This article discusses the statement of the UN International Office of Migration (IOM) delivered at the Fourth World Congress on Women held in Beijing in 1995. The Beijing Platform of Action identified migrants as comprising an estimated 125 million people. Half of the international migrants live in developing countries, and at least 50 million are women. Another 500 million are internal female migrants. Migration programs tend to marginalize female migrants and to ignore women's special needs and experiences. The Third World Conference in Nairobi in 1985 indicated that women migrants were more likely to suffer deprivation, hardship, isolation, loss of status, and discrimination. Women bear the burden of a family's daily life, are more vulnerable than men, and face additional problems in the work force. Women migrants are identified as dependents and must be sponsored for admission to the host country; they are often subjected to physical and sexual abuse and must face discrimination in a foreign environment. The special needs of migrant women must be addressed at every stage of the migration process: the decision making stage, the integration into host communities, and the reintegration upon return. Women must be empowered. IOM recently established the International Center for Migration and Health. This center will focus on special problems faced by women migrants and on migrants' rights. Between the Nairobi and Beijing conferences the plight of migrant women was not prominently addressed. Migration references were made in Beijing's Platform of Action in scattered places in the text. Governments need to provide gender-sensitive human rights education and training for public officials in order to fulfill the Beijing Platform. The IOM technical assistance to Argentina illustrates what cooperative ventures are possible. IOM has made important progress in implementing Beijing's Platform.

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