Gender and Migration: a dynamic and reciprocal relationship

The IMISCOE Research Group: Changing migration dynamics between the EU and the world welcomes paper proposals by PhD students and Post-Docs for the workshop to be held in Lisbon between 28-29 January 2016.

The relationship between gender and migration can be construed as dynamic and reciprocal. Not only do gender relations influence migration, migration itself can also have an impact on gender relations. Migration can, for instance, be an option for women who wish to escape gender-related obstacles such as lack of social mobility of various types of social control. Yet, at the same time gender relations may also affect women’s migration opportunities particularly with regard to the role social networks play in the migration project, in view of the fact that men and women’s social networks differ and therefore contribute to their migration experiences differently.

On the other hand, migration can break and/or confirm existing gender roles whether in the regions of origin (pre-migration situation), or in the regions of destination (post-migration situation). At the same time, men and women’s strategies (or agency) to deal with given contextual social, economic or political structures are generally gender specific. In addition, social change and changing gender relationships can be located throughout the entire migration trajectory, such as shifts in identities (gender, ethnic and social class) due to migration itself.

For this workshop, we seek papers that examine the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between gender and migration within the context of the interconnected political, economic, social and demographic transformations that are currently affecting mobility and migration patterns between Europe and its significant source countries. In particular, we would like to encourage PhD students and early-career Post-Docs to contribute to this discussion, with papers that can include issues such as political conflicts, social remittances, integration issues, family and generations, ageing and care, etcetera, from a gender perspective. It is our intention to publish the workshop papers afterwards as a special issue in an appropriate academic journal.

This workshop will be hosted by IGOT – Universidade de Lisboa, and will take place in Lisbon on 28 and 29 January 2016. Senior researchers of the research group will discuss the papers presented.

Please submit your abstracts (500 words) latest by 30 November 2015 to: sonia.pereira@campus.ul.pt, roos.willems@uantwerpen.be and christiane.timmerman@uantwerpen.be. Acceptance of proposals will be communicated by 15 December 2015.

Please note that the organisers are unable to fund the participation in this initiative