Women migrants in Western Europe

Contents

1- Mobility, gender and relationships

2- The background of the women migrants from the Eastern Europe

3- First impressions and experiences in the receiving countries

4- Multiple belonging in comparison to fatherland.

5 - Migration and communication

6 - The migration of the Albanian women

7-Conclusio

1- Mobility, gender and relationships

Eighteen years ago, mobility in eastern and central Europe beyond national frontiers was rare. After the fall of the Berlin wall the migration from East to West was a significant trend in international patterns and mobility.

The relation between Eastern and Western Europe has been determined by the intensification of a variety of political, economic, and cultural exchanges between East and West. It is this human mobility, the transnational migration, its physical, cultural, political, subjective and conceptual form of movement, which play a central role in these exchanges. We are living now in a world which is organised along multiple axes of mobility, circulation, flows of people and commodities.

The number of the migrants and especially that of women migrants has marked an increase in the recent years. The movement of people across Europe is changing the landscape of the continent. The migrants are becoming active subjects to their own social life as well as to legal and political regulation amongst others. Although the majority of the migrants are born in East Europe they are part of the European identity and they are taking responsibility for this transnational space of mediation and exchange called Europe.

Apart from countries and cultures there are also spaces of social interaction that determine the establishment of relationships. The transition from state socialism to capitalism has had a huge impact on the lives and the position of the women in Eastern European societies. This political change has been accompanied by the intensification of multi-level communication between the European East and the West.

A forced migration in order to survive is also noticed. This kind of migration is becoming a global phenomenon and is disrupting relationships and bonds of affection, whereas mobility in the other side creates possibilities for new relationships and expands the horizon of connections and social networks. The difficulties and constraints the women are facing with are not to be undermined. They break away with certain familiar, material, spiritual and mental means. This mobility places them in a special position in their homeland as well as in the countries they are living.

Mobility is often motivated by relationships, or has enabled relationships and gives the possibility to determine how suitable cities and places of residence are for the establishment of personal relationships with others. Despite their love for a certain place, they are often confronted with the “reserved” character of the culture in the country of residence. Disrupted relationships are the result of many marriages because of general failure in communication both between the couple and their families.

Mobility is often either motivated by relationships, or has enabled the establishment of new relationships. Migrants often describe and evaluate cities and places of residence in terms of how comfortable these places are for the establishment of personal relationships with others. Relationships with children are an important factor for establishing a strong link between the women migrants and the society and culture the women choose to live, “the moment you realize that this is the place where your children live, where they grow up, the moment this flashes into your mind, you have to get down to it and start learning….”.¹

These affective relationships become means of integration and of establishing communication with a foreign culture. These relationships apply also for couples of different origin.

The integration of the migrants is closely linked with the women’s emancipation, how women establish social networks and relationships within the countries they live in. The visions they offer in the development of their lives are different from one woman to another. Though these visions differ from one another, they have one thing in common: they share a high degree of emotional and psychic investment in their work, although many of them do not see their own children growing, or others have to live with the worries about the families they left behind. Often they have to confront themselves with aspects of their dignity and discrimination as well as with “the forced exclusion of immigrants` voices and self-representations”.²

On how they organize their life in the context of mobility, special attention is given to the importance of places such as foreign language school, training and immigration centres, social services and support networks, art centres and different kinds of welfare and sports associations. These institutions often provide emotional refuge during periods of isolation and uncertainty; migrants share experiences with others who are in a similar position.

2- The background of the women migrants from the Eastern Europe

Before one can speak about the women migration from Eastern Europe, a short survey on the situation of the women in Eastern Europe is needed. Although the Marxist revolution did not lead to a “kitchen, children, church” politics, the woman could not break away with the traditional domestic roles within a large patriarchal family. They were officially equal to men and were given equal government representation by law but they were not given decision-making positions. Feminism could not take root in pragmatic Eastern Europe. State feminism operated as a tool of political transition, marking the consolidation of modern nation-states, aiming at the re-organisation of the family. It attempted to place the women in the role of the active and more efficient managers of the economics and the morals of the family unit. It was also aimed to promote the further introduction of working and lower middle-class women into the labour market - by endowing paid female labour with the aura of a means of emancipation.³

The transition period too was not good to women. State-owned enterprises fell in the hands of the male dominated nomenclature of managers when privatization took place. At least three of the women’s jobs were lost. Men in Eastern Europe are three times as likely as women to get a job.

A variety of factors determined East-Europeans to leave their countries of birth, among others the need for a better material and professional life, political and existential dissidence, personal and intimate relationship, curiosity and desire.

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¹ Passerini, L. Lyon, D. Capussoti, E. and Ioanna Lalitou. 2007, “Women Migrants from East to West”, pp. 63, Berghahn Books, New York

² Passerini, L. Lyon, D. Capussoti, E. and Ioanna Lalitou. 2007, “Women Migrants from East to West”, pp. 17, Berghahn Books, New York

³ Dimova, L., 2003, Bulgaria: Gender Aspects of Poverty and Inequality in the Family and the Labour Market, (http://www.asa-bg.org/en/analyses.htm