Throughout the Western world, governments have increasingly viewed migration through the lens of economic efficiency. In the era of globalisation, they argue, migrants should be selected on the basis of their skills and qualifications. Australian governments have been strongly committed to this policy direction, and over the last two decades, have reoriented the country�s migration program from the recruitment of unskilled labour to targeting educated professionals. The current Liberal-National Coalition government claims that this policy redirection has paid off, with migrants more skilled than ever, and successfully contributing to the economy. The government bases these claims on research conducted by scholars of migrant employment, who equate high levels of human capital with successful employment outcomes. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA), these researchers show that migrants with qualifications and English language ability have higher rates of labour force participation, lower unemployment, and higher occupational attainment and incomes, compared to their less skilled counterparts. This thesis critically analyses this �success story� narrative. It argues that the focus on human capital has overshadowed exploration of other important factors shaping migrants� employment experiences, including the gender and birthplace of new arrivals. This thesis shows that male and female migrants, and migrants from English versus non-English speaking backgrounds, can have very different experiences of working in Australia, regardless of their skills or occupational histories. I highlight the importance of these factors by investigating the experiences of Chinese women in Australia today. Using in-depth interviews with women from China and Hong Kong, and quantitative data from the Australian census and LSIA, I show that Chinese women�s employment experiences in Australia do not conform neatly to the prevailing �success story� promoted by the Government and migration researchers. Migration to Australia causes a widespread reduction in Chinese women�s paid work. While it is normal for men to seek work immediately after arrival, women find that migration intensifies their domestic workloads, while depriving them of sources of domestic support, such as relatives and hired help. Consequently, for Chinese women, migration often means moving from full-time to part-time jobs, or withdrawing from the workforce entirely. In the process, they experience a �feminisation� of roles, as they shift from being �career women� to fulfilling the traditional �female� roles of wife and mother. Thus migration and settlement are highly gendered, and the household context is crucial for understanding migrants� employment experiences. Among those women who are in the labour force, employment outcomes vary substantially by birthplace, pointing to the cultural specificity of human capital. Although both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong migrant women tend to be highly educated, mainland women achieve far poorer outcomes than Hong Kong women. Hong Kong women, with their relatively good English language skills and officially-recognised qualifications, are generally able to secure comparable jobs to those they had in Hong Kong, although they often have problems advancing further in Australia. Meanwhile, mainland women tend to have poorer English skills and greater difficulty in having their qualifications recognised, and thus suffer often dramatic downward mobility, moving from highly skilled professions to unskilled, low-paid and low status jobs in Australia. Thus this thesis demonstrates that the value of human capital is context-dependent. It can only be valorised in a new labour market if it is sufficiently culturally compatible with local standards. Therefore, the experiences of Chinese migrant women complicate the �success story� that dominates discussions of migrant employment in Australia. Ultimately, the prevailing economistic approach fails to see the diversity and complexity of migrant experiences. We need to see migrants as social beings, whose settlement in a new country is crucially shaped by their gender and birthplace, and broader institutional factors, which determine how human capital is used and rewarded. This is the mission of this thesis.

This thesis was carried out as part of a wider comparative study that was funded by the University of Plymouth and the Equal Opportunities Unit of the European Commission. Researchers from Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden participated in this study. This thesis is based on the research that was carried out in London for which the author was solely responsible. The impetus for this research was to explore the implications for women of a largely unexplored aspect of European Community (EC) legislation. A lot of attention has focused on EC equal opportunities legislation but very little has been written about the impact of other more fundamental aspects of European Community legislation on women. This thesis therefore makes an important contribution to the EC gender equality debate by providing an understanding of the Free Movement of Persons Provisions - which serve as the basis for European citizenship - from a gender perspective. This research is based on three components; secondary data analysis, in particular the Labour Force Survey and a literature review of migration studies and issues concerning women and citizenship. The investigation also involves an analysis of primary, secondary and case law relating to the Free Movement of Persons provisions. The main empirical element of this research is an analysis of fifty in-depth life history interviews with European Union national women who had migrated to Great Britain and who were living in London in 1995. This thesis exposes the limitations of existing data sources and migration literature concerning the nature and process of migration for this group of women. It is argued that migration has been reported as a male phenomenon, which has perpetuated a myth, that migration is a male rather than female affair. A discussion of citizenship issues at a national level reveals the secondary citizenship status of women. These gendered assumptions about migration and the operation of citizenship rights are echoed in the way in which the Free Movement of Persons provisions have been developing and are at odds with the European Union's commitment to gender equality

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Hong Kong has a population of more than seven million people which since 1995 has been growing by 150 immigrants per day from Mainland China. Although migrants from Mainland China do share some similar cultures with their counterparts in Hong Kong, the concept of health and actions they take to maintain their health are different. This study aims to investigate the association between socio-economic factors, the settlement period since migration and the health status of migrant women from China to Hong Kong and their utilization of health care facilities. This research further aims to investigate any implications for the practice of health promotion and prevention-related activities among these women and compares these results with those of Chinese women in Mainland China. A total of four hundred women between the ages of 20 and 50 years were selected for this study, two hundred women who had migrated from Mainland China to Hong Kong and two hundred women still resident in Mainland China. Participants in China were selected from Guangzhou, Guangdong,Shanghai, and Xiamen, these being the more common areas of origin of the immigrant women in Hong Kong. The two cross-sectional surveys were carried out to collect comparable data on the health status for both the groups, their utilization of health care services, their understanding of health promotion and prevention, and their actual health promotion behaviour. The results show that nearly half of the immigrant women from Mainland China had no further education beyond primary school (51%) and that a greater majority of them were unemployed (84%). A surprising 73% of the migrant women had more than two children despite most belonging in the lowest income group (total family income of below HK$15,000k) per month. While younger migrants were generally shown to be healthier, most immigrant women reported their health as being ‘much worse’ than before migration. The single-most significant predictor for immigrant women’s physical health was the number of children they had, while for women in Mainland China, the significant predictor was age. Regarding stress, among immigrant women having more children and being unemployed were significant predictors of increased stress; while for women in Mainland China living in rented private rooms or units, having a higher number of children, low family income, and living with their extended family were significant predictors. Regarding health service utilization, immigrant women living on public or private estates were significantly more likely to use health care services than those living in temporary housing or shelters; and the more educated immigrant women were, the more they used health care services. For women in Mainland China, the higher the family income and the larger the family household, the more they used health care services. Despite 95% of the immigrant women feeling they could do more to improve their health status, only 22% of them reported having performed health promotion and preventative strategies since relocating to Hong Kong. Being Cantonese-speaking and living in a family household were significant predictors for immigrant women to perform health promotion and preventative activities. Results for participants in Mainland China show that while a smaller number of these women, 85 % felt they could be doing more, 61.5% of them were already performing health promotion and preventative strategies to improve their health status. A significant predictor for women in Mainland China was total family income; the higher the family income, the more health promotion activities were performed. The findings of this study should greatly assist both government and non-government organizations in Hong Kong and elsewhere not only in providing more effective health care services for migrant women from Mainland China but also in informing the public health policies and planning of health care provision.

Throughout the Western world, governments have increasingly viewed migration through the lens of economic efficiency. In the era of globalisation, they argue, migrants should be selected on the basis of their skills and qualifications. Australian governments have been strongly committed to this policy direction, and over the last two decades, have reoriented the country�s migration program from the recruitment of unskilled labour to targeting educated professionals. The current Liberal-National Coalition government claims that this policy redirection has paid off, with migrants more skilled than ever, and successfully contributing to the economy. The government bases these claims on research conducted by scholars of migrant employment, who equate high levels of human capital with successful employment outcomes. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA), these researchers show that migrants with qualifications and English language ability have higher rates of labour force participation, lower unemployment, and higher occupational attainment and incomes, compared to their less skilled counterparts. This thesis critically analyses this �success story� narrative. It argues that the focus on human capital has overshadowed exploration of other important factors shaping migrants� employment experiences, including the gender and birthplace of new arrivals. This thesis shows that male and female migrants, and migrants from English versus non-English speaking backgrounds, can have very different experiences of working in Australia, regardless of their skills or occupational histories. I highlight the importance of these factors by investigating the experiences of Chinese women in Australia today. Using in-depth interviews with women from China and Hong Kong, and quantitative data from the Australian census and LSIA, I show that Chinese women�s employment experiences in Australia do not conform neatly to the prevailing �success story� promoted by the Government and migration researchers. Migration to Australia causes a widespread reduction in Chinese women�s paid work. While it is normal for men to seek work immediately after arrival, women find that migration intensifies their domestic workloads, while depriving them of sources of domestic support, such as relatives and hired help. Consequently, for Chinese women, migration often means moving from full-time to part-time jobs, or withdrawing from the workforce entirely. In the process, they experience a �feminisation� of roles, as they shift from being �career women� to fulfilling the traditional �female� roles of wife and mother. Thus migration and settlement are highly gendered, and the household context is crucial for understanding migrants� employment experiences. Among those women who are in the labour force, employment outcomes vary substantially by birthplace, pointing to the cultural specificity of human capital. Although both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong migrant women tend to be highly educated, mainland women achieve far poorer outcomes than Hong Kong women. Hong Kong women, with their relatively good English language skills and officially-recognised qualifications, are generally able to secure comparable jobs to those they had in Hong Kong, although they often have problems advancing further in Australia. Meanwhile, mainland women tend to have poorer English skills and greater difficulty in having their qualifications recognised, and thus suffer often dramatic downward mobility, moving from highly skilled professions to unskilled, low-paid and low status jobs in Australia. Thus this thesis demonstrates that the value of human capital is context-dependent. It can only be valorised in a new labour market if it is sufficiently culturally compatible with local standards. Therefore, the experiences of Chinese migrant women complicate the �success story� that dominates discussions of migrant employment in Australia. Ultimately, the prevailing economistic approach fails to see the diversity and complexity of migrant experiences. We need to see migrants as social beings, whose settlement in a new country is crucially shaped by their gender and birthplace, and broader institutional factors, which determine how human capital is used and rewarded. This is the mission of this thesis.

Perception of risk was used as an independent variable and behaviour as the dependent variable in the research with the assumption that level of precaution used during sexual practices to safeguard against HIV infection will be positively related to the perception of risk to HIV. The conclusiveness of this approach was dependent on evidence that participants know what risky behaviour can contribute to contracting HIV/AIDS and on their willingness to report their risk perception honestly. A snowball sample consisting of 15 Zimbabwean women living in and around Johannesburg was employed. Research objectives were addressed through semistructured interviews. For all participants, perception of risk was qualified by a number of factors. Common precautionary strategies identified by women were to remain faithful to one partner and being more contemplative when choosing bed partners and using condoms. High risk perception was marked by having had various sexual partners, inconsistently using condoms, fear of sexual violence, mistrust of partners, feeling of fear of vulnerability to HIV whenever they had sex and survival concerns. Migrant women’s adoption of safe sex was limited by their circumstances and strategies of risk management and in particular their biases in assumptions about their partners’ sexual histories. This exposes them to the vulnerabilities of HIV/AIDS. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data.

Yes

Yes / Vulnerable migrant women are at an increased risk of developing postnatal depression, compared with the general population. Although some symptoms are the same as in other pregnant women, there are specific reasons why vulnerable migrant women may present differently, or may not recognise symptoms themselves. Factors associated with migration may affect a woman’s mental health, particularly considering forced migration, where a woman may have faced violence or trauma, both in her home country and on the journey to the UK. Vulnerable migrant women engage less with maternity care than the average woman for reasons including a lack of knowledge of the UK healthcare system, fear of being charged for care, or fear that contact with clinicians will negatively affect their immigration status. This article explores the issues surrounding vulnerable migrant women that increase their risk of developing postnatal depression and presents reasons why this may go unrecognised by health professionals such as midwives.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine migrant women farmworkers' views of perinatal care management while working in the fields. Like men, women migrant farmworkers are exposed to many physical, chemical, and biological hazards that pose human health risks. However, women of childbearing age are at an increased risk of having reproductive health difficulties and adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the infant mortality rate among migrant farmworkers is estimated to be twice the national average. Perinatal care is a critical factor in reducing adverse outcomes for perinatal and newborn mortality. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 migrant women farmworkers between the ages of 18 to 40 years who had experienced at least 1 gestational period during while working in the Midwest agricultural stream. Participants were voluntarily recruited from farms in Northern Ohio using purposeful sampling techniques. Guided by the social ecological model, data were analyzed via inductive coding techniques to tease out common themes. All participants reported a basic understanding of prenatal care but due to numerous occupational, community, and access barriers, could not participate in what they perceived as normal prenatal care. Also, participants stated when in gestation they were expected to perform the same jobs as women not in gestation. These findings may inform the work of public health providers and migrant healthcare clinicians of migrant women farmworkers' challenges while receiving perinatal care in Northern Ohio; results can also be used to influence local and national migrant healthcare policies on comprehensive maternal healthcare for migrant women farmworkers in Ohio and across the United States.

Esta investigação tem por objetivo compreender como mulheres imigrantes constróem no espaço da cidade formas de convívio e negociações, conseguem acolhimento e respostas às suas necessidades e investem no pertencimento de redes sociais de apoio configurando novas formas de levar suas vidas. A partir de contato inicial realizado em uma instituição religiosa na cidade de São Paulo que recebe mulheres estrangeiras selecionaram-se cinco dessas mulheres: três solicitantes de refúgio, uma imigrante e uma egressa de sistema prisional propondo-se a pesquisadora a acompanhá-las, em diferentes períodos e situações, nas suas atividades cotidianas. A proposta possibilitou a realização de uma etnografia e observação participante em profundidade de seus itinerários na cidade. Os itinerários percorridos e acompanhados pela pesquisa mostraram diversas formas de construção de sociabilidade e de novas estratégias na vida dessas mulheres bem como diferentes modos de relação com as instituições às quais elas recorriam para apoio. De modo geral, percebe-se que, sendo mulheres, e estrangeiras, a transitoriedade de suas estadas na cidade é atravessada por interações com outras pessoas, com um trabalho ou uma atividade de lazer ou mesmo com as instituições de ajuda. Dentre estas interações percebe-se que as relações de ajuda efetiva se dão, principalmente, nos espaços fora das instituições, ou seja, nas redes de sociabilidade criadas e nos espaços acessados e acessíveis da cidade. / This study aims to comprehend how immigrant women build, in the space of the city of São Paulo, their interpersonal relationships, their negotiations with the institutions they have to deal with, their support and social networks, resulting in a new way of living their lives. Starting from a contact with one of the religious institutions that offers shelter to foreign women in São Paulo, five inhabitants of this house were met and followed on their routine activities around the city. Those women were three asylum seekers, one economic migrant and one ex-prisoner. This proposal made possible the construction of an ethnography and a participant observation of the itineraries undertaken by them in the city. Those itineraries undertaken by them and followed by this study showed different strategies and social relationships made by those women in the city. In general, the itineraries showed that, by being women and foreigners, their transitional relationship with the city was crossed by the people they meet, their work, their leisure activities and the institutions that were willing to help them. In spite of those interactions, the ones that seem to be more able to offer a significant help to them are the relationships outside the scope of those institutions, meaning the social networks built and the interactions with the accessible and accessed spaces in the city.

Esta investigação tem por objetivo compreender como mulheres imigrantes constróem no espaço da cidade formas de convívio e negociações, conseguem acolhimento e respostas às suas necessidades e investem no pertencimento de redes sociais de apoio configurando novas formas de levar suas vidas. A partir de contato inicial realizado em uma instituição religiosa na cidade de São Paulo que recebe mulheres estrangeiras selecionaram-se cinco dessas mulheres: três solicitantes de refúgio, uma imigrante e uma egressa de sistema prisional propondo-se a pesquisadora a acompanhá-las, em diferentes períodos e situações, nas suas atividades cotidianas. A proposta possibilitou a realização de uma etnografia e observação participante em profundidade de seus itinerários na cidade. Os itinerários percorridos e acompanhados pela pesquisa mostraram diversas formas de construção de sociabilidade e de novas estratégias na vida dessas mulheres bem como diferentes modos de relação com as instituições às quais elas recorriam para apoio. De modo geral, percebe-se que, sendo mulheres, e estrangeiras, a transitoriedade de suas estadas na cidade é atravessada por interações com outras pessoas, com um trabalho ou uma atividade de lazer ou mesmo com as instituições de ajuda. Dentre estas interações percebe-se que as relações de ajuda efetiva se dão, principalmente, nos espaços fora das instituições, ou seja, nas redes de sociabilidade criadas e nos espaços acessados e acessíveis da cidade. / This study aims to comprehend how immigrant women build, in the space of the city of São Paulo, their interpersonal relationships, their negotiations with the institutions they have to deal with, their support and social networks, resulting in a new way of living their lives. Starting from a contact with one of the religious institutions that offers shelter to foreign women in São Paulo, five inhabitants of this house were met and followed on their routine activities around the city. Those women were three asylum seekers, one economic migrant and one ex-prisoner. This proposal made possible the construction of an ethnography and a participant observation of the itineraries undertaken by them in the city. Those itineraries undertaken by them and followed by this study showed different strategies and social relationships made by those women in the city. In general, the itineraries showed that, by being women and foreigners, their transitional relationship with the city was crossed by the people they meet, their work, their leisure activities and the institutions that were willing to help them. In spite of those interactions, the ones that seem to be more able to offer a significant help to them are the relationships outside the scope of those institutions, meaning the social networks built and the interactions with the accessible and accessed spaces in the city.