Paradigmen Kultureller Differenz und Hybriditaet

About the book: Zwar ist in den letzten Jahren der Konsens gewachsen, dass Deutschland ein Einwanderungsland ist, aber der Blick auf Migranten hat sich dadurch nicht wesentlich geändert. Auf der Basis des Paradigmas kultureller Differenz gelten sie nach wie vor als die Anderen, die Fremden. Doch die Fremdheit der Migranten als eine Prämisse der Debatte über Einwanderung in Deutschland verstellt den Blick für eine sehr vielfältige und gar nicht unbedingt fremde Lebenswirklichkeit. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes nun stellen diese Prämisse in Frage. Sie untersuchen, wie in den Diskursen von Gesellschaft, Politik und Wissenschaft die kulturelle Differenz vor allem der Einwanderer aus der Türkei immer wieder festgeschrieben wird und diskutieren anhand neuer theoretischer Zugänge alternative Perspektiven. Damit bereichert der Band die gegenwärtige Diskussion um Migration um notwendige innovative Positionen

Geschlecht, migration und bürgerschaft (Gender, migration and citizenship)

Geschlecht und Staatsbürgerschaft markieren Linien des Ein- und Ausschlusses auch in der deutschen Gesellschaft. Im Sammelband werden Aspekte des Zusammenwirkens von rassistischen und sexistischen Diskriminierungen diskutiert und nach Perspektiven nicht-diskriminierender Solidarität in Wissenschaft und politischer Praxis gefragt. Hierzu kommen Wissenschaftlerinnen, Praktikerinnen und ExpertInnen aus den Bereichen feministische Theorie, Frauenbewegung, Anti-Diskriminierungsarbeit und Interkulturalität zu Wort. Sie beschäftigen sich dabei u.a. mit den Themen: Vorurteile bei der Arbeit, Bevölkerungspolitik, Frauenhandel, Asyl, Integrationspolitik, Konstruktion von Geschlecht und Ethnizität und vor allem mit möglichen Wegen, "ohne Angst verschieden sein..." zu können

Constructing Meaningful Lives: Biographical Methods in Research on Migrant Women

The article argues that biographical methods are particularly suited to shift the methodological and theoretical premises of migration research to foreground the agency and subjectivity of migrant women. It is argued that structural and cultural readings can usefully be applied to the self-representations of migrant women. The context of migrant women's self-representations is explored through looking at the story-telling communities they develop and through the expert knowledges of institutions regulating migration. The dichotomisation of unique versus collective modes of life-stories is questioned. Applying the Foucauldian concept of subjugated knowledges, it is argued that migrant women's life-stories hold transformative potential for producing knowledges critical of gendered and ethnocised power relations that research should pay attention to.Migration, Gender, Ethnicity, Life-Story, Methodology, Britain, Germany, Structural and Cultural Readings, Subjugated Knowledges

Modelling engagement: using theatre-based workshops toexplore citizenship and research participation

Recent research highlights the significant contribution that migrant mothers make to UK society. Dr Umut Erel from the Open University looks at how theatre was used as a strategy to co-produce this research. The workshops and resulting research findings demonstrate the value of two-way exchange between participants and researchers. The evidence suggests it is time to reframe the debate about migrant mothers away from questions of integration to engagement with citizenship

Enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship: Kurdish women’s politics

Focusing on the institutional aspects of the Kurdish women’s movement in Turkey since the 1990s the article shows how it established a consciousness within the Kurdish national movement that gender equality is a cornerstone of democracy and ethnic rights. We frame this through theories of enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship and identify three key interventions: autonomous women’s assemblies, women’s quotas in pro-Kurdish rights parties and the co-chair system where all elected positions within the pro-Kurdish parties are jointly occupied by a male and female. These have achieved a better representation of women in formal politics, rendered gender equality and sexual violence legitimate subjects of politics and contributed to establishing an aspiration for a more dialogic political ethos. While the women’s movement’s close affiliation with the Kurdish national movement has been highly effective, it also in part circumscribes gender roles to fit its agendas

Migrant mothers: Kin work and cultural work in making future citizens

This themed issue explores the caring, cultural and emotional labour of migrant mothers in raising their children, highlighting the ways in which their mothering and family practices contribute to creating future citizens in contemporary societies, increasingly characterised by ethnic, racial, religious, cultural and social diversity. A key objective of the themed issue is to probe into the practices, processes and structures shaping migrant mothers’ ‘kin work’, while recognising the family as a site of internal and societal contestation. Kin work highlights the importance of women’s culture and care work that takes places across public and private boundaries (di Leonardo, 1984), and also the way in which the link between ‘race’, racialisation and motherhood encourages particular kinds of mothering practices. The themed issue is multidisciplinary, combining cutting-edge work by leading and early-career researchers. The collection of articles originally emerged out of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Network, ‘Migrant mothers caring for the future’ (2013–15) (www.open.ac.uk/ccig/research/projects/migrant-mothers-caring-for-the-future). In addition to the substantive articles in this issue, the Open Space section offers shorter reflective pieces whereby contributors address key policy issues affecting migrant mothers

Collaborations Between Academics, Artists and Activists: Transforming Public Understandings and Representations of Migration Issues

This chapter reflects on collaborations between academics, artists and activists in order to explore the complexity of issues of migration and to engage with diverse audiences. It positions these collaborations within an ethical framework drawing on participatory action research values. While in recent years, migration has been a constant topic of public debate, the terms of this debate often ignore the voices and viewpoints of the migrants themselves. One way to honour migrants’ self-representations in public debates is collaboration with artists and activists, which can help to side-step dominant discourses that draw strict boundaries between “society” and “migrants” and, instead, enable dialogic exchanges. This chapter, therefore, draws on public engagement work to make suggestions and recommendations for migration researchers collaborating with artists and activists. Drawing on my work in the UK, I think it is important to provide the context in which this public engagement took place, although I hope that this will be useful for researchers in other national contexts, as well. The ethos and values of participatory action research approaches can be useful for migration researchers seeking to problematise public understandings of migration. Arts-based methods, in particular, offer the possibility to constitute a transformative sphere for understanding issues around migration outside of established polarised discourses. Drawing on a public engagement project, the chapter presents the ways in which concrete examples and reflections on how alternative spaces and formats can allow for transformative ways of intervening in public understandings of migration that challenge racialised and exclusionary practices of research, representation and knowing

Afterword

This conclusion chapter reflects on common threads of racism and sexism in migratised academics’ experiences and opportunities for solidarities drawing on elements of life story narratives by the volume’s contributors

Understanding the contemporary race–migration nexus

The linkage between race and migration, especially in the UK since the 1990s, has shifted from a focus on postcolonial migrants to focus on newer groups, while migration within the European Union has also altered the discussion of racism and migration. This critical review provides a framework for understanding how race is conceptualized (or ignored) in contemporary scholarship on migration. We identify three, partly overlapping nexi between migration and racialization: (1) 'Changing Migrations – Continuities of Racism'; (2) 'Complex Migrations – Differentialist Racialization'; (3) 'Post-racial Migrations – Beyond Racism'. The article analyses what each of these nexi bring into focus as well as what they neglect. The concept of race–migration nexus aids a fuller understanding of how migration and contemporary racialization are co-constructed. Scholars need to consider the relationship between migration and race to better address pressing issues of racism against migrants and settled communities