Human mobility and structural socio-economic changes: the case of Moldovan female migrants in Italy

This chapter untangles some new aspects in the human mobility- development nexus, using both a broader socio-economic viewpoint and a gender perspective. The study departs from an economistic vision of development, considering it a process of structural changes that transforms and defines interaction between individuals, communities and society. Development is considered in the perspective of individuals who create better lives for themselves and their families, thereby satisfying their individual needs. Migrants are considered as agents who, while attaining their own needs and expectations, transform their social and economic status. As a result, the relationships with their families, the home community, and ultimately the country's socio-economic environment are modified. With this in mind, after a brief description of Moldovan mobility in Italy, attention is focused on female migrants and the socio-economic effects of mobility. The goal is to achieve not only a better understanding of migrants' agency capability to change their status, but, above all, to focus on the transformations caused by female mobility in family relationships and in society as a whole. We also consider the impact that both the arrival and departure contexts have on the effective possibilities of immigrants fulfilling their capabilities, and thereby contributing meaningfully to the progress of the host and origin societies. Mobility analysed through such a lens offers an alternative interpretation of female migration to conventional analysis, which too often focuses on the perspective of the phenomenon only from the host country's viewpoint.