Gender and Migration
Migration is considered as an important element of contemporary global flows and
transformations and has received a lot of attention in academic as well as public debates.
The question how these processes are related to gender, by contrast, has tended to be
neglected. Meanwhile, recent debates about the feminization of international migration and
related cultural changes and challenges have contributed to an increasing awareness of its
relevance. The seminar addresses this question by providing an understanding of gender – in
the double sense of an omnipresent social category of difference and a specific process of
social structuration – and of the way in which gender affects and is affected by international
migration processes. Thereby we will explore the interrelations between gender and
migration in and between different cultural contexts.
In the first part of the seminar the concept of gender is introduced. We will discuss how
gender orders and how gendered identities are (re-)produced, with a special focus on labour
division, stratified reproduction, and the intersections of gender with other markers of
difference, like class, race or ethnicity. In the following, an overview of contemporary
theories of international migration is given and the concept of transnational migration is
introduced. This will bring us to a discussion of more specific aspects of gendered migration
phenomena, such as the transformation of household structures, status and moral orders in
transnational social fields, the influence of religious values, and the dynamics of
empowerment or discrimination and marginalization. These aspects will be explored on the
basis of empirical studies from various parts of the world, including examples from Africa
(this regional focus can be deepened on demand).
Course requirements include active participation and the writing of an essay. The last two
sessions will be dedicated to the presentation and discussion of participants’ essay topics.
The course will be supported by moodle, where obligatory and further readings will be
available.
Dates: Thursday: 15-19h (9.4.-28.5.2015)
Location: tba
Sessions (topics and obligatory readings)
9.4.
Introduction
In this block session the seminar plan and the conditions for participating are
explained. Then, we watch a film on Filipinas in Israel and discuss it as an example of
migrants’ search for ‘greener pastures’ within a highly gendered global economy.
1. Introduction of seminar plan and course requirements
2. Film: 'Cycles of Care'
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16.4. Doing Gender – Producing Men and Women
In this block session we discuss how gendered identities are produced and how they
become a social reality practiced and experienced on a daily basis. We will focus on
the foundation of gender orders through labour division in central domains of social
production and reproduction (including domestic labour).
3. Doing Gender
West, Zimmerman 1987
4. Labour Division: Producing Men (and Women)
McMahon 1999; Boserup 1970
23.4. Doing Difference – (Re-)Producing Inequalities
This block session focuses on the questions how gendered differences are
interrelated and intersecting with other categories of difference, namely race or
ethnicity and class. We will discuss how multi-layered gendered inequalities are
shaping and at the same time shaped by migration processes.
5. Doing Difference
West, Fenstermaker 1995; Anthias 2011
6. Migration, Stratified Reproduction and Gendered Inequalities
Colen 2006 (Orig. 1995); Lenz 2007; Morokvasic 2007
30.4. Gender in International and Transnational Migration Studies
In this block contemporary theories of international migration and the concept of
transnational migration are introduced. This allows us to get acquainted with
different approaches to study the gender dimensions of migration processes on
micro, meso and macro levels.
7. Worlds in Motion: International Migration
Massey 1998; Castles 1993; Hondagneu-Sotelo 2013
8. All in the Family: Gender, Nation and Migration
Fouron, Glick Schiller 2001; Bryceson & Vuorela 2002; Goldring 1998
7.5.
Migrants’ Perspectives on Changing Gender Relations and Moral Orders
In this block we will focus on migrants’ own visions of migration processes and the
changes in terms of values and moral orders that are going along with it. Discussing
empirical case studies of male as well as female migrations in the context of Muslim
societies in different parts of the world will enable us to question dominant
stereotypes and come to a deeper understanding of how migrations are embedded in
local moral economies.
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9. Female Migration and Gendered Visions of Development (Bangladesh and Malaysia)
Dannecker 2009; Dannecker 2005; Buijs 1993
10. Male Migration: Changing Values, Gender Orders and Generations (Senegal / Egypt)
Buggenhagen 2001; Hoodfar 2003
[14.5. holiday!]
21.5. Traffic in Migrations
This block session is dedicated to different types of ‘irregular’ migration and ‘human
trafficking’ between Africa and Europe. We will discuss how these issues - highly
politicized and often instrumentalized by the media - are interrelated, on the one
hand, with migrants’ pragmatic livelihood strategies and how these strategies are
gendered. On the other hand, we will try to understand how migration is related to
the ‘trafficking’ of men’s and women’s dreams of a better life.
11. Gender Dimensions of Irregular Migration
Kastner 2010; Carling 2007; de Haas 2008
12. Dreams and Dilemmas of Traffic in Men (from The Gambia)
Ebron 1997
28.5. Essay Topics
During the final block you will have the chance to present and discuss your essay
topic and get a constructive feedback.
13. & 14. Presentation of Essay Topics / Final Discussion
References (obligatory literature and further readings)
Anthias, F. (2013): Hierarchies of social location, class and intersectionality: Towards a translocational
frame. In: International Sociology 28 (1), 121–138.
Boserup, Ester (1970): Woman's role in economic development. London: George Allen and Unwin
Ltd.
Bryceson, Deborah; Vuorela, Ulla (2002): Transnational Families in the Twenty-first Century. In:
Deborah Bryceson & Ulla Vuorela (eds.): The Transnational Family. New European Frontiers and
Global Networks. Oxford: Berg, 3–30.
Buggenhagen, Beth Anne (2001): Prophets and Profits: Gendered and Generational Visions of Wealth
and Value in Senegalese Murid Households. In: Journal of Religion in Africa 31 (4), 373.
Buijs, Gina (ed.) (1993): Migrant women: crossing boundaries and changing identities. Oxford: Berg
(Cross-cultural perspectives on women).
Carling, Jørgen (2007): Unauthorized Migration from Africa to Spain. In: International Migration 45
(4), 3–37.
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Colen, Shellee (2006): "Like a Mother to Them": Stratified Reproduction and West Indian Childcare
Workers and Employers in New York. In: Ellen Lewin (ed.): Feminist anthropology. A reader. Malden,
Mass: Blackwell, 380–396.
Dannecker, Petra (2005): Transnational Migration and the Transformation of Gender Relations: The
Case of Bangladeshi Labour Migrants. In: Current Sociology 53 (4), 655–674.
Dannecker, Petra (2009): Migrant Visions of Development: A Gendered Approach. In: Population,
Space and Place 15, 119–132.
Ebron, Paulla (1997): Traffic in Men. In: Maria Grosz-Ngaté & Omari H. Kokole (eds.): Gendered
Encounters, Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa. New York, London:
Routledge, 223–244.
Fouron, Georges; Nina Glick Schiller (2001): All in the Family: Gender, Transnational Migration, and
the Nation-State. In: Identities, 7 (4), 539-582.
Goldring, Luin (1998): The power of Status in Transnational Social Fields. In: Michael Peter Smith &
Luis E. Guarnizo (eds.): Transnationalism from Below. New Brunswick, London: Transaction
Publishers, 165–195.
Haas, Hein de (2008): The Myth of Invasion: the inconvenient realities of African migration to Europe.
In: Third World Quarterly 29 (7), 1305–1322.
Hoodfar, Homa (2003): The Impact of Egyptian Male Migration on Urban Families: 'Feminization of
the Egyptian Family' or a Reaffirmation of Traditional Gender Roles. In: Sharmila Rege (ed.): The
sociology of gender : the challenge of feminist sociological knowledge. New Delhi: Sage, 195–224.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette (2013): New directions in gender and immigration research. In: Steven J.
Gold & Stephanie J. Nawyn (eds): The Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies.
London: Routledge, 180–188.
Kastner, Kristin (2010): Moving relationships: family ties of Nigerian migrants on their way to Europe.
In: African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal 3 (1), 17–34.
Lenz, Ilse (2007): Power people, Working People, Shadow People: Gender, Migration, Class and
Practices of (In-)Equality. In: Ilse Lenz, Charlotte Ullrich & Barbara Fersch (eds.): Gender Orders
Unbound : Globalisation, Restructuring and Reciprocity. Opladen, Farmington Hills: Budrich, 99–119.
MacMahon, Anthony (1999): Taking Care of Men: Sexual Politics in the Public Mind. Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press
Massey, Douglas (ed.) (1998): Worlds in motion: understanding international migration at the end of
the millenium, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morokvasic, Mirjana (2007): Migration, Gender, Empowerment. In: Ilse Lenz, Charlotte Ullrich &
Barbara Fersch (eds.): Gender Orders Unbound : Globalisation, Restructuring and Reciprocity.
Opladen, Farmington Hills: Budrich, 69–97.
West, Candance; Fenstermaker, Sarah (1995): Doing Difference. In: Gender & Society 9 (1), 8–37.
West, Candance; Zimmerman, Don H. (1987): Doing Gender. In: Gender & Society 1 (2), 125–151.
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