Migration

Refugee Women: Beyond Gender versus Culture

Citation:

Bassel, Leah. 2012. Refugee Women: Beyond Gender versus Culture. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Refugee-Women-Beyond-Gender-versus-Culture/Bassel/p/book/9780415603607.

Author: Leah Bassel

Abstract:

Debates over the headscarf and niqab, so-called ‘sharia-tribunals’, Female Genital Operations and forced marriages have raged in Europe and North America in recent years, raising the question – does accommodating Islam violate women’s rights? The book takes issue with the terms of this debate. It contrasts debates in France over the headscarf and in Canada over religious arbitration with the lived experience of a specific group of Muslim women: Somali refugee women. The challenges these women eloquently describe first-hand demonstrate that the fray over accommodating culture and religion neglects other needs and engenders a democratic deficit.
 
In Refugee Women: Beyond Gender versus Culture, new theoretical perspectives recast both the story told and who tells the tale. By focusing on the politics underlying how these debates are framed and the experiences of women at the heart of these controversies, women are considered first and foremost as democratic agents rather than actors in the ‘culture versus gender’ script. Crucially, the institutions and processes created to address women’s needs are critically assessed from this perspective.
 
Breaking from scholarship that focuses on whether the accommodation of culture and religion harms women, Bassel argues that this debate ignores the realities of the women at its heart. In these debates, Muslim women are constructed as silent victims. Bassel pleads compellingly for a consideration of women in all their complexity, as active participants in democratic life. The book will appeal to students and scholars throughout the social sciences, particularly of sociology, political science and women’s studies.
(Routledge)

Topics: Citizenship, Civil Society, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Forced Migration, Refugees, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Political Participation, Religion, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Americas, North America, Europe

Year: 2012

Gender, home & identity : Nuer repatriation to Southern Sudan

Citation:

Grabska, Katarzyna. 2014. Gender, home & identity : Nuer repatriation to Southern Sudan. Oxford: James Currey.

Author: Katarzyna Grabska

Abstract:

"Analyses the experiences of exile and return of Nuer women and men of all ages and how they negotiate and reshape gender identities and relations in the context of prolonged war and violence." - WorldCat

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Men, Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: South Sudan

Year: 2014

Road Development, and Changes in Livelihood and Mobility in Savannakhet, Lao PDR

Citation:

Khumya, Tanaradee, and Kyoko Kusakabe. 2015. “Road Development, and Changes in Livelihood and Mobility in Savannakhet, Lao PDR.” Development in Practice 25 (7): 1011–24. doi:10.1080/09614524.2015.1071782.

Authors: Tanaradee Khumya, Kyoko Kusakabe

Abstract:

ENGLISH ABSTRACT

The development of roads is a major focus of development projects in the Mekong Sub-Region. This empirical study was conducted in Savannakhet, Lao PDR, to examine the benefits of road development, its impact on livelihoods, and the link between livelihoods and mobility through the concept of sense of place. The results showed that road development affected people's livelihoods, which, in turn, affected their sense of place and mobility. Analysing sense of place allows us to understand how road development can change gender norms and why more women migrate than men.

FRENCH ABSTRACT

Le développement des routes constitue un important axe des projets de développement dans la sous-région du Mékong. Cette étude empirique a été menée à Savannakhet, en RDP lao, pour examiner les avantages du développement des routes, son impact sur les moyens de subsistance et le lien entre les moyens de subsistance et la mobilité grâce au concept du sentiment d'appartenance. Les résultats ont montré que le développement des routes a eu une incidence sur les moyens de subsistance des personnes, ce qui a eu un effet sur leur sentiment d'appartenance et leur mobilité. En analysant le sentiment d'appartenance, il nous est possible de comprendre comment le développement des routes peut modifier les normes de genre et pourquoi les femmes sont plus nombreuses à migrer que les hommes.

SPANISH ABSTRACT

En los proyectos de desarrollo realizados en la subregión del Mekong, la construcción de carreteras constituye una importante área de atención. El presente estudio empírico, destinado a examinar los beneficios ligados a la construcción de carreteras, su impacto en los medios de vida y el vínculo entre medios de vida y movilidad, empleando para ello el concepto de “sentido de lugar”, se llevó a cabo en Savannakhet, rdp Lao. Los resultados dan cuenta de que la construcción de carreteras afectó los medios de vida de las personas, los cuales, a su vez, afectaron su sentido de lugar y su movilidad. El análisis del sentido de lugar permite comprender cómo la construcción de carreteras puede cambiar las normas vinculadas al género y las razones por las cuales las mujeres migran más que los hombres.

Keywords: Gender, diversity, livelihoods, migration, labor, aid

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Infrastructure Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Laos

Year: 2015

Political Worlds of Women: Activism, Advocacy, and Governance in the Twenty-First Century

Citation:

Hawkesworth, Mary. 2012. Political Worlds of Women: Activism, Advocacy, and Governance in the Twenty-First Century. Westview Press. https://westviewpress.com/books/political-worlds-of-women/.

Author: Mary Hawkesworth

Abstract:

Political Worlds of Women provides a comprehensive overview of women’s political activism, comparing formal and informal channels of power from official institutions of state to grassroots mobilizations and Internet campaigns. Illuminating the politics of identity enmeshed in local, national, and global gender orders, this book explores women’s creation of new political spaces and innovative political strategies to secure full citizenship and equal access to political power. Incorporating case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, Mary Hawkesworth analyzes critical issues such as immigration and citizenship, the politics of representation, sexual regulation, and gender mainstreaming in order to examine how women mobilize in this era of globalization. Political Worlds of Women deepens understandings of national and global citizenship and presents the formidable challenges facing racial and gender justice in the contemporary world. It is an essential resource for students and scholars of women’s studies and gender politics.
 
(Westview Press)

Keywords: gender & politics, human rights, political science

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice

Year: 2012

Evaluating Climate Migration

Citation:

Detraz, Nicole, and Leah Windsor. 2014. “Evaluating Climate Migration.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 16 (1): 127–46. doi:10.1080/14616742.2013.789640.

Authors: Nicole Detraz, Leah Windsor

Abstract:

Climate change will negatively impact human communities and ecosystems, including driving increased food insecurity, increased exposure to disease, loss of livelihood and worsening poverty. Recent climate debates have focused attention on climate migrants, people who are displaced by the ecological stresses caused by climate change. To date, these debates have focused a great deal of attention on state security issues and have left the gender implications largely unexplored. In this article we examine the securitization of climate migration debates through gender lenses. We find that gender helps reveal and focus attention on the human security implications of climate migration and offers a useful discourse for climate policymaking.

Keywords: climate change, climate migration, gender and migration, human security, security

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gender Analysis, Livelihoods, Security, Human Security

Year: 2014

Gender, Securitization and Transit: Refugee Women and the Journey to the EU

Citation:

Gerard, Allison, and Sharon Pickering. 2013. "Gender, Securitization and Transit: Refugee Women and the Journey to the EU." Journal of Refugee Studies 27 (3): 338-59.

Authors: Allison Gerard, Sharon Pickering

Abstract:

European Union (EU) Member States have cultivated the ‘securitization of migration’, crafting a legal framework that prevents irregular migrants, including asylum seekers, from arriving in the EU. As external and internal border controls are reinvigorated to achieve this aim, the experiences of asylum seekers beyond the EU border, in designated ‘transit’ countries, necessitate further inquiry. Concepts of ‘transit’ are shaped by government accounts of ‘secondary migration’ as illegitimate, and asylum seekers as a security threat warranting containment. Based on interviews with Somali refugee women who have travelled through North Africa to reach the southern EU Member State of Malta, this article traces the impact of the securitization of migration on women’s experiences of ‘transit’. Women’s stories, historically neglected in the literature on migration, provide a lived account of securitization and the gendered ways ‘functional border sites’ operate beyond the EU, enlisting state and non-state actors in producing direct and structural violence. This article argues EU policy is blind to the lived realities of those who seek refugee protection in the EU, and urgently needs to address the structural contradictions exacerbating violence experienced by refugee women in transit.

Keywords: gender and irregular migration, securitization of migration, transit, border control

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, International Organizations, Security, Human Security

Year: 2013

Between "Victims" and "Criminals": Rescue, Deportation, and Everyday Violence Among Nigerian Migrants

Citation:

Plambech, Sine. 2014. “Between ‘Victims’ and ‘Criminals’: Rescue, Deportation, and Everyday Violence Among Nigerian Migrants.” Social Politics 21 (3): 382–402. doi:10.1093/sp/jxu021.

Author: Sine Plambech

Abstract:

This article is about the lives of Nigerian sex workers after deportation from Europe, as well as the institutions that intervene in their migration trajectories. In Europe, some of these women's situations fit the legal definitions of trafficking, and they were categorized as "victims of human trafficking"; others were categorized as undocumented migrants -- "criminals" guilty of violating immigration laws. Despite the growing political attention devoted to protecting victims of trafficking, I argue that in areas of Nigeria prone to economic insecurity and gender-based violence, the categories of "victim" and "criminal" collapse into, and begin to resemble, one another once on the ground. The need to identify and distinguish groups of migrants from one another illustrates the dilemmas that have arisen in the wake of increasingly restrictive European immigration policies. Furthermore, the return processes create a hierarchical structure in which the violence women experience in the sex industry in Europe is imagined to be worse than the everyday violence they experience at home.

Keywords: sex industry, human trafficking, immigration policy, violence, Gender, Nigeria

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Forced Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2014

Eritrean Women Asylum Seekers in Israel: From a Politics of Rescue to Feminist Accountability

Citation:

Ghebrezghiabher, Habtom M., and Pnina Motzafi-Haller. 2015. “Eritrean Women Asylum Seekers in Israel: From a Politics of Rescue to Feminist Accountability." Journal of Refugee Studies 28 (4): 570-594.

Authors: Habtom M. Ghebrezghiabher, Pnina Motzafi-Haller

Abstract:

Despite acclaimed gender equality during the struggle for liberation and post independence in their country, the entrenched system of gender-based inequality has forced many Eritrean women to flee their country. On their difficult flight and during their journey, Eritrean women were exposed to blackmail, sexual abuse and rape. Those who made it through the difficult journey sought asylum in Israel but have not been able to escape gender violation and discrimination in their host state. This article traces the experience of Eritrean woman asylum seekers in Israel from the moment of their escape from Eritrea, through their torturous journey and after their entry into a state that refuses to consider their right to refugee status. Data were obtained using in-depth interviews with women asylum seekers in Israel, records of radio interviews and Paltalk discussions in the Tigrigna language, and close reading of unpublished reports by human rights activists and of Hebrew-language Israeli newspapers. Analysis of these diverse bodies of data reveals that gender is largely ignored by the few scholars who attempted to document the Eritrean asylum seekers experience in Israel. Drawing on post-colonial feminist Canadian scholar Sherene Razack (1999), who urges us to develop 'a more political understanding of why women flee', we examine here the experience of Eritrean women asylum seekers in Israel within a critical feminist analytical framework that documents their agency within changing historical and political circumstances and forces. We use this larger historically specific framework to disengage from the trope of 'pity and rescue' and offer instead a critical examination of how Eritrean women act as agents from the moment they decide to flee their country and until they settle in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Violence Regions: East Africa, Asia, Middle East Countries: Eritrea, Israel

Year: 2015

Bengal Border Revisited

Citation:

Banerjee, Paula. 2012. “Bengal Border Revisited.” Journal of Borderlands Studies 27 (1): 31–44. doi:10.1080/08865655.2012.687208.

Author: Paula Banerjee

Abstract:

This article deals with the notion of how borders have a penchant for becoming a marker of security. The moment borders become securitized the question of flows across them acquires particular importance. In the colonial period this was marked by concern over dacoits, thugees and hooligans who crossed the district border at will. In the post-colonial period concern remains over undocumented migrants and whether their arrival threatens the nation form. Against this background the article addresses the notion of flows and increasing violence at the borders, fencing as the most recent marker of such violence and how women and the evolution of their relationship to the border is shaped through the discourses of violence.

Topics: Citizenship, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gender Analysis, Nationalism, Security, Human Security, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh, India

Year: 2012

Entangling Alliances: Foreign War Brides and American Soldiers in the Twentieth Century

Citation:

Zeiger, Susan. 2010. Entangling Alliances: Foreign War Brides and American Soldiers in the Twentieth Century. New York: New York University Press.

Author: Susan Zeiger

Abstract:

Throughout the twentieth century, American male soldiers returned home from wars with foreign-born wives in tow, often from allied but at times from enemy nations, resulting in a new, official category of immigrant: the “allied” war bride. These brides began to appear en masse after World War I, peaked after World War II, and persisted through the Korean and Vietnam Wars. GIs also met and married former “enemy” women under conditions of postwar occupation, although at times the US government banned such unions.
 
In this comprehensive, complex history of war brides in 20th-century American history, Susan Zeiger uses relationships between American male soldiers and foreign women as a lens to view larger issues of sexuality, race, and gender in United States foreign relations. Entangling Alliances draws on a rich array of sources to trace how war and postwar anxieties about power and national identity have long been projected onto war brides, and how these anxieties translate into public policies, particularly immigration.
(New York University Press)

Keywords: history, gender & women's studies, sociology

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Men, Nationalism, Post-Conflict

Year: 2010

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