T. Davids

Development and Return Migration: from policy panacea to migrant perspective sustainability

Abstract This article focuses on the assumed relation between return migration, sustainability and development, in particular the role of NGO assistance and government policy herein. It is argued that a different approach to the relation between migration and development is needed both theoretically and policywise. Theoretically the need for a transnational approach based on the everyday epistemologies of refugees and their need for a sense of belonging is highlighted. Building on this, the article emphasises the importance of defining sustainability of return through the use of the concept of mixed embeddedness, and the different factors that influence this embeddedness. Policywise the current convenient application of the Siamese twins, Migration and Development, to involuntarily return is strongly criticised. In doing so the inconsistencies in governmental policy are emphasised. Lastly, the article calls for a more cautious way of linking migration and development, both by NGOs and governments.

What determines the embeddedness of forced return migrants? Rethinking the role of pre- and post-return assistance

Return migration is not always a process of simply “going home.” Particularly when return is not fully voluntarily, returnees face severe obstacles. This study argues that such return can only become sustainable when returnees are provided with possibilities to become re-embedded in terms of economic, social network, and psychosocial dimensions. We analyze the return migration experiences of 178 rejected asylum seekers and migrants who did not obtain residence permit to six different countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Togo and Vietnam. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis, we identify several key factors that influence prospects for embeddedness, such as individual and family characteristics, position in the migration cycle, and the role of pre- and post-return assistance. We find that the possibilities for successful return are highly dependent on the living circumstances provided in the host country: returnees who were enabled to engage in work, had access to independent housing and freedom to develop social contacts proved to be better able to exercise agency and maintain self-esteem. Post-return assistance by non-governmental organizations will be particularly helpful when financial support is combined with human guidance and practical information to enhance a more sustainable return process.

The Unhappy Marriage between Gender and Globalisation

Abstract This article examines the rather awkward relationship between gender and globalisation. In particular, within development studies, doubts and confusion with respect to the coherence and interpretation of gender as a concept underlie this uneasy relationship. We demonstrate how persistent orthodoxies and dichotomous thinking characterise the unhappy marriage between gender and globalisation. Instead of doing away with gender, we elaborate a multidimensional gender approach, which is much needed from a scientific perspective as well as to enhance the political potential of feminist positions and analyses. Our approach situates gender within the global/local nexus; this is illustrated by a case study of gender and political representation in Mexico.

The micro dynamics of agency: Repetition and subversion in a Mexican right-wing female politician's life story

This article analyses the micro dynamics of agency represented in the life story of a Mexican right-wing female politician — particularly how agency manifests itself in the way she repeats the rhetorical structures of her party’s discourse. Although claiming to be a modern woman, a high ranking political participant, she repeatedly refers to the traditional ideal of motherhood that also figures prominently in the right-wing party to which she belongs. Still, at some point, she goes beyond merely repeating the dominant discourse in constructing her own political subjectivity. In tracking her life story, the micro dynamics of her agency are explored through text and discourse analysis in which intertextuality and intersectionality of gender are instrumental. An attempt is made to overcome framing agency in the dichotomy between compliance and resistance. In doing so, the article also engages in recent debate on agency in European Journal of Women’s Studies.

Governmentalities and Moral Agents in the Local/Global Nexus: Male Premarital Sexuality in Dakar, Senegal

This article departs from the notion of governmentalities to analyse the linkage between gender and globalization. It focuses in particular on the way this linkage is informed by specific mindsets that govern peoples conduct as part of the process of self-government. By critically exploring how gender constructions are represented in literature within the field of gender and development, we propose a distinct approach. It entails a multidimensional analytical methodology to study the global/local nexus as a disciplining process, and which deconstructs local/global, west/rest, and modern/traditional dichotomies. This approach is applied to the narrated experiences of a 20-year-old Dakarois boy, in order to illustrate the intersectionality of masculinity and sexuality in, local as well as global, contradicting discourses and policy approaches on ‘African sexuality’ and the HIV/AIDS crises. Este artículo se desvía de la noción de la gubernamentalidad para analizar la conexión entre el género y la globalización. Se enfoca particularmente sobre la forma como esta unión está informada por mentalidades específicas, que gobiernan las conductas de la gente como parte del proceso de autogobierno. Nosotros proponemos un enfoque distinto, mediante una exploración crítica sobre la manera como se representa la construcción de identidades de género en la literatura, dentro del campo del género y desarrollo. Esto conlleva una metodología analítica multidimensional para estudiar el nexo global/local, como un proceso disciplinario, la cual deconstruye las dicotomías locales/globales, occidentales/y del resto y modernas/tradicionales. Este enfoque se aplica a las experiencias narradas por un muchacho de 20 años llamado Dakarois, para ilustrar la interseccionalidad de la masculinidad y sexualidad tanto local como global, contradiciendo los enfoques de los discursos y políticas sobre la ‘Sexualidad africana’ y la crisis del VIH/SIDA. 本文从治理的概念出发分析性别与全球化之间的联系。它特别关注的是，这种联系是怎样通过支配着作为自治过程一部分的人们行为的特定心态而体现的。通过对性别结构在发展和性别等领域的文献中如何表现出来进行批判探究，我们提出一条不同的路径。这将需要用一种多维度的分析方法来研究作为一种训练过程的地方/全球联系，它解构了地方/全球、西方/非西方、现代/传统等两分法。这一方法运用于一位20岁达卡男青年讲述其经历，以便说明在“非洲式性观念”和艾滋病危机问题上相互抵触的话语和政策路径中（无论地方还是全球）男性主义和性别的交汇。

Chapter 15 Gendered Narrations of National Belonging and Motherhood in Sudan and Mexico

Abstract Purpose – This chapter shows how professional women from diverse geographic locations claim belonging in the public sphere by using motherhood as an important strategy for negotiating gendered and classed spaces of belonging while constructing moral agency and proper citizenship as women. Methodology/Approach – During anthropological research in Sudan and Mexico, the biographic narratives of two women, both key informants in larger, long-term ethnographic projects, were obtained by each researcher by engaging in a process of intersubjective knowledge production. These were analysed using the method of context analysis for dialogically constructed ‘narrations of the nation’. Findings – The trope of moral motherhood works in widely differing national contexts as a means for women to claim a position in a public space and at the same time to negotiate the boundaries between private and public domains. Invoking this trope enables professional women to forge public belonging and to participate in politics, while still safeguarding their femininity and their decency. Originality – This chapter demonstrates that national discourses about motherhood can be instrumental in creating a sense of civic belonging for professional women in two nation-states with widely diverse (post)colonial histories. Comparing narratives of belonging from such different national contexts can provide insight into belonging as an intrinsic part of identity constructions in paternalistic states. Both narratives show similarities in the way that motherhood constitutes a trope for active female citizenship whereby women actively claim public spaces and contest dominant discourses, which in the process de-essentializes motherhood.

Narrating marriage: negotiating practices and politics of belonging of Afghan return migrants

ABSTRACT This article explores Afghan return migrants’ strategies and constraints to identify with the different spaces of belonging they encountered, through their expressions and practices of marriage. We take an in-depth approach to the life histories of 35 voluntary and involuntary Afghan returnees from European countries. We find that in narrating and performing different marriage practices, some Afghan return migrants construct fixed boundaries between different spaces of belonging, while others try to construct these boundaries as permeable and hybrid. Gender and mobility strongly define the way in which return migrants narrate and perform marriage as a cultural practice that determines who belongs, who wants to belong and who is able to belong. We conclude that while openly negotiating hybrid practices within a delicate theme such as marriage requires careful negotiation of boundaries, mobility can improve the extent to which return migrants can apply inventive and hybrid identifications for their personal needs and desires.