Mirjana Morokvasic

Transnational mobility and gender: a view from post-wall Europe

The redrawing of the European map in the aftermath of the events of 1989 and the collapse of the communist regimes triggered an unprecedented mobility of persons and heralded a new phase in European migrations. The former predominantly labour migration pattern has become highly diversified: refugees, ‘repatriates,’ shuttle/commuter migrants, undocumented and trafficked migrants are now some of the numerically most important categories along with the traditional labour and family migration (Morawska, 2000; Morokvasic & Rudolph, 1994, 1996; Okolski, 2001; Salt, 1995; Thranhardt, 1996; Wallace, C., Chmouliar, O., & Sidorenko, E., 1996; Wallace & Stola, 2001; Weber, 1998; Withol de Wenden & de Tinguy 1995). A new ‘migratory space’ between East and West (Morokvasic & de Tinguy, 1993) emerged as a space of departure and circulation, and also functions as a transit and a target space (Iglicka, 1999; Morawska, 2000; Okolski, 1998). Some scholars therefore call this new space a “buffer zone” (Stola, 2001; Wallace, 2001; Wallace et al., 1996).

Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries

New forms of migration and their gendered dynamism suggest fundamental changes around the turn of the millennium. New flexible forms of migration are increasing and transnationalism is becoming a marked trend. Female migration is no longer invisible but recognised as an important phenomenon in scholarly research and in policy making. The high percentages of women in labour, refugee, educational or marriage migration are believed to constitute a new trend. While this is a flawed view because women have always participated in migration movements, the focus on the gender dynamics of these developments is indeed new. Gender relations are now seen as fluid and changing: In the past, female migrants have been portrayed as symbols of national or traditional culture, expressed in clothes and body postures, or as representatives of different moral norms and life-styles, of chastity or communalism. However, in transnational communities young women and men are nowadays developing new flexible and syncretistic identities. Over the last years scholarly debates have redrawn the boundaries around the andocentric and national understanding of migration and have integrated gender as a core concept. Scholarly work shifted from describing women as passive objects or victims of migration structures to viewing them as social actors who conceive and follow strategies of their own in often difficult and complex situations. In short: Gender is interwoven with migration and gendered migration is on the move.

‘In and out’ of the labour market: Immigrant and minority women in Europe

Abstract This article explores the role of women migrants in the increasingly complex migration arena that is Western Europe. Women can no longer simply be considered within the framework of family reunification. Womens proportion in the migration flow is increasing overall and within some ethnic groups women are now more numerous than men. And compared with indigenous women in the receiving countries, immigrant/minority women display a high level of labour market participation. The changed political map of Europe as a whole, and political and economic pressures in the sending countries, combine to augment migration pressure while ‘Fortress Europe’ continues to erect external barriers. The result is increasing flows of undocumented migrants, for whom precarious and low‐paid work outside the formal economy is often the only option. Women in this situation are particularity vulnerable, not least to exploitation in the sex ‘trade’. The article argues that it is time for Western Europe to acknowledge its res...

Introduction. Bringing gender into migration

Migrations are complex world-wide phenomena — for millennia people have moved in search of a better livelihood or political climate, have fled from persecutions and pogroms or have been displaced when new nation states were created or existing ones disintegrated. Migration patterns and processes, the experiences of migrants, as well as the social, political, economic and cultural impact of their migration are gendered. Under the influence of feminist inquiry about the position of women in society and in gender hierarchies, migration scholarship has slowly moved away from male centred universalism — a perspective in which women either remain invisible or are considered as dependents. The times when migration was considered to be an all male phenomenon, and the ‘mainstream’ was a ‘malestream,’ have been long forgone. It is now common knowledge that migrations world-wide are ‘increasingly feminised,’ a sine qua non assertion in scholarly work and in international reports on migration.

Bridging states and markets : international migration in the early 1990s

This is a selection of papers many of which were originally presented at a conference sponsored by the Social Science Research Center held in Berlin Germany in May 1991. The focus is on international migration as it affects the developed countries. The 13 papers are grouped under four main topics concerning social aspects such as migration policy political participation by immigrants and the impact of immigration on national homogeneity; labor force impacts of immigration; gender aspects of migration; and emerging trends such as East-West migration repatriation and guest workers and regional migration within countries.

Transnational mobilities and gender in Europe

Freedom of circulation within the EU has made the borders inside the EU space less important for citizens, for those who have a legal status or come from visa-free countries. For others, the controls have tightened and most have to rely on different economic, cultural and other networks capable of circumventing the restrictive border-management regimes. In this text I will highlight the experiences of migrants who use borders and mobility as a resource in order to improve their social, political and economic condition.

Garment Production in a Metropole of Fashion: Small Enterprise, Immigrants and Immigrant Entrepreneurs:

In the sphere of production the Parisian garment industry has traditionally been an immigrant industry. It is suggested in the paper that this has been due to a continuous match between the structure of the industry on one hand, and the economic expectations and characteristics of immigrants, on the other. The immigrants have perpetuated the outdated structures of that industry but have also contributed to its dynamism.