barrier to migration (Ruyssen and Salomone 2018). Although migration can offer new opportunities for women, it can also lead to new or increased risks. In particular, conditions of forced displacement often exacerbate gender imbalances. In these situations, women and girls face severe protection challenges and heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence. Waterrelated issues can act as a channel for these heightened risks: women and girls often have to use latrine facilities with no locks and have to fetch water outside refugee camp boundaries, which increases the risk of assault (UNHCR and World Bank 2015). Among displaced Syrian women in Lebanon, lack of access to drinking water and facilities for basic hygiene, including feminine hygiene products, washing water, soap, and bathing facilities, is a key factor contributing to poor reproductive health (Masterson et al. 2014). In Gaza, lack of access to adequate sanitation services prevents women and girls from participating in other productive activities (such as attending school) (UNOCHA 2019).

For indigenous people, the decision to leave one’s home is often influenced by discrimination, land tenure insecurity, and the risk of forced eviction. Like other types of migrants, indigenous people might decide to move in search of economic opportunity, higher wages, or better services. In contrast to other migrants, however, indigenous people often move because of insecure land tenure, the dispossession of their lands, and the need to escape discrimination. In Cambodia, for example, indigenous people face discrimination and coerced displacement because of illegal land evictions linked with resource extraction and deforestation (IWGIA 2018). Given their strong dependence on climate-sensitive ecosystems such as deserts and tropical forests for their mental and material well-being, indigenous people are also more vulnerable to climate variability and change and its potential impact on livelihoods. Indigenous people are also more likely to experience marginalization once they migrate to urban areas (United Nations 2018). In Latin America, indigenous migrants in urban areas are twice as likely to end up living in informal settlements with limited access to basic services, including water, compared with nonindigenous migrants (World Bank 2015).

Very little is known about the intersection of disability with migration. People with disabilities face fewer opportunities to migrate and they face additional barriers during migration and in the place of destination because of changes in the environment and the absence of services and care (for example, the layout of infrastructure in camps or settlements) (Mirza 2014).The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that, on average, 4 percent of refugees and asylum seekers in the Middle East and North Africa have disability status (UNHCR 2019). Underidentification and underreporting of people with disabilities mean that the total number of people with disabilities who decide to, or are forced to, move from their homes is unknown (GMDAC 2016). Even less is known about the challenges they face, including those related to water.