Equal Rights and Opportunities for Migrant and Trafficked Women

Equal Rights and Opportunities for Migrant and Trafficked Women

Equality is generally defined as having the quality or state of being equal; the quality or state of having the same rights, social status, etc. Although it might not be one of the most talked about issues, it is an issue indeed. In the world today, equality seems to be one of the many things that remain an issue with no solution; as well as racism.

When equality is thought of one would think that all people- men and women, blacks and whites, employed and unemployed, immigrant and American born- share all of the same legal rights and opportunities as one another. But here in the United States, that is not the case. It all began with women in general. Women not being able to vote, being labeled caregivers, not being allowed to work outside of the home, and not having equal rights as men in the workplace are some of the main aspects of where it all began. With the help of the Women’s Rights Movements that began in 1848, women began to become more powerful. From getting the National Association of Colored Women formed to the National Women’s Trade Union League and to the Kolstad v. American Dental Association women have been on the rise to equality.

Now there is the issue of migrants in the United States not gaining equal rights and opportunities as those who are American citizens. Not all migrant workers are getting the illegal alien treatment though. Many more women than men are being discriminated against in the US economy and that is a big issue. Most migrants, rather here legally or illegally, are here to make a better life for themselves. They see living in the US as a way out of what they have had to deal with in their home countries. If these women are migrating to make a better life for themselves and their children, why should they be alienated? Why should they be looked upon as another species just because they are not American? Which raises the question; what if a person living here in the...