Experiences of migration as a space for reflection: renegotiating gender roles in family relationships

Abstract

"Based on biographical narrative interviews with three migrant women, the article discusses how migration experiences can lead to a reflection of gender roles. In the three cases, there are various motivations for migration, different family arrangements and work experiences throughout the migration process, and also a change of roles of the women within their families. For the interview partners, the access to material resources achieved partly under great sacrifice and the possibility to compare different life contexts and gender regimes triggered an ambivalent process of reflection on gender relations. Their reorganization of gender relations can be rather incomplete or require strong legitimization upon return; it can also be transmitted as a project for the next generation to complete." (author's abstract)