Eleonore Kofman

Family‐related migration: a critial review of European Studies

Despite being the dominant mode of legal entry for the past two decades in European Union states, the study of family migration has been marginalised theoretically, methodologically and empirically. In settler societies, family migration has been interpreted more loosely and has been encouraged. The definition of who constitutes the family is determined by the state and is generally interpreted in highly restrictive terms in EU states. Family‐related migration has been neglected because of the emphasis in migration studies on the individual, a heavily economic focus, and an association with female migration based on the dichotomy of male producer and female reproducer. In policy terms it is treated as a secondary form of migration subordinate to and divorced from labour markets. However since the late 1980s family‐related migrations have become the subject of scholarly research, especially North American and Asian‐Pacific, using network analysis and, more recently, concepts of transnationalism. In this paper I firstly explore the reasons for the relative neglect of family‐linked migration in European research which has focused on the integration of migrant families in receiving societies and the legal and policy conditions of family reunification. Secondly, I examine some of the implications of changing family‐led migration, especially at key moments and stages of the lifecourse, and the increasing restrictions imposed on this form of migration, highlighting the continuing role of the nation‐state.

The invisibility of skilled female migrants and gender relations in studies of skilled migration in Europe

This paper examines the reasons for the invisibility of skilled female migrants in studies of skilled migration in Europe. The choice of research agendas has played a major part in rendering women invisible. The emphasis has generally been on transnational corporations, which, especially in their higher ranks, remain resolutely male-dominated. The presence of migrants in welfare sectors (i.e. education, health and social services), which are strongly feminised, has been ignored. Feminist research has also tended to obscure the role of skilled migrants in its emphasis on the unskilled. Theoretical and methodological developments in studies of migration have also made few inroads into our understanding of skilled migration.

Citizenship, Migration and the Reassertion of National Identity

Faced with increasing and diverse migratory pressures in the post Cold War period, European states have created an increasingly complex system of civic stratifications with differential access to civil, economic and social rights depending on mode of entry, residence and employment. Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, expansion and contraction of rights have occurred within a managerialist approach which, though recognising the need for immigration, applies an economic and political calculus not only to labour migration but also to forms of migration more closely aligned to normative principles and human rights, such as family formation and reunification and asylum. At the same time, states are demanding affirmation of belonging and loyalty, leading to greater emphasis on obligations in the practice of citizenship. The first part of the paper traces the evolution of a managerialist regime and its consequences for the reconfiguration of spaces of citizenship. The second section examines the development of new contracts of settlement and the management of diversity as the state reasserts its national identity and sovereignty.

Female "birds of passage" a decade later: gender and immigration in the European Union.

Despite the increasing body of theoretical and case study literature about the feminization of international migration, general formulations of international migration have failed to include insights derived from this research. First, this article critically assesses the dominant accounts of the sequence of labor migration and family reunification and argues that it is time to reclaim the heterogencity of womens past migratory experiences in our understanding of European patterns of post-war immigration. Second, it examines family migration, covering diverse forms of family reunification and formation which, although the dominant form of legal immigration into Europe since the 1970s, has received relatively little attention. Third, it explores the implications of the diversification of contemporary female migration in the European Union and argues for the necessity of taking account of the reality of changing patterns of employment, households and social structures to advance our understanding of European immigration.

Citizenship for some but not for others: spaces of citizenship in contemporary Europe

Abstract Citizenship has once again become a major item on political agendas at a time of increasing integration and closure around ‘the European’, especially in response to immigration and its consequences for national identity. This article first outlines the different models and traditions of citizenship and their re-evaluations in contemporary Europe. In the second part critiques directed towards the capacity of formal models of citizenship are examined, to respond first to the growing rejection of those who are deemed not to belong to European societies, especially immigrants and those with ambiguous relationships to territory; and, second, to the partial incorporation of women which has resulted to some extent from the complex interrelationship between rights, obligations and resources that they encounter in the public and private spheres. In the last section the potential of diversifying spaces of governance in the European Community is examined briefly and also whether this development might open up spaces for an extended and democratic citizenship or merely multiply the frontiers of closures.

Contemporary European migrations, civic stratification and citizenship

Since the late 1980s there has been a diversification of European migratory flows. States, which remain the key actors in migration policies despite growing European harmonisation, have responded to these complex patterns and contradictory pressures by diversifying migrant categories and statuses. The heterogeneity of migrant statuses, especially the growth in the number of those on temporary statuses and the undocumented, challenges the thesis of a post national citizenship as having been achieved in relation to non European Union or third country migrants in the European Union. The recent proposals to extend mobility and socio-economic rights to third country nationals in the EU will only apply to long-term residents with evidence of adequate resources. The inability to confront the contradictions and tensions between economic needs and political closure will lead to more repressive conditions for undocumented migrants and reinforced border controls, especially in the light of the electoral success of Far Right parties and widespread anti-immigrant attitudes in a number of European Union states.

Gendered Migrations and Global Social Reproduction

1. Gendered Migrations and Global Social Reproduction: An Introduction 2. Gendered Migrations and Global Processes 3. Conceptualizing Reproductive Labour Globally 4. Sites of Reproduction, Welfare Regimes and Migrants 5. Skills and Social Reproductive Work 6. Immigration Regimes and Regulations and Social Reproduction 7. Migration, Social Reproduction and Inequality 8. The Value of Social Reproduction

Gender, Generations and the Family in International Migration

Family-related migration is moving to the centre of political debates on migration, integration and multiculturalism in Europe. It is also more and more leading to lively academic interest in the family dimensions of international migration. At the same time, strands of research on family migrations and migrant families remain separate from -and sometimes ignorant of- each other. This volume seeks to bridge the disciplinary divides. Fifteen chapters come up with a number of common themes. Collectively, the authors address the need to better understand the diversity of family-related migration and its resulting family forms and practices, to question, if not counter, simplistic assumptions about migrant families in public discourses, to study family migration from a mix of disciplinary perspectives at various levels and via different methodological approaches and to acknowledge the states role in shaping family-related migration, practices and lives.

The Implications of Migration for Gender and Care Regimes in the South

In the past decade there has been considerable concern over issues of funding and provision of care in public and social policy (Razavi 2007a). Although there is an increasing interest in this field, so far there has been little research on social policy and care provisioning in the global South, especially as they pertain to migration and gender relations. However, migration, especially that of women, is changing care landscapes the world over, including in Southern countries, and there is an urgent need for research in this area in order to guide the setting up of effective and appropriate social policy. This chapter looks at some conceptual issues that could steer new research in this field.

Into the 1990s: a gendered agenda for political geography.

The 1983 article, ‘Sexist bias in political geography’ (Drake and Horton, 1983), was a lone response to the research agendas outlined in the early issues of Politica/ Geography Quarter/y. This is hardly surprising given that knowledge is a social creation; the content of political geography simply reflects the ove~helming~y male dominance of the discipline; gender is absent from the political world and its spatial organization as interpreted by political geographers. The ‘big’ issues of traditional political geography-boundaries, state structures, international conflicts-have seemingly little to do with gender. They are, after all, the affairs of statesmen. Furthermore, if women are taken into consideration, they are primarily seen as passive beings devoid of political identities and irrelevant to our understanding of the allocation and distribution of resources in society. But feminist geographers and political scientists have now begun to expose the vanishing acts performed on women in their disciplines (for a typology of tricks of the trade, see Thiele, 1986). Hence, in this article we begin with a brief review of current developments in these respective fields. We then present suggested areas of research for a reconstructed and gendered political geography. By no means is this intended to be an exhaustive agenda, but rather an exploration of the contributions that gender perspectives can make to a fuller understanding of some of the key areas of political geography, such as the global economy and politics, the state and urban politics, and to the introduction of new concerns. such as sexual politics.