Women in Here, Women in There: Changing Roles and Lives of Women Migrants from Turkey in Italy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v16i4.607Keywords:
E-books, illegal download, consumer behaviour, Multi-attribute Theory, Germany, UKAbstract
Drawing on interviews with families from Turkey living in Northern Italy and a series of observations, this article focuses on the construction of gender roles through migration experiences and men and women’s agency in migration decision-making. Acknowledging the theoretical dichotomy between women being victims or conscious agents in the migratory process, I argue that (1) extended family ties of the country of origin are crucial for comprehending the transformation of gender roles in the migration context and that (2) living away from extended family ties gives women the opportunity to transform the roles attributed to them. Their migration experience seems to give them more possibilities for their needs to be taken into consideration by their husbands in household decision–making. For men, this change is almost never pleasant; in fact, the connotation given to the word 'transformation' is determined by the cultural code that favours the strong gender segmentation. Women like to change while men don't. Such a transformation in family life could also explain the lack of willingness of migrant women to return definitively to Turkey despite all the difficulties faced in Italy.
Metrics
References
Ambrosini, M., 2013. Irregular migration and invisible welfare. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137314321
Apitzsch, U. (2018) Reversal of the Gender Order? Male Marriage Migration to Germany by Turkish Men: New Forms of Gendered Transnationalization of Migrant Offsprings in Germany in Crespi et al. (eds.), Making Multicultural Families in Europe, Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life, pp: 55-70.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59755-3_4
Armelloni, M. (2008). "Comunità e ambiguità: Il caso dei rifugiati politici kurdi" in M. Van Aken (eds.). Milano rifugio. Napoli, Carta Editore, 163-179.
Beqo, G. I. (2019). Hadi Çav! Türkiye’den İtalya’ya Göç ve Göçmenlerin Aile İlişkileri. Göç Dergisi, 6(1), 73-96. https://doi.org/10.33182/gd.v6i1.625
Bever, S. W. (2002). "Migration and the transformation of gender roles and hierarchies in Yucatan", Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development, 31 (2): 199-230.
Bonizzoni, P. (2007). Famiglie transnazionali e ricongiunte: per un approfondi-mento nello studio delle famiglie migranti, Mondi migranti 2: 91-108.
Bonizzoni, P. (2009). Living together again: families surviving Italian immigration policies, International Review of Sociology, 19 (1) pp: 83-10.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03906700802613954
Bonizzoni, P. (2017). The shifting boundaries of (un)documentedness: a gendered understanding of migrants' employment-based legalization pathways in Italy, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40: (10), pp: 1643-1662.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1229488
Boyd M. (1989), Family and Personal Networks in International Migration: Recent Developments and New Agendas. International Migration Review, 23 (3): 638-670.
https://doi.org/10.1177/019791838902300313
Boyd, M.; Grieco, E. M., (2003). Women and migration: incorporating gender into international migration theory. Retrieved from Migration Policy Institute website: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/women-and-migration-incorporating-gender-international-migration-theory
Brouwer L., Priester M. (1983) Living in Between: Turkish Women in Their Homelands and in the Netherlands. In One way ticket: Migration and Female Labor, ed. Annie Phizacklea p.p. 113-129. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Çakirer, Y., (2010) Göç Trafiğinde Araftakiler: İtalya'daki Türkler, Kitap Bölümü: Yurtdışındaki Türkler: 50. Yılında Göç ve Uyum (Ed. M. Murat Erdoğan), 2010: 763-768.
Cohen, J. H. and Sirkeci, I. (2011). Cultures of migration. The global nature of contemporary mobility. University of Texas Press, Austin.
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784714123
Connelly, R., Roberts, K. and Zheng, Z. (2010.) The impact of circular migration on the position of married women in rural China, Feminist Economics, 16, (1): 3-41.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13545700903382752
De Haan, A. (2000). Migrants, Livelihoods, and Rights: The Relevance of Migration in Development Policies, Social Development Working Paper. 4: 1-39.
Dudek, A. (2017, February 10). Religious diversity and the Alevi struggle for equality in Turkey. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/02/10/religious-diversity-and-the-alevi-struggle-for-equality-in-turkey/#f0f3a0c6d03a
Dudu, S. (2018). International Migration to Seville. Border Crossing, 8(2), 355-378. https://doi.org/10.33182/bc.v8i2.597
Ellis, B. A. (2018). Trapped on Love Boat: Middling and Transient Entrapment among Balkan Seafarers in the Cruise Industry. Border Crossing, 8(2), 393-408. https://doi.org/10.33182/bc.v8i2.602
Güveli, A., Ganzeboom, H., Platt L., Bernhard, N., Baykara-Krumme, H., Eroglu, S., Bayrakdar, S., Sozeri, E., Spierings, N. (2016). Intergenerational consequences of migration: socio-economic, family and cultural patterns of stability and change in Turkey and Europe. Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137501424
Hoang, A. L. (2009). Gender identity and agency in migration decision-making: Evidence from Vietnam, Asia Research Institute, Working Paper Series, n. 115.
Hoang, A. L. (2011). Gender identity and agency in migration decision-making: Evidence from Vietnam, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37, (9): 1441-1457.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2011.623618
Hondagneu-Sotelo P. (1992) Overcoming patriarchal constraints: the reconstruction of gender relations among Mexican immigrant women and men. Gender and Society. 1992;6(3):393-415.
https://doi.org/10.1177/089124392006003004
Hondagneu-Sotelo P. (1994) Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of Immigration, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, University of California Press.
Hugo, G. (2000). Migration and women empowerment, in B. Harriet Presser and G. Sen (eds.). Women Empowerment and Demographic Process, Oxford University Press, 287-317.
Huls, E. (2000). Power in Turkish migrant families. Discourse & Society, (11)3, pp. 345-372. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42888321?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926500011003004
Idema H., Phalet K. (2007) Transmission of Gender Role-Values in Turkish-German Migrant Families: The role of gender, intergenerational and intercultural relations. In Zeitschrift für Familienforschung 19 (2007), 1, p.p. 71-105. Retrieved from: http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/5806/ssoar-zff-2007-h_1-idema_et_al-transmission_of_gender-role_values_in.pdf?sequence=1
Inowlocki, I., & Lutz, H. (2000). The 'biographical work' of a Turkish migrant woman in Germany. European Journal of Women's Studies, 7(3), 301-320.
https://doi.org/10.1177/135050680000700305
Istat (The Italian National Institute of Statistics) (2016). Indicatori Demografici, Istat.
Jones, N., Presler-Marshall, E., Tefera, B., Emirie, G., Gebre, B. and Gezahegne, K. (2014) Rethinking Girls on the Move: The Intersection of Poverty, Exploitation and Violence Experienced by Ethiopian Adolescents Involved in the Middle East 'Maid Trade'. London: Overseas Development Institute.
Lutz, H., Herrera Vivar, M. T., Supik, L. (2011). Framing intersectionality: debates on a multi-faced concept in gender studies. Farnham: Ashgate.
Morokvašić, M., (1984). Birds of passage are also women. International Migration Review, 18(4), p.p. 886-907.
https://doi.org/10.1177/019791838401800402
Morokvašić, M., (2014). Gendering Migration, Migracijske i Etničke Teme, 31 (3): 355-378.
https://doi.org/10.11567/met.30.3.4
Nash, J. (2008). Re-thinking intersectionality. Feminist review, (89) pp. 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2008.4
Nauck, B. (1989). Intergenerational relationships in families from Turkey and Germany. European Sociological Review (5)3, pp.251-274. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bernhard_Nauck/publication/260479102_Intergenerational_Relationships_in_Families_from_Turkey_and_Germany_An_Extension_of_the_%27Value_of_Children%27_Approach_to_Educational_Attitudes_and_Socialization_Practices/links/54f48e800cf2f28c1361e090/Intergenerational-Relationships-in-Families-from-Turkey-and-Germany-An-Extension-of-the-Value-of-Children-Approach-to-Educational-Attitudes-and-Socialization-Practices.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a036525
Nauck, B. (2001). Intercultural contact and intergenerational transmission in immigrant families. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, (32)2, pp. 159-173. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bernhard_Nauck/publication/247723791_Intercultural_Contact_and_Intergenerational_Transmission_in_Immigrant_Families/links/53cfbe290cf2f7e53cf82804.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022101032002004
Parrado, E.A. and Flippen, C.A. (2005). Migration and gender among Mexican women, American Sociological Review, 70 (4): 606-32.
https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240507000404
Phalet, K., Schönpflug, U. (2001). Intergenerational transmission of collectivism and achievement values in two acculturation contexts: the case of Turkish families in Germany and Turkish and Moroccan families in the Netherlands. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, (32) pp. 186-201.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022101032002006
Phalet K., Güngör D. (2009) Cultural Continuity and Discontinuity in Turkish Immigrant Families: Extending the model of family change in Bekman S., Aksu-Koc A., editors. Perspectives of Human Development, Family and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.p. 241-262.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511720437.018
Purkis, S. and Güngör, F. (2015). Experiences of migrants from Turkey in Milan/Italy, İstanbul Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi, 3: 1-29. Retrieved from http://dergipark.gov.tr/iusiyasal/issue/24500/259673.
Purkis, S. (2019). Invisible Borders of the City for the Migrant Women from Turkey: Gendered Use of Urban Space and Place Making in Cinisello-Milan, International Migration&Integration. 20: 261-278.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0600-2
Schuster, L. (2005). The continuing mobility of migrants in Italy: shifting between statuses and places, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31 (4): 757-774.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830500109993
Schwalbe, M. L. and Wolkomir, M. (2003). Interviewing men, in J. A. Holstein and Gubrium J. F. (eds.). Inside Interviewing: New Lenses, New Concerns. Sage Publications, 55-71.
Sirkeci, I. (2006). The Environment of Insecurity in Turkey and the Emigration of Turkish Kurds to Germany. New York: Edwin Mellen Press.
Stefon, M. (eds.). (2010). Islamic beliefs and practices, Britannica Educational Publishing.
UN International Report, 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/migrationreport/docs/MigrationReport2015_Highlights.pdf
Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Intersectionality and feminist politics. European Journal of Women's Studies, (13), pp. 193-209.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506806065752
Zvonkovic, A., Greaves, K., Schmiege, C., Hall, L. (1996). The marital construction of gender through work and family decisions: A qualitative analysis, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58: 91-100.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0
