No / This article focuses on Pakistani Muslim women across generations: pioneer migrants who arrived in the 1960s and 70s and their descendants born or brought up in the UK. It traces their lives before and immediately after migration and also explores the present day when the pioneers are in their twilight years, their children have grown up and many have grandchildren in their teens. The paper shows how migration to the UK impacted upon their gendered social and religious norms and charts the changes which have taken place across the generations. Using primary empirical data the paper examines how Pakistani Muslim women negotiated the context of migration and settlement to reproduce and modify traditional gender norms through examining changes in the religious sphere.

My dissertation examines the transformation of family and the reinvention of home from migrant women’s perspectives as represented in contemporary Chinese and Sinophone literature and film. In the era of globalization, people are increasingly mobile both within and across borders, resulting in the reshaping of family structure and re-conceptualization of home. In this dissertation I contend that migration is closely related to family dynamics and that migration also facilitates women’s agency in transforming family structure, navigating cultural differences, and negotiating with local societies and nation-states. The Chinese concept of jia 家 can be translated into English as family, home or house, and “homeness” in the context of Chinese migration is particularly associated with a geographical origin, a dwelling, a settlement, or familial intimacy. In this regard, I argue that migration is a process which reflects tradition, modernity and transnationalism, yet it can move beyond the metanarrative of homeland and nationalism that is often promoted by patriarchal cultural producers. I treat home as a locally defined notion to offer an alternate understanding of women migrants’ localization rather than focusing on the myth of return to the homeland. Women’s transgression of the boundaries of the household and their movement to other geographical locales transform their gendered role within the family, inciting their agency in opposing patriarchy and nationalism and creating space within which to negotiate the challenges of gender inequity, cultural difference, and marginalization. In contrast with the male-centered grand narrative featuring nostalgia for the homeland, I find that tales of women migrants show their protagonists eagerly adapting to their host countries and embracing local experiences. Hence, my dissertation focuses on the literary and cinematic representation of women migrants in contemporary Chinese and Sinophone literary works, documentaries and fictional films and explores four types of movement: immigration to North America, multiple transnational movements, cross-Strait migration from Taiwan to China, and new marriage-based immigration in Taiwan. Analysis of these works will improve understanding of the transnational flow of populations, the contested notion of home in migration, as well as the ways in which place-based literary and cultural productions are influenced by real-world migration. / 10000-01-01

Yes / Polish migration to the UK post European Union enlargement has been studied extensively but limited attention has been paid to women and their gendered mobility. In this paper, I argue that it is key to turn attention to women migrants as those who are often responsible for reproductive labour and who raise future generations of workers and citizens. This is pivotal to consider in light of ageing European societies and the need for workers and Brexit. Arguably, precarity is characteristic of contemporary life. This applies to the post-Brexit-vote UK and the uncertainty linked to the future after 2019. Precarity is inevitably characteristic of many migrants’ lives often punctuated by a lack of job security which is linked to limited material and psychological well-being. For women migrants, this state of affairs is further compounded by their attachment to the private sphere which often constitutes a barrier to their engagement in the paid labour market on the same footing as men. This paper draws on qualitative primary data gathered from 32 Polish women migrants who were initially interviewed in 2012/2013 and subsequently some of them were re-interviewed in 2016/2017. / The University of Salford, the Jagiellonian Polish Research Centre in London and the Fran Trust.

Migration is an established phenomenon in today’s world. However, there has been only a relatively small amount of research on Iranian migrants in Australia, and in particular female Iranian migrants. By studying 15 first-generation Iranian Muslim women migrants’ perceptions of their immigration to Australia and their difficulties in adjusting to the new culture, this study addresses four objectives: first, the extent of modification in religious identity; second, attitudes towards cultural maintenance; third, attitudes towards language maintenance; and fourth, attitudes towards gender role maintenance. The present study contributes to these underdeveloped areas of study on Iranian migrant women in Australia. This research involves a questionnaire and extensive interviews with the subjects. On the basis of a quantitative analysis of the questionnaire data, and a qualitative content analysis of the interviews, the study investigates the effects of immigration and a change of sociocultural context on the attitudes of the participants towards maintaining or modifying different aspects of their identity, namely the religious, cultural, linguistic and gender aspects. In doing so, we examine, in particular, the influence of the participants’ levels of English language proficiency on their attitudes towards change in these four aspects of their identity. Berry’s Acculturation Model (1997) and its extended version, as proposed by Navasa and her colleagues (2005), are the theoretical frameworks adopted in this research. The present study tests the participants’ responses against Berry’s model. The two issues explored in this work are: a) identifying the phase in Berry’s Acculturation Model in which the participants are located, with respect to the above-mentioned aspects of their identity; and b) examining the effect of English language proficiency, which emerges as a major factor, on the acculturation process of the participants. The findings show that there is a need to review the existing acculturation models, since Berry’s original model, and its enhancement by Navasa et al., are unable to explain and/or predict the acculturation situation of the migrant women in this study. A new model is therefore proposed – the Sociolinguistically Enhanced Acculturation Model (SLEAM), based on Berry’s original model, in which the impact and significance of the role of host language proficiency as the most important factor in the acculturation of migrants is integrated into the structure of the model. The current study is broadly located at the intersection of Sociolinguistics, in so far as sociocultural issues involving language and the use of language are concerned, and Migrant Studies, since the informants are migrant women. More narrowly, the study fits within the boundaries of Sociolinguistics of Identity. By this, we mean the study of identity in a sociocultural context, primarily through the instrumentality of language. The study further relies on the literature from the two fields of Acculturation and Gender Studies. The findings of this work are relevant to the fields of Sociolinguistics, Intercultural Communication, Migrant Studies, and Gender Studies. The results of this research are designed to increase our understanding of the acculturation processes involved in the relocation and settlement of immigrants, specifically from more traditional cultures, into relatively more Western-oriented cultures.

Migration is an established phenomenon in today’s world. However, there has been only a relatively small amount of research on Iranian migrants in Australia, and in particular female Iranian migrants. By studying 15 first-generation Iranian Muslim women migrants’ perceptions of their immigration to Australia and their difficulties in adjusting to the new culture, this study addresses four objectives: first, the extent of modification in religious identity; second, attitudes towards cultural maintenance; third, attitudes towards language maintenance; and fourth, attitudes towards gender role maintenance. The present study contributes to these underdeveloped areas of study on Iranian migrant women in Australia. This research involves a questionnaire and extensive interviews with the subjects. On the basis of a quantitative analysis of the questionnaire data, and a qualitative content analysis of the interviews, the study investigates the effects of immigration and a change of sociocultural context on the attitudes of the participants towards maintaining or modifying different aspects of their identity, namely the religious, cultural, linguistic and gender aspects. In doing so, we examine, in particular, the influence of the participants’ levels of English language proficiency on their attitudes towards change in these four aspects of their identity. Berry’s Acculturation Model (1997) and its extended version, as proposed by Navasa and her colleagues (2005), are the theoretical frameworks adopted in this research. The present study tests the participants’ responses against Berry’s model. The two issues explored in this work are: a) identifying the phase in Berry’s Acculturation Model in which the participants are located, with respect to the above-mentioned aspects of their identity; and b) examining the effect of English language proficiency, which emerges as a major factor, on the acculturation process of the participants. The findings show that there is a need to review the existing acculturation models, since Berry’s original model, and its enhancement by Navasa et al., are unable to explain and/or predict the acculturation situation of the migrant women in this study. A new model is therefore proposed – the Sociolinguistically Enhanced Acculturation Model (SLEAM), based on Berry’s original model, in which the impact and significance of the role of host language proficiency as the most important factor in the acculturation of migrants is integrated into the structure of the model. The current study is broadly located at the intersection of Sociolinguistics, in so far as sociocultural issues involving language and the use of language are concerned, and Migrant Studies, since the informants are migrant women. More narrowly, the study fits within the boundaries of Sociolinguistics of Identity. By this, we mean the study of identity in a sociocultural context, primarily through the instrumentality of language. The study further relies on the literature from the two fields of Acculturation and Gender Studies. The findings of this work are relevant to the fields of Sociolinguistics, Intercultural Communication, Migrant Studies, and Gender Studies. The results of this research are designed to increase our understanding of the acculturation processes involved in the relocation and settlement of immigrants, specifically from more traditional cultures, into relatively more Western-oriented cultures.

abstract: This study was done in collaboration with the Kino Border Initiative. The Kino Border Initiative is a Catholic, bi-national organization run by Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist, Jesuit priests and lay people. The organization is dedicated to providing services to recently deported migrants and migrants-in-transit through their soup kitchen, women's shelter and first aid station in Nogales, Sonora. Based on their experiences in the women's shelter, the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist and researcher sought out to further understand migrant women's experiences of gender-based violence prior to migration. Using data collected by the Sisters, it was decided to use an analysis rooted in testimonio, and, in this way, use the women's words as a foundational basis for understanding the migration of women. The analysis is based on 62 testimonies related to women's histories of violence and their migration experiences, and the information from 74 intake questionnaires that were all analyzed retroactively. The analysis of data and testimonios has led to the realization that violence suffered by migrant women is not limited to the journey itself, and that 71% of women report having suffered some sort of violence either prior to or during migration. Often times, the first experiences of violence originated in their homes when they were children and continue to repeat itself throughout their lifetimes in varied forms. Their stories reveal how the decision to migrate is a consequence to the transnational and structural violence that pushes women to seek out ways to survive and provide for their families. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social Justice and Human Rights 2013