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Constructing Meaningful Lives: Biographical Methods in Research on Migrant Women

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  • Umut Erel

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Umut Erel, 2007. "Constructing Meaningful Lives: Biographical Methods in Research on Migrant Women," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(4), pages 35-48, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:12:y:2007:i:4:p:35-48
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.1573
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Karijn G. Nijhoff, 2017. "Polish Migrants in The Hague: Stories of Integration and Attachment," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 623-640, May.
    2. Lucie Trlifajová & Lenka Formánková, 2023. "‘Finally, We Are Well, Stable’: Perception of Agency in the Biographies of Precarious Migrant Workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(6), pages 1583-1604, December.
    3. Anitta Kynsilehto, 2011. "Negotiating Intersectionality in Highly Educated Migrant Maghrebi Women's Life Stories," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(7), pages 1547-1561, July.
    4. Anas & David CÆ°á» ng Nguyá»…n & Caitlin Nunn, 2022. "Calais Again," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(3), pages 569-573, September.
    5. Marta Vohlídalová, 2021. "Early-Career Women Academics: Between Neoliberalism and Gender Conservatism," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 26(1), pages 27-43, March.
    6. Guharay Gómez, C.G., 2019. "Social Protection on the Move: a transnational exploration of Nicaraguan migrant women’s engagement with social protection in Spain and Nicaragua," ISS Working Papers - General Series 648, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.

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