23:37 Apr 16, 2011 

It's one of those nuances that a non-native (this one at least) speaker misses!

21:18 Apr 16, 2011 

The fuller context does not support 'gender gap'. I hadn't noticed the "las" when I posted the question. I was still in doubt when I had to deliver the job, so I actually put 'a wide difference', which covers the bases. Unfortunately, I did not put 'female', so the translation has a mistake--my bad!

21:09 Apr 16, 2011 

Are you saying the fuller context supports the idea of gender gap? I have no problems with Alistair's reasoning based on that assumption. But it could still also just be another "for example..." set of details tossed into to show that migrant Nicaraguans differ from Costa Ricans, not the experience of Nicaraguan men contrasted to Nicaraguan women.
But you have the full text context so you know better than I do. However, although I usually rarely resort to a literal phrase translation as opposed to a context one, I still think DLyons' answer better conveys the actual phrase in a more general way. And it would cover gender gap between Nicaraguans or different work/school/societal expectations between Nicaraguan women and Costa Rican women.

20:47 Apr 16, 2011 

I had the same doubt until I realized that the staement is referring to "las jóvenes nicaragüenses". I hadn't noticed that before, because the discussion up to then was about all Nicaraguans.

18:12 Apr 16, 2011 

Why is everyone so sure it's a male/female imbalance? The topic is migrants. Why not Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica or problems relating when migrants from both nationalities are in the U.S. (and I know that Costa Rica is far more prosperous, probably better educated, etc.)? The comparison at the end seems to be about the two nationalities more than male/female. Gender gap could be one possibility but I don't see why it would necessarily be the only one.