The European DiasporaSolidaria.org foundation organized a summit for migrant Latin American and Caribbean women in Amsterdam, where they discussed issues such as their rights, the changing nature of families and remittances. LA Ruta brings us a short video recording some of their experiences.

During the event, the women participated in different workshops. In the first one they discussed gender, migration and development, and how their rights have transformed or changed according to their new migratory status. In the second workshop, they explored remittances and agreed on the need to raise awareness on the role of women in sending money to their home countries. In the last workshop, they discussed the new family structures that have been created due to migrations, and the importance of Latin America as it has given rise to a new family structure called “transnational family”, and how family law and family rights should change or adapt to this new context.

Women who went to the encounter had diverse reasons. As they are interviewed in the video they list a few, such as the need to inform themselves, to socialize, to learn and also to discover new ways in which to adapt to a new culture without forgetting their previous one.

Another meeting of migrant Latin American Women was organized in Spain, inspired in the successful experience of the one in Netherlands.  Diaspora Solidaria describes the inspiring results:

La agradable sorpresa la constituyó el ver a tantas mujeres comprometidas seriamente con el desarrollo de un movimiento de mujeres que traspase regiones y naciones