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Feminist Theories and Migration Research-Making Sense in the Data Feast? Aha Tollefsen Altamirano

Abstract fondts sur le sexage. Corollairement tion and the societal context rather l'essentialismedufhinisme anti-ratio- than migration per se. Conceptual and theoretical issues are naliste peut entrainer des gknt!ralisa- Against this background, the article increasingly highlighted in research on tions abusives en ce qui concerne la evaluates the actual and potential con- international migration. This article mobilite' masculine et fe'minine. Les tribution of some recent developments looks at some recent developments approches proce'dant du fe'minisme within to migra- within feminist geography and ques- post-rationel en matitre de recherche tion research. In what way can or could tions whether feminis t theories can migra toire peuven t con tribuer h l'e'tude feminist theories contribute to the un- contribute to the understanding of in- des sous-groupes de migrants (hommes derstanding of contemporary intema- ternational migration. Three main tra- et fmmes) et de leur dispositifrelation- tional migration? In short, can feminist ditions are identified within feminist nel duns des contextes distincts. theories make any sense in the (pre- geography found in recent work on gen- sumed) data feast within migration der and migration. The conclusion is A few years ago, the British geogra- research? that migration research can benefitfrom pher Tony Champion wrote that the To consider these questions I will feminist through detailed challenge to migration research within first outline some central research tra- documentation and measurement of the years to come would be to derive ditions within feminist geography, fol- gendered migration streams, while the something sensible from the increas- lowing the works of Linda McDowell essentialism of anti-rationalist femi- ing mass of migration data available (McDowell1993a, 1993b).I then move nism could lead to over-generalizations in other words, the main problem on to look at how some researchers in tmof male and female mobility. would not be the lack of data but rather have integrated a gender perspective Post-rational feminist approaches to the interpretation and analysis of these in migration research-I cite three migration research could contribute to data (Champion 1992). Although he main works to illustrate different ap- studies of subgroups of migrants (both referred mainly to research in the U.K. proaches (Zlotnik 1995; Chant 1992; women and men) and their relational context, the point that conceptual and and Buijs 1993). Finally, I conclude position in diferen t contexts. theoretical issues need to be more with a short discussion about what I highlighted is relevant in a wider con- see as the importance and relevance of text as well. Many other migration re- these contributions. Les questions conceptuelles et thi~ri- searchers have commented on the Feminist Geography-"A Diverse ques sont de plus en plus mises en relief general weak position of theories on dans la recherchesur la migration inter- migration-being either too general and Pluralistic Enterprise" nationale. Le pre'sent article de'crit un (i.e., laws of migration) or too specific Linda McDowell wrote two articles in certain nombre de dheloppments rk- and fragmentary (close to ideographic 1993 where she reviewed feminist ge- cents enge'ographiefhiniste et soulhe descriptions of unique contexts). Many ography during the last decade. She la question desavoir si les thkoriesfhi- would perhaps agree that today, there distinguished three main currents of nistes peuven t apporter une contribu- is a search for theories and concepts thought within feminist geography, tion h la comprkhension du phhohe focusing on certain more general proc- related to the developments within de la migration internationale. Trois esses or mechanisms but which can fe'minist scholarship in general. These traditions de ghgraphie fhiniste sont have different outcomes and be under- currents do to a certain extent follow a principalenzent identifie'esdans le cadre stood differently from context to con- chronological order, but they are not des travaux rkcents sur migration et text. as clear-cut as they may appear at first sexage. La conclusion est que les recher- It may also be, as Champion sug- sight. Instead they often overlap and che~sur la migration ont h bhtifcier de gests, that instead of analyzing migra- run parallel in time. 1'empirismefkninis te par le biais d'une tion as a single phenomenon, it could The first current of thought that she documents tion de'taille'e et quan tpe'e be more useful to study subgroups of identifies is feminist empiricism, concernan t les courants migra toires migration streams "essentially sepa- which was a dominant geographical rately" as they reflect an increasing project during the 1980s. The second Ainu Tollefsen Altamirano isa Ph.D. candidate in heterogeneity of society and a stronger current is feminist standpoint theory, the Department of Social and Economic spatial polarization. The focus would which developed and was influential Geography, Umed University, Umed, Syeden. then be on the relation between migra- during the mid- and late 1980s. The

4 Wge,Vol. 16, No. 4 (October 1997) most recent current of thought is what Rather than seeing discrimination on wbo has raised important questions she calls post-rational , the basis of gender as unfair, rooted for human geographers: which is part of a recent skepticism in rational humanist notions of Who/what is the third world? Where about the centrality of gender as an rights, obligations and justice, work is the third world? Is it spatially con- in this perspective celebrated the dif- tiguous or discontinuous? Do third analytical category in relation to other ference and attempts to reverse categories. world women make up any kind of rather than abolish the traditional constituency? On what basis? How Feminist Empiricism allocation of superiority to all that is do questions of gender, race and na- masculine. tion intersect? (McDowell 1993b, A large number of studies were made 313) during the 1980s in order to demon- In this perspective, all that is "femi- strate empirically the situation of nine" is revalorized, and the essential What Mohanty does is to break women in different geographical con- category of "being a " is high- away from essentialist notions to sug- texts. Consistent inadequacies in sta- lighted. Not all of the studies within gest "political rather than biological or tistical data and an absence of detailed are essentialist, locational grounds for alliance" (ibid., empirical studies motivated a great but they do focus on gender as the cen- 313). Thus, in her view, gender is but effort to map and "make visible" tral analyticalcategory. More recently, one of the relations to take into consid- women in the social sciences, includ- there is an orientation towards analyz- eration in the postcolonial situation. ing human geography. ing gender symbolisms and represen- The spatial contexts must not be seen The main focus of most of these tation, and how these are reproduced. as fixed or bounded; place is "neither a studies was on gender-based divisions Many of these studies are sensitive to categorical nor territorial concept, but of labour. They investigated the seg- differences between women, but they is defined in relational terms, that is mentation of the labour market, re- still consider gender to be the funda- places are constructed from alliances gional differences in employment mental social category. and oppositional struggles to lines of structures, the urban environment power" (ibid., 313). This view can be of from a gender perspective, the produc- Post-Rational Feminism special relevance to migration re- tion/reproduction divide and com- The most recent perspective within search, as transnational migrations parisons of the situations of women in feminist geography identified by constitute a fundamental aspect of the different cultural and geographical McDowell is what she calls post-ra- postcolonial situation. contexts. Basically, these studies could tional feminism. Here there is a ques- As we can understand from the be seen as part of a rationalist project of tioning of the centrality of gender itself above, feminist geography has during exposing the unfairness of the exclu- in relation to other differences. Is it re- the last decade grown to become a sion and discrimination of women, so ally so-which has been assumed by complex and varied field of research, that these errors and inequalities could most feminist geographers-that and despite its fragmentation, it can be be corrected. A kind of "add women some differences (gender) are more concluded that there is a movement and stir" method, as McDowell puts important than others? from mostly empirical studies to more it-a belief in that when correctly For some writers, gender is no more theoretical and conceptual ap- documented and described, rational and perhaps not even as basic as pov- proaches. At the same time, all these human beings would in time eliminate erty, class, ethnicity, race, sexual perspectives exist simultaneously and the irrational discrimination of identity, and age, in the lives of may be emphasized in different ways women. This optimism was soon frus- women who feel less divided from depending on research focus. My next trated, as nothing was corrected auto- men as a group than, for example, step is now to relate these develop- matically so as time went by, more white or bourgeois or Anglo or het- ments to migration research. erosexual men and women. The ar- theoretical questions about power gument here is that a notion of International Migration and structures and the reproduction of the gender as basic merely serves to Gender inequalities had to be asked. reify, rather than critically contest, transform and escape the imposed The introduction of gender analyses in Feminist Standpoint Theoy myth of difference, while it ignores migration research within human The rationalist position in feminist other critical and as yet subjugated geography dates back to the mid- empiricism was questioned by anti- arenas of difference. (Di Stefano 1980s. Skeldon (1995) points out that rationalist currents in the mid-1980s. 1990,65) migation research using biographical and the influential One of the main influences on approach was primarily a "male" per- school of became estab- feminist geography within this per- spective until the second half of the lished through a number of publica- spective has come from post-colonial 1980s. Chant and Radcliffe (1992) note tions. McDowell(1993b,306) describes work in a "third world" context. that although gender imbalances in the trend: is cited by migration have been highlighted ear- McDowell as an influential researcher lier in migration research within de-

Refige, Vol. 16, No. 4 (October 1997) 5 veloping countries, there have been national migration are published in men's migration-internally as very few attempts to analyze these dif- 1995 and not ten years ago, also shows well as internationally. ferences systematically. Their own that there are areas where further data Women have fewer job opportuni- work must be considered pioneering are needed. ties at destination labour markets; in this area (see e.g., Radcliffe 1990; they are mostly limited to domestic Chant 1992).A number of other migra- Gender-Selective Population services and commerce. tion researchers point out both what Movements The age structures of migrants vary has been termed the increasing The fact that it is possible to identify between men and women; female "feminization" of international migra- differences between how men and migrants are young and many of tion, and the need for both empirical women migrate-within and between them stop migrating when they and theoretical work in this field countries-and that women's and marry; male migrants are also pre- (Hugo 1995; Castles and Miller 1993). men's use of time-space is restricted dominantly young, but they con- A contribution to what could be differentially in many contexts seems tinue to a larger extent to migrate at called feminist empiricism is the work to be the obvious argument for intro- later stages in the life cycle. of Hania Zlotnik (1995). The main fo- ducing gender analyses in migration Men send remittances back to the cus of her work is on how the volumes research. Chant and Radcliffe (1992) "home areas" while women keep of male and female migrants have see the analysis of gender-selectivity stronger personal, economic and changed in international migration in migration as fundamental for the social ties with relatives in areas of over the last decades. In general, there understanding of economic, social and origin. has been a consensus on the fact that demographic change in the develop- The most central factor in the shap- there is an increasing feminization of ing world: ing of gender-selective migration is, migration in the world, especially Where men and women are, if they according to Chant, the organization since the introduction of restrictions on live together or apart, whether their and divisions of reproductive and pro- labour migration in Europe in 1973-74. movement to other parts of their ductive labour at the household level. Zlotnik challenges this view and dem- countries or overseas is equally or The fact that women are more involved onstrates that in terms of gross immi- differentially constrained through in reproductive work and have more gration and emigration, there is no economic and cultural aspects of the responsibilities can explain much of feminization. Instead, only in net mi- societies to which they belong, are their restricted mobility opportunities gration do women outnumber men, as factors vitally important in the inter- in relation to men's. The way these women participate less in return mi- pretation of development at both lo- gender-based divisions of labour (in cal and national levels in Third gration than men do. She is able to World countries. (ibid., 1) both reproduction and production) show that there are important differ- vary between contexts also give ences in female and male migration to The book collects essays in order to insights as to why the levels of female and from the United States, the Federal compare, interpret and theorize gen- mobility vary more over time and Republic of Germany, Belgium and der-selective migration in Latin space than the levels of male mobility. Great Britain, but the causes of these America, the Caribbean, Africa and In some contexts women participate differences are not analyzed. Her fo- Asia. Chant concludes in the last chap- more in agriculture; in others they cus is instead on the quantification and ter that there are certain similarities in have no access to waged agricultural ' characterization of female migration the way gender-selectivity works work; in some contexts women are ex- internationally. She looks at popula- across the different contexts. The fol- pected to work for cash; in others they tion statistics on female and male mi- lowing generalizations are made: are restricted from doing so. So the gration and argues that "numbers, Men are more mobile than women, gender-based division of labour to- origins and the timing of migration even in cases where female mobil- gether with different social and cul- matter." Her point is that a first step for ity is very high. tural constructions of female and male the understanding of the causes and The temporary or long absence of identities affect the propensity and consequences of international migra- migrant men from domestic space possibilities to migrate. tion in general is a good documenta- means that women obtain a certain Migration, Gender, and Other tion of migration by sex, and on the autonomy, although their access to different characteristics of male and resources often is limited. "Diierences" female migrants in international statis- Men migrate "independently" The third work I will cite develops the tics. She might not agree with Cham- more than women do. question of gender identity formation pion on the existence of a data feast as The migration of men is more often and change even further. It is the focus . far as female migration is concerned- linked to direct access to employ- of many of the studies collected in the her complaint is that data is far from ment than women's migration. book Migrant Women-Crossing sufficient for an adequate analysis. The The range of destinations is more Boundaries and Changing Identities ed- fact that her statistics on female inter- varied and the distances longer in ited by Gina Buijs (1993). In her intro-

1 Wge,Vol. 16, No. 4 (October 1997) duction, Buijs points out the purpose and black women. Afro-Caribbean cal work on different forms of patriar- of the collection: to investigate the dy- and Sikh women participate to a chy (Duncan 1994)and on gender con- namics of change in gender relations higher degree in the labour market in tracts (Hirdmann 1988). which have been brought about by full-time employment than do indig- Thirdly, and maybe especially sig- migrancy. So it is considered that the enous white women, and they share nificant for migration research is the very experiences of migration are cru- the same proportion in professional, recent questioning within feminist cial as to how gender relations develop employer or management sectors as theory of the assumption that gender and change over time and space. This white women, while men's positions always should have priority over class, collection of essays can be seen as part in the labour market are more unequal race or sexual identity. Post-colonial of what McDowell classified as a recent in terms of ethnicity and class. So gen- work on immigrant women in West- development within anti-rationalist der plays a part, but it is not given pri- em societies and on the relations be- feminism, where gender symbolisms ority in relation to ethnicity, region and tween "third world" contexts and the and the reproduction of gender rela- class. West show that much feminist re- tions are studied, here in relation to search has been ethnocentric in both migration. But some of the contribu- Concluding Discussion problem definitions and concepts. For tions are examples of the post-rational- Do feminist theories contribute to the instance, as Alund (1991, 63) points ist critique of the centrality of gender understanding of international migra- out, "the '' tends in relation to other "differences." An tion? Can a gender perspective in mi- uncritically to apply the traditional example of the latter is the chapter by gration research be of help in the 'modernization' paradigm of Western Parminder Bhachu (1993)called "Iden- search for new conceptual and theo- perceptions of the Third World-an tities Constructed and Reconstructed: retical insights?I would answer that so essentially ethnocentric and neo- Representations of Asian Women in far, rather few attempts have been colonist ideology." In migration re- Britain." Bhachu points out the prob- made to fully integrate search, this critique seems specifically lems with ethnocentrism and the lack in migration research, but that the ex- relevant as much of the central con- of understanding of the dimensions of isting work certainly brings new and cepts and theories on migration reflect class and race in her study of Asian and useful knowledge to the research field. the experiences of Western societies, Black women in Britain. She shows The influences from the diverse tradi- and in many cases do not integrate the that even though ethnicity is important tions within feminist geography are findings from the vast body of existing to migrant women, so also is their "re- only beginning to show. Firstly, research on migration in "third world" gional and class locations:" feminist empiricism could contribute contexts. The new orientations do not London Asian women identify them- importantly to the detailed documen- mean an abandonment of gender, but selves differently from those in tation and measurement of gendered rather a theoretical maturity that al- Northern Ireland and Scotland and migration streams-statistical data are lows the incorporation of other according to the class positions that still lacking, as pointed out by Zlotnik subordinations and power structures they occupy. This is not because (1995). Secondly, the work collected in into the analysis (McDowell 1993a, there is no common 'ethnic' cultural the book edited by Chant (1992)can be 158). In the field of international mi- base, but because younger Asian seen as an ambitious attempt to ana- gration it could lead to research focus- . women emerge out of the particular lyze systematically the dynamics of ing on subgroups of migrants, where localities in which they have been gendered mobilities. In most of the their relational position in different raised and from the particular class cultures to which they have been so- contexts studied, there are clear differ- spatial contexts are exposed, while at cialised. (ibid., 103) ences between male and female the same time all totalizing categories mobilities-so the focus on gender re- must be avoided. The problematic But what about gender in her analy- lations seems to be most appropriate. essentialism developed in anti-ration- sis? She is keen to demonstrate the Certain generalities in these differ- alist feminism should not be repro- differences between women, espe- ences are identified (as listed above). A duced. Migration research can benefit cially in order to counter the stereotype little caution against over-generaliza- from the different traditions in femi- of Asian women as "passive/docile/ tions could perhaps be motivated, and nist theory, but must leave essential- conflicted/dominated by oppressive Chant (1992) does take into account ism behind. traditions and men." But she does not differences within male groups and exclude gender-instead, gender, eth- female groups, especially concerning References nicity, region and class are analyzed age. She points to the organization of Alund, Alexandra. 1991. "The Power of Defi- together. For instance, she analyses the reproductive and productive work at nitions: Immigrant Women and Problem fact that there are greater differences the household level as crucial for ex- Ideologies." In Paradoxes of Multicultural- ism: Essays on Swedish Society, edited by between indigenous white and black plaining these differences. A further Alexandra Alund and Carl-Ulrik men in types of jobs and earnings than analytical step from here could be to Schierup. Aldershot: Avesbury. there are between indigenous white relate these findings to recent theoreti-

Refuge, Vol. 16, No. 4 (October 1997) Bhachu, Panninder. 1993. "Identities Con- Sverige, Maktutredningens huvud- structed and Reconstructed: Representa- rapport. Stockholm: Alrnanna Forlaget. tions of Asian Women in Britain." In Hugo, Graham. 1995. "Asia on the Move: Migrant Women: Crossing Boundaries and Research Challenges for Population Ge- Changing Identities, edited by Gina Buijs. ography." Wiley Guest Lecture, Interna- Oxford: Berg Publishers Limited. tional Conference on Population Buijs, Gina, ed. 1993. Migrant Women: Cross- Geography, University of Dundee, 16 ing Boundaries and Changing Identities. September 1995. Oxford: Berg Publishers Limited. McDowell, Linda. 1993a. "Space, Place and Castles, Stephen, andMark J. Miller. 1993. The Gender Relations: Part I. Feminist Em- Age of Migration: International Population piricism and the Geography of Social Movements in the Modem World. London: Relations." Progress in Human Geography Macmillan. 17, no. 2,157-79. Champion, Tony. 1992. "Migration in Britain: -1993b. "Space, Place and Gender Rela- Research Challenges and Prospects." In tions: Part 11. Identity, Difference, Femi- Migration Processes and Patterns, Vol. 1, nist Geometries and Geographies." Research Progress and Prospects, edited by Progress in Human Geography 17, no. 3, Tony Champion and Tony Fielding. Lon- 305-18. don and New York: Belhaven Press. Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1991. Chant, Sylvia, ed. 1992. Gender and Migration "Cartografies of Struggle: Third World in the Developing Countries. London and Women and the Politics of Feminism." In New York: Belhaven Press. Third World Womenand the Politics of Femi- Chant, Sylvia, and Sarah A. Radcliffe. 1992. nism, edited by C. T. Mohanty, A. Russo, "Migration and Development: The Im- and L. Torres. Bloomington, IN: Univer- portance of Gender." In Gender and Mi- sity of Indiana Press. gration in the Developing Countries, edited Radcliffe, Sarah A. 1990. "Ethnicity, Patriar- by Sylvia Chant. London and New York: chy and Incorporation into the Nation: Belhaven Press. Female Migrants as Domestic Servants in Di Stefano, Christine. 1990. "Dilemmas of Peru." Environment and Planning D: Soci- Difference: Feminism, Modernity and ety and Space 8, no. 4,379-93. ." In Feminism/Postmod- Skeldon, Ronald. 1995. "The Challenge Fac- emism, edited by Linda Nicholson. Lon- ing Migration Research: A Case for don: Routledge. Greater Awareness." Progress in Human Duncan, Simon. 1994. "Theorizing Differ- Geography 19, no. 1,91-96. ences in ." Environment and Zlotnik, Hania. 1995. "The South-to-North Planning A 26,1177-1194. Migration of Women." Internatio~alMi- Hirdmann, Yvonne. 1988 "Genussystemet." gration Review xxix, no. l. a In SOU 1990:44, Demokrati och makt i

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