Gendering Migration: the Case of Southern Europe

It is now generally acknowledged that mainstream approaches to migration, of both the liberal and Marxist varieties, have tended to be gender blind and have failed to consider the role of the family and social networks in the migration process (Buijs 1993; Brah 1996). Women, however, have been particularly affected by transnational global processes and are an increasingly important component of new migrations, especially to Southern Europe. Whilst some have cast doubt on the extent of feminisation, on the basis of official figures (Zlotnik 1995), others (Anderson and Phizacklea 1997) argue that there are large numbers of undocumented women who are testimonies to an increasingly feminised migrant workforce. There are at least 6.4 million women in Europe who are not full citizens of the countries where they live. It is estimated that there are more than 1 million migrant domestic workers in Europe (Lutz 1997). Indeed, more than 14 million non-nationals constitute second-class citizens in what has been termed ‘Fortress Europe’ (Lutz et al. 1995).