Migration

Citation:

Killian, Caitlin, Jennifer Olmsted, and Alexis Doyle. 2012. “Motivated Migrants: (Re)framing Arab Women’s Experiences.” Women’s Studies International Forum 35 (6): 432–46. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2012.09.006.

Authors: Caitlin Killian, Jennifer Olmsted, Alexis Doyle

Abstract:

Much of the existing literature on Arab migration either assumes women do not migrate or focuses on their experiences in the diaspora. Using two unique data sets, one collected in a source country (Palestine) and the other in a host country (France), we are able to make visible a type of migration that has remained largely invisible to date. Combining quantitative analysis and a case study approach, we examine patterns as well as the motivations for Arab women's migration, categorizing motivations as political, educational, and employment-related, but also highlighting how political and economic forces, as well as educational and familial motives, are difficult to disentangle, and may shift over time. We also contextualize our findings historically by exploring the multifaceted manner in which structural factors, such as political systems and economic forces, influence both decisions to leave one's home and reception in the host country in gendered ways. In particular, we find that in recent decades new opportunities have emerged for women to migrate to pursue educational goals.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Economic Inequality, Education, Gender, Women Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Western Europe Countries: France, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2012

Citation:

Addison, Lincoln. 2014. “The Sexual Economy, Gender Relations and Narratives of Infant Death on a Tomato Farm in Northern South Africa.” Journal of Agrarian Change 14 (1): 74–93. doi:10.1111/joac.12008.

Author: Lincoln Addison

Abstract:

Based on an extended case study of a large-scale tomato farm in northern Limpopo province, the paper examines how the restructuring of agriculture transforms the sexual economy through shifts in the composition of labour and management practices on farms in this area. The employment of Zimbabwean migrants, rather than relatively permanent Venda families, suggests a potentially greater variety of people participating in the sexual economy. While families as units of employment have declined, black supervisors increasingly serve as a primary locus of coercion on the farm and in the sexual economy. The monetization of erstwhile paternalistic services places pressure on women to earn income however they can, including transactional sex. Contested interpretations over the causes of infant deaths on the farm, in the form of hygiene, blood-mixing and infanticide, provide an ethnographic framework for a deeper analysis of the sexual economy and its social effects. While the sexual economy presents opportunities for women to increase their income, it also exposes them to the risks of HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies, resulting in contradictory implications for the status of women on farms.

Topics: Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2014

Citation:

Evans, Laura. 2013. “Gender, Generation and the Experiences of Farm Dwellers Resettled in the Ciskei Bantustan, South Africa, ca 1960–1976.” Journal of Agrarian Change 13 (2): 213–33. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0366.2012.00369.x.

Author: Laura Evans

Abstract:

This paper examines the experiences of farm dwellers resettled in rural townships in the Ciskei Bantustan during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on the oral testimonies of elderly residents of Sada and Ilinge townships, the paper shows how gendered and generational inequalities within households were crucial factors shaping individuals' experiences of resettlement from the farms. The paper engages with an older literature that regarded the abolition of labour tenancy and linked resettlement programmes as the final stage of farm tenants' proletarianization. It highlights the problems of this linear narrative, and argues that men and women experienced and understood this process in radically different ways. Male labour migration and the remnants of farm paternalism meant that while resettlement cemented the status of migrant men, for women and non-migrant men this process was characterized by contradiction: on the one hand, escape from the spatial hegemonies of farm paternalism and, on the other, heightened economic exposure.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Men, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2013

Citation:

Radel, Claudia, Birgit Schmook, Jamie Mcevoy, Crisol Mendez, and Peggy Petrezelka. 2012. “Labour Migration and Gendered Agricultural Relations: The Feminization of Agriculture in the Ejidal Sector of Calakmul, Mexico.” Journal of Agrarian Change 12 (1): 98–119. 

Authors: Claudia Radel, Birgit Schmook, Jamie Mcevoy, Crisol Mendez, Peggy Petrezelka

Abstract:

We examine the nature of the ‘feminization of agriculture’ in the semi-subsistence, peasant production sector of southeastern Mexico, as associated with male labour out-migration. Presenting findings from empirical work with smallholder producers, we discuss the impact of men's migration to the United States on women's participation in agriculture and gendered relations of agricultural production. In 2007, we conducted a survey of 155 semi-subsistence, smallholder households in six ejidos. This survey was supplemented by ethnographic research in a single ejido. Our findings demonstrate the need to distinguish between farm labour and management in this sector, and the potentially significant (but focused) changes in the local relations of agricultural production wrought by gendered patterns of labour migration – specifically in tenure, land-use decision-making and the management of hired labour.

Topics: Agriculture, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gender Roles, Women, Land Tenure Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2012

Citation:

Ramsay, Georgina. 2016. “Motherhood Motivations: African Refugee Women Resettled in Australia and Return Visits to a Country of First Asylum.” International Migration 54 (4): 87–101. doi:10.1111/imig.12249.

Author: Georgina Ramsay

Abstract:

This article expands on conceptualizations of refugee “return” by examining why African women resettled as refugees in Australia return to visit the country of first asylum from which they were previously resettled. I show that their return visits do not relate to attachment to place, but are motivated by social obligations to practise “motherhood” to family members who, due to conflict-induced displacement, remain in a country of first asylum. I argue that the phenomenon of refugee “return” cannot be conflated exclusively with return to country of origin but is, for African women in particular, centred on the reinvigoration of care relationships across diasporic settings of asylum in which family remain. Building on an emergent focus on feminization in migration studies, I show how these gendered dynamics of refugee “return” are an entry point from which to re-consider how scholarship and policy take into account “family” in contexts of forced migration.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2016

Citation:

Pajnik, Mojca, and Veronika Bajt. 2012. “Migrant Women’s Transnationalism: Family Patterns and Policies: Migrant Women’s Transnationalism.” International Migration 50 (5): 153–68. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00613.x.

Authors: Mojca Pajnik, Veronika Bajt

Abstract:

Whereas current policies on migration and integration are beginning to recognise family reunion as one of the most legitimate reasons for acceptance by a host society, they in most cases still do not account for the growing trend of feminisation of migration, and even rarely do they address specific migrants’ needs. As currently constituted, the integration bills envision a one-way process that places migrants into a position where they cannot question, but only accept and fulfil the predetermined requirements of integration plans. But who are the women that migrate, what influence do their transnational experiences have on their families, and how do migration policies envision the reality of increasing transnationalism? This paper focuses on biographical interviews with migrant women in Slovenia as a valuable method to question current integration measurements, applied here to explore female migrants’ experiences in transnational family life and social networks. A gender sensitive approach is applied that critically evaluates the specificities of family reunification policies, which define women migrants as dependent family members. We discuss life trajectories of women migrants, focusing the debate on their own experiences in and with family life. This new empirical material is used to theorise gaps in contemporary migration research. Women migrants’ own reflections of transnational family ties show a great variety of experiences and their narratives are a unique window into motivational, political, as well as legal dimensions of migration.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Gender Balance, Gendered Power Relations, Nationalism

Year: 2012

Citation:

Rosete, Daniel Hernández. 2012. “Male Honor and the Ruralization of HIV/AIDS in Michoacán. A Case of Indigenous Return Migration in Mexico: AIDS and Migration in Rural Mexico.” International Migration 50 (5): 142–52. 

Author: Daniel Hernández Rosete

Abstract:

The purpose of this text is to analyse the motives of seasonal migrant workers for attempting to get their wives pregnant when they return to Mexico. The meanings attributed to paternity, pregnancy and rearing are analysed from the perspective of the migrant worker and his wife. Ethnographic research was conducted in several Purépecha communities in Michoacán, supported by interviews with indigenous, who travelled to the United States for periods of up to three years, and with their wives, who stayed in Mexico. The migrant workers interviewed consider pregnancy and the paternity derived from it as an important means of male legitimization and sexual control of their wives, particularly valid in their rural communities of origin, where they know they are absentee males. When they return to Mexico they seek sexual relations for reproductive purposes, since they fear their wives will have extramarital relations in their absence. From these findings, it was considered necessary to implement sexual and reproductive health policies with pluri-ethnic and gender approaches that take into account male beliefs and practices regarding paternity and pregnancy in a rural context. The development of sensitizing policies aimed at migrant males during their stays in Mexico is recommended.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gender Roles, Masculinity/ies, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Health, HIV/AIDS, Indigenous Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Mexico

Year: 2012

Citation:

Strier, Roni. 2014. “Unemployment and Fatherhood: Gender, Culture and National Context.” Gender, Work & Organization 21 (5): 395–410. doi:10.1111/gwao.12044.

Abstract:

Hegemonic representations of masculinity and dominant images of fatherhood have usually been linked to the domain of work. This article explores the experiences of men under the hardship of unemployment and the impact of these experiences on the construction of their gender identities, specifically on the construction of their fatherhood identity. In addition, the article examines how culture and national context affect the interrelationship between unemployment and fatherhood. Drawing on a post-structural constructivist theoretical perspective, the article describes a qualitative study of low-income unemployed Palestinian fathers in Israel. The study examines three areas of interest: perceptions of fatherhood, the experience of unemployment and the impact of unemployment on the construction of fatherhood. On the theoretical level, the article proposes a conceptualization of the relationship between unemployment and fatherhood. It argues that in order to generalize the impact of unemployment on fatherhood, we must first examine the context in which gendered and cultural perceptions of fatherhood are embedded. On a policy level, the article offers some recommendations for developing more contextualized, gender- and cultural-sensitive policies for unemployed fathers.

Topics: Civil Society, Class, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Political Economies Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2014

Citation:

Lukunka, Barbra. 2012. “New Big Men: Refugee Emasculation as a Human Security Issue: New Big Men.” International Migration 50 (5): 130–41. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00670.x.

Author: Barbra Lukunka

Abstract:

Academics and policymakers have conducted a significant amount of research on the physical security and integrity of refugee populations, especially of refugee women and children. That on refugee women has focused on gender-based violence. This study expands on previous research by employing a human security approach to analyse not only the physical security and integrity of refugees, but also their socio-psychological well-being. Specifically, I argue that poor socio-psychological well-being actually explains the manifestations of violence against women in refugee camps. To make this argument, I document and explain the emasculation of Burundian refugee men living in Kanembwa camp in western Tanzania.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Security, Human Security Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2012

Citation:

Kondo, Michelle C. 2012. “Influences of Gender and Race on Immigrant Political Participation: The Case of the Trusted Advocates: Gender, Race and Immigrant Participation.” International Migration 50 (5): 113–29. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2011.00730.x.

Author: Michelle C. Kondo

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Political Participation, Race

Year: 2012