Social Integration and Social Exclusion of Skilled

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Social Integration and Social Exclusion of Skilled Immigrant Women from Countries outside the European Union Final research report

Yvonne Riaño, Nadia Baghdadi, Doris Wastl-Walter

Gruppe für Sozialgeographie, Politische Geographie und Gender Studies Geographisches Institut Universität Bern 2006

Table of contents 1. Deutsche Zusammenfassung ............................................................................................................2 2. English abstract ....................................................................................................................................................4 3. Objectives and relevance of the research project .............................................................................................6 4. Research design, theoretical framework, methods and data ............................................................................7 4.1 Theoretical framework and specific research questions .............................................................................8 4.2 Case studies, methodology and project organisation ..................................................................................9 5. Main results ........................................................................................................................................................11 5.1 Migration patterns of skilled migrant women ............................................................................................11 5.2 Women's projects and experiences of migration ........................................................................................12 5.3 The resources of skilled immigrant women: institutionalised cultural capital...................................... 14 5.4 Labour market participation of skilled immigrant women......................................................................15 5.5 Understanding the problems facing skilled immigrant women………………………………………. 17 5.6 Women's strategies to improve their labour market participation........................................................ 18 5.7 The meaning of professional participation for skilled immigrant women..............................................20 5.8 Representations of immigrant (women) in media-, everyday- and state discourse................................23 6. Contribution to central questions of the National Research Programme "Social Integration and Social Exclusion" (NRP51)..........................................................................................................................................25 7. Conclusions and recommendations...................................................................................................................30 8. References.......................... ..........................................................................................................................31 9. Project publications.......................... ..........................................................................................................34

NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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Integration und Ausschluss von qualifizierten Migrantinnen aus Ländern ausserhalb der Europäischen Union Yvonne Riaño, Nadia Baghdadi, Doris Wastl-Walter _______________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Zusammenfassung Die Migration in die Schweiz zeichnet sich durch eine zunehmende Feminisierung aus und das insbesondere im Fall von Einwandernden aus Ländern ausserhalb der Europäischen Union. So waren 1980 48% der Personen, die aus Lateinamerika in die Schweiz kamen, Frauen; dieser Prozentsatz stieg bis im Jahr 2003 auf 64% an. Bei der Migration aus Asien stieg der Frauenanteil von 46% im Jahre 1980 auf 52% im Jahre 2003 (BFS, 2004: 93). Das zunehmend weibliche Gesicht der Migrationsströme aus Ländern ausserhalb Europas zeigt sich jedoch nicht nur in der Schweiz, sondern ist vielmehr Teil einer globalen Entwicklung in Richtung zunehmender Feminisierung der Migration. Migrantinnen und ebenso Migranten aus Ländern ausserhalb Europas werden in politischen und medialen Diskursen oft in ein negatives Licht gerückt. In der Regel werden sie als ungebildete Personen wahrgenommen, für welche Migration der einzige Ausweg aus ihrer ökonomischen Situation in ihren Heimatländern darstellt. Vor allem Migrantinnen gelten oft als Opfer von Ausbeutung und als im Migrationsland ungenügend integrierte Personen. Die neuere Forschung – so auch die vorliegende Studie – zeigt jedoch die Unangemessenheit solcher Generalisierungen auf und macht aufmerksam auf die Folgen, wenn sich solche Bilder in der Migrations- und Integrationspolitik niederschlagen (Riaño, 2005). Migrantinnen sind eine heterogene Gruppe und unterscheiden sich voneinander beispielsweise in Bezug auf ihre Herkunftsorte, ihren Bildungsstand, ihren Lebensstandard im Herkunftsland, ihre städtischen bzw. ländlichen Hintergründe, ihre religiöse Zugehörigkeit, und nicht zuletzt aufgrund ihrer Migrationsgründe und -erfahrungen. Des Weiteren positionieren die Aufenthalts- und Bürgerrechtsregelungen in der Schweiz Migrantinnen unterschiedlich in Abhängigkeit von Aufenthaltsstatus und Nationalität. Damit die verschiedenen Situationen von Migrantinnen vermehrt wahrgenommen werden und in gesellschaftliche und wissenschaftliche Diskurse wie auch in die Integrationspolitik einfliessen, ist Hintergrundwissen unabdingbar. Bis anhin fehlt es jedoch an Grundlagenforschung; nur wenige Studien befassten sich mit der Feminisierung der Migration und untersuchten die Rolle von Geschlecht in Migrations- und Integrationsprozessen und das Spektrum an verschiedenen Situationen sozialer Integration von Migrantinnen in der Schweiz (Le Breton 1998; Prodolliet 1998, Sancar et al, 2001, Waldis 2001, Carbajal, 2004, Wanner et al, 2005, Hettlage 2005, Mainardi, 2006, Richter, 2006). Bis jetzt gibt es nur wenige schweizerische Studien, die qualifizierte Migrantinnen in ihr Sample einbezogen, obwohl immer mehr gut ausgebildete Frauen in die Schweiz einreisen (Riaño, 2003). Dies ist auch deshalb erstaunlich, weil sich die Migrationspolitik in der Schweiz und in Europa in den letzten Jahren vornehmlich auf qualifizierte Arbeitkräfte ausrichtet. Dahinter steht mitunter die Annahme, dass das Wissen qualifizierter Personen problemlos in die lokale Wirtschaft einfliessen kann und dass sich diese Personen, gerade weil sie gut ausgebildet sind, schneller in die hiesige Gesellschaft integrieren können. Wissenschaftliche Studien in Europa und Nordamerika stellen solche Annahmen in Frage. In der Schweiz wissen wir noch wenig über qualifizierte Migration und es besteht deshalb dringender Bedarf an Forschung über die sozio-ökonomischen Integrationsmöglichkeiten von qualifizierten Personen. Wissenschaftler und Wissenschaftlerinnen ausserhalb der Schweiz (z.B. Kofman, 2000; Preston, 2003; Raghuram, 2003) plädieren zudem dafür, qualifizierte Migrantinnen vermehrt in den Fokus zu rücken und zu untersuchen, ob Geschlechterfaktoren ihre marginale Position im Arbeitsmarkt zu erklären vermögen. Neben der mangelnden Beachtung des unterschiedlichen Bildungsgrads und des sozio-ökonomischen Hintergrunds von Migrantinnen wurde der Zusammenhang zwischen Art der sozialen Integration und nationaler Herkunft wenig beleuchtet. Ebenso bleibt zu klären, welche Rolle Ethnizität bei der sozialen Integration spielt, d.h. der Einfluss der Wahrnehmung von Personen als kulturell, religiös und/oder äusserlich „Andere“. Es besteht ein Bedarf an Studien, welche die unterschiedlichen Realitäten von MigrantInnen in der Schweiz im Detail analysieren und zeigen, welche Rolle Geschlecht im Prozess von sozialer Integration und Ausschluss spielt. Das vorliegende Projekt leistet einen Beitrag zur Schliessung dieser Wissenslücken, indem folgende Themen unter einer Geschlechterperspektive untersucht wurden: (a) Sozio-ökonomische Integrationsund Ausschlussprozesse bei (hoch)qualifizierten Migrantinnen, (b) Strategien, welche Migrantinnen entwickeln, um sozial und ökonomisch integriert zu werden und (c) gesellschaftliche Diskurse und offizielle NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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Migrations- und Integrationspolitik sowie deren Effekt auf die Integrationschancen von Migranten und Migrantinnen. Die empirische Fallstudie wurde mit 57 Migrantinnen aus Ländern ausserhalb der Europäischen Union durchgeführt, welche sich nach ihrer nationalen Herkunft (Länder Lateinamerikas, des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens sowie Südosteuropa) und ihrem religiösen Hintergrund (christlich/muslimisch) unterscheiden. In der Fallstudie wurden sowohl qualifizierte Migrantinnen (mit Ausbildung auf Sekundarstufe II) als auch hochqualifizierte Frauen (mit Universitätsstudium) berücksichtigt. Der konzeptuelle Rahmen basiert auf Strukturationstheorien (Giddens, 1984), Ansätze zu sozialem und kulturellem Kapital (Bourdieu, 1986) und Intersektionalität von Klasse, Geschlecht und Ethnizität (Anthias, 2001, Knapp, 2005) sowie Theorien zu Diskursen (Foucault, 1980, Gregory, 2002). Das methodische Vorgehen orientierte sich an partizipativen Forschungsansätzen, wobei die theoretischen Prämissen von educación popular (Freire, 1970), post-kolonialer Theorie (Said, 1978) und die Kritik feministischer “Drittweltfrauen” (Mohanty, 1991) kombiniert wurden. Das übergeordnete Ziel des methodischen Ansatzes war es, die analytische Stimme von Migrantinnen in den Forschungsprozess einzuschliessen und eine partnerschaftliche Forschungsbeziehung zwischen Akademikerinnen und Personen ausserhalb der Universitäten zu etablieren. Es wurde als neue Methode ein partizipativer Workshop mit dem Namen MINGA entwickelt. Hierbei produzieren Akademikerinnen und Migrantinnen gemeinsam Wissen über Integrations- und Ausschlussprozesse. Die Ergebnisse der Workshops wurden durch biographische und problemzentrierte Interviews der Forscherinnen mit jeder Teilnehmerin ergänzt. Die Arbeitsmarktpartizipation der befragten qualifizierten Migrantinnen aus Lateinamerika, dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten und Südosteuropa wurde eingehend untersucht. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass diese Gruppe nur schwer Zugang zu sicheren und unbefristeten Anstellungen findet, die ihrer Ausbildung und ihren Erfahrungen entsprechen. So erlangten lediglich zehn der Frauen eine solche Arbeitsstelle, ein Drittel ist nicht erwerbstätig resp. erwerbslos und der Rest ist entweder unter ihren Qualifikationen bzw. in instabilen Arbeitsverhältnissen beschäftigt. Dies, obwohl die Studienteilnehmerinnen über sehr gute Ausbildungen, zudem meistens über Berufserfahrung verfügen und der deutschen Sprache mächtig sind. Hohe Qualifikationen allein sind folglich noch keine Garantie für eine erfolgreiche sozio-ökonomische Integration. Die Benachteiligung von Migrantinnen kann u.a. zurückgeführt werden auf Diskurse über Geschlecht und Ethnizität, welche zu institutionell verankerten Ungleichheiten beim Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt führen. Beispiele sind die mangelnde Anerkennung oder Unterbewertung der persönlichen Ressourcen und Bildungsabschlüsse von Nicht-EU Migrantinnen. Die Position von Migrantinnen wird zudem von traditionellen Rollenbildern in der Schweiz beeinflusst, die Migrantinnen primär als (nachziehende) Ehefrauen und in ihrer Mutter- und Pflegerolle und weniger als qualifizierte Arbeitskräfte sehen. Solche Diskurse sind u.a. in der Schweizer Migrations- und Integrationspolitik zu finden und in der persönlichen Haltung vieler ArbeitgeberInnen gegenüber MigrantInnen. Qualifizierte Migrantinnen sind darüber hinaus mit DeQualifizierungsprozessen und dem Verlust an Selbstvertrauen konfrontiert. Folglich resultiert Migration für viele gut ausgebildete Frauen eher in einem Statusverlust als in einem sozialen Aufstieg. Qualifizierte Migrantinnen bezeichnen ihre berufliche Entwicklung als zentrales Ziel und als wichtigen Teil ihrer persönlichen Identität. Angesichts der ungünstigen Umstände, mit denen Migrantinnen bezüglich ihrer Partizipation im Arbeitsmarkt konfrontiert sind, reagieren sie jedoch nicht bloss passiv, sondern mobilisieren zahlreiche Strategien, um ihre Chancen zu verbessern. Empfehlungen Es ist klar, dass eine den Qualifikationen entsprechende Integration in den Arbeitsmarkt sowohl Ziel der beruflich qualifizierten Migrantinnen als auch der gegenwärtigen Migrationspolitik ist. Dieses Ziel kann jedoch nur mit abgestimmten Massnahmen erreicht werden, die es qualifizierten Migrantinnen ermöglichen, ihre Bildungsressourcen und Berufserfahrungen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt auch einzubringen. Hierbei müssen die ethnische- und geschlechtsspezifischen Barrieren die zu Ungleichheiten beim Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt führen berücksichtigt werden. Wir haben drei wichtige Interventionsbereiche für die Entwicklung von gezielten Massnahmen identifiziert: (a) Bildung und Kommunikation, (b) Brücken bauen und (c) Frauengleichstellung. Hinsichtlich „Bildung und Kommunikation“ sind Massnahmen notwendig, welche der Entwertung des kulturellen und sozialen Kapitals qualifizierter Migrantinnen entgegenwirken. Ein wichtiger Schritt in diese Richtung ist die Entwicklung eines angemessenen, transparenten und bundesweit einheitlichen Systems der Anerkennung aussereuropäischer Bildungstitel. Um die Gleichwertigkeit ausländischer Bildungszertifikate mit schweizerischen Abschlüssen darüber hinaus zu fördern, sind Stipendienprogramme hilfreich, welche ein NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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zusätzliches oder aufbauendes Studium hierzulande ermöglichen. Weiters sind arbeitsmarktorientierte und berufsqualifizierende (Fach-)Sprachkurse für qualifizierte Migrantinnen zu nennen, die in Kooperation mit Berufsverbänden entwickelt werden könnten. Im Bereich „Brücken bauen“ sind Interventionen erforderlich, welche helfen geschlechts- und ethnizitätsbezogene Vorurteile abzubauen. Vielversprechend sind Programme zur Förderung der beruflichen Vernetzung qualifizierter Migrantinnen etwa durch längere Einsätze von Migrantinnen in Schweizer Firmen und Institutionen. Dadurch wird Migrantinnen ermöglicht Berufserfahrungen zu sammeln, während sich Arbeitgeber und -geberinnen die Gelegenheit bietet, qualifizierte Personen aus nicht-europäischen Ländern näher kennen zu lernen und dadurch Vorurteile abzubauen. Programmbegleitend sind Mentoring-Angebote sinnvoll, bei welchen erfahrene Mentoren und Mentorinnen die Migrantinnen vor, während und nach den Arbeitseinsätzen begleiten und dabei sowohl als berufliche als auch als kulturelle „Brückenbauende“ wirken. Auf dem Gebiet „Frauengleichstellung“ ist Unterstützung unentbehrlich, welche Migrantinnen einen uneingeschränkten Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt zusichert. Besonders wichtig sind diesbezüglich Kinderbetreuungsangebote, da Migrantinnen aufgrund des fehlenden familiären Netzwerks in der Schweiz von solchen Möglichkeiten abhängig sind. Diese sollten den Bedürfnissen von Arbeitnehmerinnen entsprechend erschwinglich sein, an günstigen Standorten liegen und zeitlich flexibel sein. Ausserdem ist eine berufliche Planung ausserordentlich wichtig, welche unterstützt werden kann mittels Beratungsangeboten – ähnlich den im Rahmen dieses Forschungsprojekts durchgeführten MINGA-Workshops, die die Standortbestimmung und Entwicklung von beruflichen Perspektiven in Form von Gruppenarbeit erlaubten. Darüber hinaus sensibilisieren Schulungen von berufsberatenden Personen diese hinsichtlich möglicher unbewusster geschlechtsspezifischer Annahmen. Ferner kommt Migrantinnen und ihren Partner die Aufgabe zu, eine partnerschaftliche Aufteilung von Hausarbeit und Kinderbetreuung innerhalb der Familie auszuhandeln, damit die berufliche Weiterentwicklung beider Partner möglich ist. 2. English abstract Migration to Switzerland has become increasingly feminised, particularly in the case of immigrants from countries outside the European Union. For example, whereas in 1980, only 48% of Latin American immigrants were women, by the year 2003 the percentage had increased to 64%. In the case of Asian immigrants, the percentage of women increased from 46% in 1980 to 52% in 2003. The feminisation of migration flows from countries outside Europe is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a global trend whereby the number of female migrants from those countries is rapidly increasing. Public, political and media discourses have unfortunately cast immigrant women from countries outside Europe in a negative light. They are viewed as uneducated, as individuals for whom migration is the only way to improve their material quality of life and that of their families, as victims of exploitation and as poorly integrated. Although these views may be true in some cases, current research is showing the inadequacy of such generalisations and the immigration policies they generate. Immigrant women are diverse in terms of their place of origin, their educational level, the standard of living in their country of origin, their urban or rural backgrounds, their religious background, their reasons for and experiences of migration, and the civil rights they possess in Switzerland (depending on residence status and nationality). Both societal discourses and integration policies need to reflect the diversity of situations of immigrant women, but the knowledge-base needed to guide rethinking is lacking. Few studies have been conducted showing the variety of situations and the degree of social integration of immigrant women. Interest on issues of female migration and gender has only recently begun. Few studies have addressed the case of skilled female immigrants despite the fact that their numbers are increasing. Besides, the new emphasis of immigration policies in Switzerland, and in Europe, is on acquiring skilled labour because it is assumed that their knowledge will flow more easily into the local economy and that, because the immigrants are better educated, they will integrate rapidly. Thus, research on the possibilities of socio-economic integration of skilled immigrant women is urgently needed. Researchers in Europe and North America (e.g. Kofman, 2000; Preston, 2003; Raghuram, 2004) are also pleading to take skilled immigrant women out of their invisibility and to examine the extent to which issues of gender play a role in the marginal position that migrant women occupy in the labour market. In addition to a lack of attention paid to women’s diversity of skills and socio-economic backgrounds, the relationship between women’s chances for social integration and their national origin, as well as the role that ethnocultural characteristics –such as physical “visibility” and religious background– may have in social integration have been given insufficient attention. NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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Detailed research is thus needed to describe and analyse the evidently differentiated reality of female immigrants in Switzerland and to understand the role that gender plays in processes of social integration. This project aims at contributing to fill the gaps in knowledge by examining the following issues from a gender perspective: (a) the processes of social integration and social exclusion of skilled immigrant women, (b) the strategies that migrant women adopt to strive for social integration, and (c) the contents and effects of societal discourses and official policies on immigrants and on their social integration. This case study includes 57 immigrant women from countries outside Europe, differentiated by national origin (countries in Latin America, the Middle East and South East Europe) and religious background (Christian/Muslim). The study includes both ‘skilled’ –those having at least a secondary education– and ‘highly skilled’ –those who have a university degree or equivalent– immigrant women. The conceptual framework for the study of the socio-economic participation of skilled immigrant women builds on the theories of structuration (Giddens, 1984), social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986), intersectionality of class, gender and ethnicity (Anthias, 2001, Knapp, 2005), and social constructivism and discourse (Foucault, 1980, Gregory, 2002). The methodological framework for the study is participatory research. Our specific approach combined the theoretical premises of educación popular (Freire, 1970), postcolonial theory (Said, 1978) and Third World feminist critique (Mohanty, 1991). The general aim was to include the analytical voice of immigrant women in the research process, to establish more equal relationships between academics and those outside academia, and to contribute to women’s empowerment. For this purpose, we designed a specific type of participatory workshop by the name of MINGA. In this method both academics and immigrant women jointly produce knowledge. The results of the MINGA workshops were complemented by biographical and problem-centred interviews that were carried out with each one of our research partners. Our study has shown that when women move they are constructing and reconstructing gender and that gender shapes their migration patterns. Constructions of difference between men and women, in terms of their gender roles, have a direct implication on women’s decision to migrate and on their possibilities of integration in the countries of destination. Geographical imaginations are an important factor influencing the decision to migrate and the destination of migration. Positive images of Europe and Europeans, and of gender relations in Europe, have been very influential in womens’ decision to migrate to Switzerland. We argue that explanations of increased female migration from the perspective of conventional economic arguments are too narrow in their focus. We need to include a gender perspective which sees female migration as an outcome of global transformations in traditional gender roles. It is thus important to address the increased feminisation of migration from a global perspective which examines the implications of on-going changes in gender relations in both countries of origin and destination. We have assessed the participation in the Swiss labour market of skilled immigrant women from Latin America, the Middle East and South East Europe. Although these women have very good educational qualifications, often with professional experience prior to migration, and although they master the German language, only a small minority have been able to obtain employment that is commensurate with their skills and that has long-term prospects. A third of skilled immigrant women are not integrated in the labour market and a further half have a precarious labour status, either because they work in positions below their skill level or because their employment is unstable and without long-term prospects. Our study puts forward an explanation for this situation, based on the interplay of class, ethnicity and gender. We suggest that, at the structural level, three main factors directly influence the participation of skilled immigrant women in the labour market. These are (1) government policies and regulations in relation to immigration; (2) the conditions of the labour market and (3) public discourses and social attitudes toward immigrants from countries outside the EU. We have identified discriminatory concepts that are embedded in migration policies and the minds of many employers in Switzerland. Particularly important among these are the undervaluation of the personal and educational qualifications of non-EU immigrants, and patriarchal attitudes regarding the child-rearing role of immigrant women in society. These concepts combine to produce unequal opportunities for women to access the skilled labour market. Skilled immigrant women are not only faced with barriers to applying their educational resources in Swiss society, but they are also confronted with the associated de-skilling, loss of confidence and loss of autonomy. Thus, for many skilled immigrant women, migration does result in an improvement but rather a loss of class status. Our study has shown that immigrant women do not passively accept these unfavourable conditions. They mobilise many personal resources to facilitate their access or to improve their chances of participating in the labour market. Immigrant women’s strategies and responses to the challenge of labour-market participation NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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include re-skilling, taking up employment at a lower skill level, building new networks and doing unpaid work in social and political institutions. Participating in voluntary social and political activities is of great importance to immigrant women. On the one hand, it is a means of carrying out an activity beyond the home-making role imposed upon them by society. On the other hand, voluntary activity can be a stepping stone for paid work. Professional development is a principal aim of skilled immigrant women and it is central to their personal identity. Immigrating to Switzerland implies confrontation with new sets of norms and values regarding gender roles and the value of women’s work. Having children and confronting new Swiss norms regarding motherhood causes personal strife and compels many immigrant women to transform, adapt or struggle to maintain their pre-immigration level of professional activity. If Switzerland wants to benefit from the social and cultural capital that skilled immigrants bring into the country it needs to recognise that having skills is no automatic guarantee for successful socio-economic integration and to develop programmes that support the transfer and re-accreditation of such capital. These programmes need to take account of the ethnic- and gender specific factors that constrain the access of skilled immigrants to the labour market. 3. Objectives and relevance of the research project Approximately 1.6 million people of foreign origin live in Switzerland today, i.e. 22% of the total population (Swiss Federal Statistics, 2004). Up until the 1980s, 80% of immigrants came from member countries of the European Union (EU), particularly from neighbouring countries. However, two decades later this percentage has been reduced to 56% (Swiss Federal Statistics, 2004: 44). The origin of immigrants is increasingly from more distant locations including the ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey and countries outside Europe. The distribution by gender among immigrants is also changing. In 1990, nearly two thirds of the immigrants who entered the country were men; by the year 2003, however, the percentage of women and men entering the country was almost the same. The increase in the number of female immigrants entering Switzerland is particularly high in the case of countries outside the European Union. For example, whereas in 1980 only 48% of all Latin American immigrants were women, by the year 2003 the percentage had increased to 64%. In the case of Asian immigrants, the percentage of women increased from 46% in 1980 to 52% in 2003 (Swiss Federal Statistics, 2004: 93). Thus, in line with worldwide trends, contemporary migration to Switzerland is becoming truly global in origin, and is acquiring a dominantly female character (Riaño, 2005). During Switzerland’s transformation into a multicultural society, the distinction of who belongs to society, and who does not, has become a major issue. The issue of belonging (which is ultimately a question of citizenship; i.e. who is allowed to have full rights of participation in society), has been debated by the public and by their political representatives, and the outcome is reflected in naturalisation, immigration and integration policies at federal, cantonal and community levels. The issue continues to be debated. The pertinent question in this context is what knowledge-base is informing the debate and the decision-making process? In the case of immigrant women, the discourses of public, political and academic groups have cast them in a negative light. The women are viewed as poorly integrated, as uneducated and as victims for whom migration is the only way to improve their material quality of life and that of their families. Immigration policies towards female immigrants embody these views. Furthermore, these policies have been designed under the assumption that men are labour migrants and that women are their “appendages” whose sole role is that of reproduction. Current research (e.g. Prodolliet 1998, Waldis 2001, Riaño 2003) is revealing the inadequacy of such views and the immigration policies they generate. Although it is true that many immigrant women are unskilled, desperate to migrate, and often end up being exploited, it is not correct to view them all in this way. Immigrant women are diverse in terms of their place of origin, their education level, the standard of living in their country of origin, their urban or rural backgrounds, their reasons and experiences of migration and the civil rights they possess in Switzerland (depending on residence status and nationality). What the dominant discourse fails to recognize is that labour market participation is perceived by many immigrant women as central to the task of integrating in Swiss society. Unfortunately, in Switzerland few studies showing the variety of situations and the degree of social integration of immigrant women have been conducted. There has been little work concerned with issues of female migration and gender. The NRP 39 on “Migration and Intercultural Relationships” did not include any study on women and gender issues. This is unfortunate because studying social constructions of femininity and masculinity (i.e. the roles ascribed to women and men in society) is important for understanding genderspecific forms of social integration and/or exclusion (Truong, 1996; Yuval-Davis and Werbner, 1999). StudNRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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ies conducted on women have largely concentrated on the poor and unqualified (e.g. Bochsler and Gisiger 1989; Renschler 1991; Spring 1992; Canlas-Heuberger et al 1995; Joris 1995; Karrer et al 1996; Le Breton 1998; Schertenleib 2001) and have not, except for a few exceptions (e.g. Haour-Knipe 1984; Riaño 2003), addressed the case of skilled female immigrants, despite the fact that their numbers are increasing. Indeed, there has been an increase in the educational level of women migrating to Switzerland. In fact, the percentage of foreign working women, from Asia, Africa and Latin America, who have a university degree, is nearly the same as their Swiss counterparts (15.3%) (Swiss Federal Statistics, 2004: 35). This reflects a general trend towards a significant raise in the qualifications of immigrants to Switzerland: whereas in 1990 only 22, 5% of economically active foreigners in Switzerland were highly skilled, this percentage had increased by the year 2000 to 62% for recently arrived immigrants (Pecoraro, 2004). Besides, the new emphasis of immigration policies in Switzerland (AuG), and in Europe, is on acquiring skilled labour because it is assumed that their knowledge will flow more easily into the local economy and that, because the immigrants are better educated, they will integrate rapidly. Thus, research on the possibilities of socio-economic integration of skilled immigrant women is urgently needed. Researchers elsewhere (e.g. Kofman, 2000; Preston, 2003; Raghuram, 2004) are also pleading to take skilled immigrant women out of their invisibility and to examine the extent to which gender dynamics play a role in the marginal position that migrant women occupy in the labour market. In addition to a lack of attention paid to women’s diversity of skills and socio-economic backgrounds, the relationship between women’s chances for social integration and their national origin has received little attention. In studies of social integration, it is important to take the country of origin into account because ‘foreigner’ laws in Switzerland discriminate on the basis of origin: whereas EU-citizens enjoy similar participation rights to Swiss nationals (except for voting rights), individuals from countries outside the EU face many legal barriers to social integration. Thus far, little empirical research has been carried out on women from countries outside the EU despite their increasing prominence. Ethnocultural characteristics, such as physical “visibility” and religious background, are also important variables for studies of social integration because main stream society’s discourses on cultural difference (‘othering’) may have the practical effect of including or excluding immigrants. Little research has focused on the effect of ‘othering’ discourses on the socio-economic integration of skilled immigrants. Detailed research is urgently needed to describe and analyse the evidently differentiated reality of female immigrants in Switzerland and to understand the role that gender plays in processes of social integration. The aim of this project is to contribute to filling the gaps in the Swiss literature by studying the following issues from a gender perspective: (a) the socio-economic participation of skilled immigrant women from countries outside the European Union and with contrasting national (Latin America, Middle East, South-eastern Europe) and religious backgrounds (Christian / Muslim), (b) women’s strategies for improving their socioeconomic integration, (c) the content of societal discourses regarding immigrants, as implicit in media-, everyday and state discourse, and the effect they may have on social integration. 4. Research design, theoretical framework, methods and data Social integration can be defined as a process as well as an aim. We interpret social integration from the point of view of human rights. In this context, the aim of full integration is for the individual to have equal right to access spaces of social, economic and political participation. Social integration is thus examined as the possibility for immigrant minorities to participate on an equal basis in the economic, social, political and symbolic spheres of society. Wicker and Schoch (1996) argue that integration can only take place when the possibility of equal participation is given and used. Some argue that the dimension of “place making” is very important in social integration. Place making is the ability of an individual or a group to make a place for themselves in society, where a feeling of well-being is achieved. This implies, besides economic and political integration, having social contacts, experiencing a feeling of socio-spatial belonging, and of self-worth (Massey, 1994; Riaño, 1999; Ehrkamp, 2005). The self-worth of individuals does not only lie in their individuality but in belonging to a collective (Riaño and Brutschin, 1999). Our practical examination of social integration takes into account both structure and human agency, as articulated by structuration theory (Giddens, 1984). We argue that gaining a deep understanding of social integration and formulating successful integration policies requires addressing the interplay between the macrolevel of structure and the micro-level of human agency. On the one hand, it does not make sense to promote NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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integration without addressing structural constraints on participation. On the other hand, the attitudes and actions of individuals can play an essential role in counteracting structural constraints. Thus, at the macro-level of structure, we focus on the role that society’s discourses about immigrants, and immigrant women in particular, play in facilitating or hindering their social integration. At the micro-level of human agency, we are interested in examining the resources and strategies immigrant women use to gain access to spaces of socioeconomic activity. Thus, in order to understand the interplay between micro- and macro-level factors of social integration this project addresses questions pertaining to both the resources, experiences and actions of immigrant women (social actors) and the representations of immigrants in societal discourses: (a) • • • • • • (b) • • • 4.1

Social Actors (experiences and actions of immigrant women) What are the migration projects and experiences of migration of skilled immigrant women? What are their personal resources and educational qualifications? What are their experiences of socio-economic participation? How can their socio-economic participation be characterised? What strategies do women devise to confront the challenge of socio-economic participation? What meaning do immigrant women attribute to participating in spaces of social and economic activity? Discourses in Society (representations of immigrants) How are immigrants, and immigrant women in particular, represented in societal discourses? What gender roles and ethnic constructions are implicit in such representations? What is the possible impact of such representations on the social integration of immigrants, and immigrant women in particular? Theoretical framework and specific research questions

The study of social actors; i.e. the resources, actions, experiences and nature of socio-economic participation of skilled immigrant women, is based on the conceptual approaches of ‘social and cultural capital’ and ‘intersectionality’, which as will be seen below, are particularly pertinent for studying the questions posed above: ‘Social and cultural capital’. The question of the socio-economic participation of skilled immigrant women in the labour market is a question of social equality. Bourdieu (1986) has argued that in order to understand how class differences and social inequalities emerge we need to examine not just economic capital but also social and cultural capital. Under social capital he understands a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance, influence and support. Social capital is thus a personal asset that provides tangible advantages to those individuals, families or groups that are better connected. Cultural capital is also vital for social mobility and can exist in three states: embodied in the individual as long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body (gained through, for example, parental education and everyday practice); objectified in cultural goods (pictures, books, etc.) and institutionalized as academic credentials and diplomas. Social and cultural capital can be converted, under certain conditions, into economic capital and thus become constitutive of class positioning. Thus, we pose the following specific question: to what extent are skilled immigrants able to transfer, maintain and re-create their social and cultural capital? ‘Intersectionality’. The intersectionality approach emphasises the role that the interplay of the categories of class, ethnicity and gender plays in shaping an individuals’ ability to gain access to material and symbolic resources or, in other words, in determining her/his inclusion or exclusion from particular sectors of society (e.g. Anthias, 2001, Knapp, 2005). The approach of intersectionality holds that the classical models of social exclusion within a society, such as those based on race/ethnicity; gender, religion, sexuality, class, and other markers of difference do not act independent of one another. Instead, these forms of social exclusion interrelate to determine the position of individuals in the society where they live. Intersectionality thus holds that knowing, for example, that an immigrant woman lives in a patriarchal society is insufficient information to describe her experience; instead, it is also necessary to know her ethnic origin, her religion, her class, etc. Proponents of intersectionality hold that unless policy makers take intersectionality into account, policies will be of less use because the life experiences and needs of individuals depend on their gender, ethnicity, religion and class. In the light of these arguments, we pose the following specific research question: how do class, ethnicity, religion and gender interact to shape skilled immigrant women’s access to the upper segments of the labour market? The study of societal discourses about immigrant women builds on the following conceptual propositions as NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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formulated by researchers following the approach of social constructivism. First, the notion of ‘discourse’ refers to groups of statements which structure the way someone / something is thought about, and the way we act on the basis of that thinking. Second, discourses are not free-floating, independent constructions, but are materially implicated in the conduct of day-to-day life where they have substantial constitutive effects (Scott, 1982). Third, discourses are powerful because they are productive. Discourses ‘naturalise’ and often implicitly universalize a particular view of the world and position subjects within it (Foucault, 1980, Gregory, 1978, 2002). Fourth, discourses always provide partial, situated knowledge: as such they are characterised by particular constellations of power and knowledge and are always open to contestation and negotiation (Hall, 1992). Building on the intersectionality approach, we are interested in examining the role that societal discourses about immigrants, and the constructions of ethnicity, class, religion and gender that are implicit in such constructions, play in structuring their access to the Swiss labour market. Studying discourses on ethnicity implies understanding how dominant groups categorize minority groups and the implications that demarcating boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘those who are different’ may have in the labour market participation of immigrant populations. Studying discourses about class means studying the hierarchical distinctions that powerful groups construct between groups and individuals in society in order to secure the economic interests of the first and undermine the access to social resources of less powerful groups, such as immigrant populations. Giving attention to societal discourses about ‘other’ religions means addressing the question of the extent to which mainstream society tolerates difference regarding religious beliefs and practices, and the effect that tolerance (or the lack thereof) may have in the ability of immigrants to gain access to a society’s resources. Studying gender discourses means examining the material implications that constructions of femininity and masculinity may have in the everyday lives of women and men, including the access of immigrant women to the labour market. 4.2

Case studies, methodology and project organisation

This research project focuses on a case study of 57 skilled women from Latin America (Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina), the Middle East (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya) and South-eastern Europe (Kosovo, Montenegro, BosniaHerzegovina). These women come from contrasting religious backgrounds (Christian / Muslim). These case studies have been chosen because of our interest in understanding (a) the role that religious belonging plays in gaining access to spaces of social participation and (b) the role that social constructions of ‘Third World’ and ‘Muslim’ women have in socio-economic participation. Studying these cases is of further relevance because they are representative of recent migration trends to Switzerland. The numbers of Latin American immigrant women have more than tripled in the past decade and they are increasingly well-qualified (a third have professional training either at the University level or vocational training) (Swiss Federal Statistics, 2003). The number of immigrants from predominantly Islamic countries has doubled in the past decade and the percentage of women has increased from 36% in 1990 to 45% in 2000. Women with Muslim background are also increasingly well qualified. In terms of numbers, Islam has become the third most important religion in Switzerland after Catholicism and Protestantism (Heiniger, 2002). Few studies on Latin American women are available. Studies on Muslim women have tended to focus on the effect that Islamic religious values have on Muslim immigrants’ integration process rather than examining the role that prejudiced views of Islam may play in social integration. The methodological framework for examining the participation of skilled immigrant women from Latin America, the Middle East and South-eastern Europe into the labour market, as well as the role of societal discourses in immigrant’s possibilities of socio-economic participation, is that of participatory research. Our specific approach combined the theoretical premises of educación popular (Freire, 1970), post-colonial theory (Said, 1978) and Third World feminist critique (Mohanty, 1991). The general aim was to include the analytical voice of immigrant women in the research process, to establish more equal relationships between academics and those outside academia, and to contribute to strengthening immigrant women (Riaño and Baghdadi, forthcoming b). For this purpose, we designed a specific type of participatory workshop by the name of MINGA. In this method both academics and immigrant women jointly produce knowledge. It consists of an interactive process whereby a group of immigrant women (our research partners) meets with the researchers; each woman narrates her own history of socio-economic integration and thereafter the group analyses each individual story. The final research results are discussed and evaluated in plenum. Thus, women expand their knowledge by setting the analysis of their own histories in the context of other women’s NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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histories, by participating in the research project as research partners, and by devising new strategies towards socio-economic integration. MINGA workshops were carried out in collaboration with the following immigrant organisations: Migrantinnenwerkstatt Wisdonna (cfd), MigrantInnenraum Aarau and Escuela Latinoamericana (Bern and Zürich), training institutions (ECAP) and the Offices for the Equality of Women and Men in Canton Aarau. The results of the MINGA workshops were complemented by biographical and problem-centred interviews that were carried out with each one of the women. These interviews consisted of a more detailed narration where each individual woman had the opportunity to review and remember her past life and to reflect on her experiences. From the point of view of the women participating in this study, the MINGA workshops proved to have concrete beneficial effects for their socio-economic integration. They stated in their evaluations that the workshops helped them by: (a) reinforcing personal confidence by being included in the process of research analysis, (b) expanding their understanding of individual and collective situations of socio-economic integration; (c) better planning of future strategies of action (c) gaining strength to continue their struggle, (d) strengthening their position in society through networking with university researchers, immigrant organisations and other immigrant women, and (e) obtaining a research participation certificate from a university, which enhances their curriculum vitaes. Further, the method of discussing personal experiences of socioeconomic integration in groups proved to be particularly appropriate for women from countries outside Europe. The tradition of collective problem-discussing, which seems to prevail in many such countries, requires using methods that are based on the collective principle rather than simply isolating women through individual interview situations. From the point of view of the researchers, the MINGA method afforded deeper insight into issues of gender, migration and socio-economic inclusion, principally because our research partners were real experts in the field (an expertise that they had gained through first-hand experience) and because immigrant women felt at ease to speak in the MINGA workshops and thus to convey insightful information. The qualitative study of immigrant women was complemented by an analysis of three sets of discourses, which are considered as particularly influential for constructing “reality” about immigrants’ lives, characteristics and role to fill in society, as follows: media discourse, everyday discourse and state discourse. Studying media discourse; i.e. the language of mass communication, is essential for understanding the formation of public opinion (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989). Our images of people who are categorised as ‘other’, and their places of origin, depend to a great extent on the content of the messages that are conveyed by mass media. The study of everyday discourse; i.e. everyday communication; is important for understanding the process of construction of categories of membership. For Nilan (1995), the maintenance of boundaries of social identity is dependent on “knowing” the status of one’s own category membership. Accomplishing such membership is carried out through the interactional work of hierarchical categorizations in everyday talk. State discourse is defined by McDowell (2003) as the ways of portraying citizens and those unsuitable for citizenship, via official documents, white papers, legislation, political rhetoric, and other documents, texts, and forms of representation. They are particularly powerful discourses “because their legislative or policymaking positions place them in the crucible of discursive power and influence, namely there where discourse is not merely empty words, but has the direct force of law and regulation” (Van Dijk, 2004:15). Further, the study of state discourses is important because it is state discourses that shape and sustain national identities through narratives of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ (Somers, 1994). Indeed, the constitution of the ‘self’ is centred against an ‘other’: national identities are not only produced through processes that foster a sense of sameness but also through processes that emphasize a differentiation from the other (Valentine, 2001). Policies and discourses on immigrants can be interpreted as “one dimension of nation-building”. The arbitrary construction of foreigners as ‘different to us’ has the function of reinforcing national identity (Tabin, 2004). The chosen methods for this research project are thus qualitative and, as can be seen in Table 1 below, combine a variety of techniques including participatory workshops, problem-centred interviews, focused interviews, expert interviews, and text analysis.


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Table 1. Summary of research fields, topics of enquiry and research methods Fields Topics of enquiry Research methods Social actors

(a) Immigrant women’s projects and experiences of migration (b) Immigrant women’s personal and educational resources (c) Experiences of socio-economic participation (d) Characteristics of socio-economic participation (e) Strategies to confront professional participation challenges (f) Meaning attributed by women to professional participation

- Participatory MINGA workshops - Biographical- and problemcentred interviews - Text analysis of women’s narratives (grounded theory principles)

Discourses in society

(a) Representations of immigrants in print media, everyday communication & legislation on immigration and integration (b) Gender and ethnic constructions implicit in the representations of immigrants (c) Effects of discourse on immigrants’ integration, immigrant women in particular

- Swiss Print media: Text analysis1 - Everyday communication: Open interviews & focus groups (Swiss citizens2) - Swiss Immigration law: Expert Interviews (Swiss officials) - Analysis of legislation texts on immigration and integration3

This research project is organised as follows. The study of the participation of skilled immigrant women from Latin America, the Middle East and South-eastern Europe into the labour market, and the role of societal discourses in their possibilities of socio-economic participation constitutes the main part of the project, in terms of scope, duration and funding (three-year project, funding by NRP 51) and is conducted by Yvonne Riaño and Nadia Baghdadi at the Department of Geography of the University of Bern. The study of media discourse, everyday discourse and state discourse is complementary to the former study; this section is a smaller enterprise in terms of time span (semester term projects) and is divided into three sub-projects, each one of them addressing the topics of media, everyday, and state discourses on immigrants. The studies of media and everyday discourses have been carried out in the context of our teaching and research supervision activities and have included Master students (Chantal Wysmüller) and graduate-course participants. The analysis of state discourses has been conducted by project collaborators (Susanne Bachman and Markus Schär) and by Yvonne Riaño and Doris-Wastl-Walter, as voluntary researchers. Yvonne Riaño is responsible for the scientific coordination of the entire project. 5. Main results 5.1

Migration patterns of skilled immigrant women

Definitions of immigrants can be contested. However, the definition most used by academics is the United Nations’ definition, which recommends that an immigrant be defined as a “person who has moved to a country other than that of her/his usual residence and has been living in that country for more than one year. The country of destination effectively becomes her/his new country of usual residence” (Kofman, 2000: 9). In our study, we use such a definition by focusing on women who were born abroad and who migrated to Switzerland as adults. Table 2 shows the variety of migration patterns of our research partners according to their entry status to Switzerland. Marriage is the most important channel of migration (53%), followed by asylum-seeking (25%), study (10%), family reunification (7%) and work (5%). This reflects the trend that skilled immigrant women migrate in a variety of contexts and that the most common channels of entry into countries of destination are marriage and asylum-seeking rather than labour migration4. Indeed, family-related migration plays 1 Includes NZZ, Der Bund, Facts, Die Weltwoche, Die Wochenzeitung. 2 Swiss citizens differentiated by age, education, profession, living- and family situation, and earlier citizenship. 3 Includes ANAG, AuG, AsylG, VIntA, and Integrationsleitbilder from Zürich, Basel, Bern and Geneva. 4 The two exceptions are, first, an Argentine woman who was able to enter Switzerland to work because, although she grew up in Argentina, her parents had Swiss nationality, and second a Bosnian woman who came in the early 1970s as a guest worker, at a time of labour shortage in Switzerland.


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an enormous role in Swiss immigration. Approximately 43% of Switzerland’s immigrants migrate for reasons of marriage or family reunification, while only 26% of the immigrants enter for reasons of employment. Two thirds of the immigrants who enter Switzerland for family-related reasons are women (Swiss Federal Statistics, 2004). Whereas it is clear that marriage and asylum-seeking are main migration channels for skilled immigrant women there are also significant regional differences among them. For example, whereas 71% of the study participants from Latin America enter Switzerland in the context of ‘love migration’ (Riaño, 2003), i.e. marriage with a Swiss citizen, nearly half of the study participants from the Middle East leave their countries in the context of wars or political tensions (e.g. Kurdish women fleeing political persecution in Turkey or Iranian women fleeing Islamic fundamentalism). Table 2. Entry status and family situation of study participants Regions of origin

Latin America

Middle East / Southeastern Europe

Total

(31)

(26)

(57)

Marriage Refugee Study Family reunification Work

22 3 4 1 1

8 11 2 3 2

30 14 6 4 3

Residence Status

Swiss citizenship Yearly B-permit / (F, N) Permanent residence (C)

18 10 3

11 8 7

29 18 10

Civil status

Married Divorced Single

26 4 1

17 5 4

43 9 5

Family status

Children No children

22 9

22 4

44 13

Total women

Entry status

Source: MINGA workshops and biographical interviews (Riaño and Baghdadi) Our analysis of women’s interviews has shown that classifying immigrants based solely on the criteria of (official) reasons of entry is not sufficient. Immigrants may switch categories and one primary switching mechanism is marriage. A majority of the women considered in this study initially left their countries of residence to travel, study or work in a North American or European country. During this time they met their future husbands, in some cases Swiss citizens and in others permanent residents of Switzerland. The newly formed bi-national couples were confronted with the decision of where to live in order to stay together. All of the women eventually migrated to Switzerland but the decision-making process took between one and six years. Thus, immigrants cannot be neatly classified into one category (i.e. ‘marriage immigrants’, ‘labour immigrants’ or ‘students’) nor can they be seen as individuals who simply migrate as soon as an opportunity is available. Many women expressed how difficult the decision to leave their home countries was; they were obviously torn between their professional futures at home and the possibility of leading married lives abroad. This difficulty is expressed in the migration movements of the women: only a third of the women took one direct step to Switzerland, whereas the others moved back and forth over the years before finally settling in Switzerland. Further, labelling immigrant women simply as “marriage immigrants” may have the unfortunate implication that women are primarily seen through the lens of home-making activities rather than as potential participants of the labour market. We plead for increased attention to processes of change and transformation (see also Kofman, 2000; Piper, 2003). 5.2

Women’s projects and experiences of migration

The study of women’s narratives of migration has shown that societal constructions of femininity and masculinity – and the gender inequalities that they generate –, as well as idealised imaginations of Europe, play a decisive role in women’s project to migrate to Switzerland. The detailed analysis of migration biographies reveals five factors playing an essential role in women’s migration projects: (1) women’s discontent with uNRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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unequal gender relations in their societies of origin and their idealisation of Europe and European men; (2) Swiss men’s discontent with changing gender roles in Europe and their idealisation of Latin American and Middle Eastern Women; (3) the ideals and expectations of the women’s families as well as their Swiss partner’s families regarding gender roles; (4) the country of origin’s institutionalised practices of control and persecution of women; (5) a woman’s own internalised values of appropriate gender roles and behaviour. Table 3 below exemplifies through women’s narrative those five factors: Table 3. Factors playing a role in the migration of Latin American, Middle Eastern and South East European women (1) Women’s discontent with unequal gender relations in their societies of origin and their idealisation of Europe and European men “I always thought that I would marry a foreigner; maybe a European because Europeans are not as patriarchal, not as macho as the majority of our men. I was always an independent woman. I was not willing to bow myself to a constraining relationship; a relationship dominated by the stupid and irrational jealousy of a Dominican man. I thought that my husband being a European, I do not know where I had that image from, but I thought that Europeans were more advanced in that respect; that you could have a much more egalitarian relationship with them” Yolanda (2) Swiss men’s discontent with changing gender roles in Europe and their idealisation of Latin American and Middle Eastern Women “Women always say they like intelligent men. But my (Swiss) husband does not demand intelligence from a woman. He had a romantic idea about Latin American women: that they are loving and have a soft character. I think he had an idealistic view that does not correspond to reality…… an image of Latin American women as a devoted ‘Madonna’...a mythical idea....And, of course, my actual way of being clashes with that image he had…” Sarah (3) The ideals and expectations of the women’s families, as well as their Swiss partner’s families, regarding gender roles “I met him in a musical tour group in United States. We fell in love and, of course, he had no idea about Mexico and I really did not know anything about Switzerland. …From the beginning I said I would like him to go to Mexico and started looking for work possibilities for him. His family, however, was not as open as mine to him leaving Switzerland. They said to him: go for three months, learn Spanish and then come back. My family on the contrary said: Switzerland….that’s good. Just go, no problem…if he is a good guy…why not…” Marina (4) The country of origin’s institutionalised practices of control and persecution of women “Then I met my husband (A Kosovar living in Switzerland) and I decided within a short period of time, very short, to come to Switzerland. Because the situation in Kosovo was very bad…and you always heard from the police that something happened, always, always, and women were always afraid of the Serbs when they went out at night. I thought, I want to get out, maybe I’d go to some other country, maybe to work or so… lead a different kind of life” Mimoza (5) A woman’s own internalised values of appropriate gender roles and behaviour (Rosana was studying in England when she met her Swiss husband) “I remember... the personnel chief was Australian and he chose me for a job in Australia. Happily, I told Jörg: Do you know what? When I finish my studies I am going to Australia. What? He said. Do I still have to wait? I wanted Jörg to come with me to Australia. But he said that was impossible because he liked his job in Switzerland very much and would therefore not leave it. And then he said: Why don’t you come to Switzerland for a holiday? When I came here he had organised everything for me to stay in Switzerland. He had already enrolled me in a German course and had already bought a train pass for me… I had to accept. I stayed” Rosana

Source: MINGA workshops and biographical interviews (Riaño and Baghdadi) Indeed, the structural situation of gender inequality in the societies of origin can set a favourable framework for women’s migration. Latin American and Middle Eastern women express dissatisfaction with the macho ideology that prevails in their societies of origin. At the same time, these women idealise European men as having the qualities that men in their home countries are lacking, thus making them particularly attractive as potential partners. Most of the Swiss men in these relationships seem to have been bothered by the changing dynamic in Swiss gender relations typified by the questioning of the traditional vision of men as breadwinners and women as homemakers. Fantasy works best at a distance, and thus some Swiss men will tend to imagine Latin American and Middle Eastern women as individuals who do not question traditional gender NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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roles and thus offer the possibility of a less antagonistic relationship. Such dissatisfactions and positive imaginations of Non-European women, and European men respectively, lay the ground for the formation of bi-national couples and create a favourable framework for women to migrate to Europe. Another example of the role of social structure in female migration is the case of countries like Turkey, Iran and Serbia/Kosovo where institutionalised practices of control and persecution of women can put particular pressure on women to migrate. The family is also an important point of reference in the formation and development of women’s migration projects. Women may migrate as a form of opposition to their families’ ideals and expectations of gender roles but they may also migrate as a form of compliance with their families’ expectations of gender roles, in particular the expectation that “women should follow men”. Interestingly, in the case of bi-national couples the expectations of both families, that of the man and that of the woman, can be mutually reinforcing. This needs to be further investigated in order to understand the influence that families living in two different geographical locations may have on women’s decision to migrate. We conclude the examination of skilled immigrant women’s migration projects with six arguments. First, our study has clearly shown that when women move they are constructing and reconstructing gender and that gender shapes their migration patterns. Constructions of difference between men and women, in terms of their gender roles, have a direct implication on women’s decision to migrate and on their possibilities of integration in the countries of destination. Second, geographical imaginations are an important factor influencing the decision to migrate and the destination of migration. Positive imaginations of Europe and Europeans, and of gender relations in Europe, have been very influential in women’s decision to migrate to Switzerland. The issue of geographical imaginations needs to be given more importance by migration researchers. Third, understanding the role of gender in female migration needs a combined perspective including factors of social structure and human agency. This includes analysis of gender regimes in society, of the ideals and expectations of women themselves, and of their families’ ideas regarding gender roles and gender relations. Fourth, we need to expand our explanation of bi-national marriages to include the view that they can be a means of redefining gender relations, in the case of immigrant women, and, in the case of men, a means of maintaining traditional gender relations. Fifth, bi-national marriages are a particular case of asymmetric power relations between men and women which, unless seriously reflected upon by both members of the couple, inevitably puts the foreign partner in a situation of dependency towards the partner with full citizenship rights. Sixth, love and how it influences women’s decision to migrate is a multi-layered phenomenon having an emotional and a rational component. Having a relationship with a person from a different culture involves both emotional fulfilment and (conscious or unconscious) rational considerations associated with the possibility of redefining feminine identity and gender roles. And last, but not least, the recent increase in female migration and in bi-national marriages must not be seen as merely a means for escaping poverty; it must also be seen as a result of global transformations in traditional gender relations. We argue that explanations of increased female migration from the perspective of conventional economic arguments are too narrow in their focus. We need to include a gender perspective which sees female migration as an outcome of global transformations in traditional gender roles. It is thus important to address the increased feminisation of migration from a global perspective which examines the implications of on-going changes in gender relations in both countries of origin and destination (for details see Riaño and Baghdadi, 2007). 5.3

The resources of skilled immigrant women: institutionalised cultural capital

We start this section by raising the questions of what is to be understood under the concepts of “skilled” and immigrant’s “resources”? Recent research has tended to draw a distinction between “skilled” immigrants, who have at least a secondary education, and “highly skilled” immigrants who have a university degree or equivalent (OECD, 2002). In our study we include both, skilled and highly skilled immigrant women. The concept of ‘resources’ is understood from the perspective of social and cultural capital, as articulated by Bourdieu (cp.). This section focuses on the institutionalized cultural capital of immigrant women, i.e. academic credentials, work experience and language skills. Table 4 shows the educational qualifications of the women participating in this study, i.e. their institutionalized cultural capital, at the time of their migration to Switzerland. The table is divided into skilled (secondary education) and highly skilled (university degree or equivalent) and presents their various fields of study 5. Regional differences can be observed: whereas Latin American women generally arrive in Switzerland after completion of their tertiary education, a little more than half of the women from the Middle East have com5 According to UNESCO/OECD’s ‘Eurostat Questionnaire on Statistics of Education at the Third Level’.


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pleted a similar level of education. The latter arrived at a younger age and most of them carried out their tertiary studies in Switzerland (others are still studying). The two most prevalent fields of study among this group of skilled immigrant women are commercial and business administration and social sciences, which together make up a total of 37%. Professions such as law, fine arts and architecture, education science and teacher training are second in numerical frequency followed by humanities, medical science and computer science. Engineering professions are a rare occurrence. Besides being highly skilled at the time of arrival, 88% of the Latin American women had worked as skilled professionals either in their countries of origin or elsewhere. This percentage is much lower (30%) for the Middle Eastern and South East European women because they arrived at a much younger age. All the women considered in this study speak fluent German and, besides their mother tongues, are able to speak an additional two to three languages. Thus, in conclusion the women studied in this paper possess very good educational resources at the time of their arrival in Switzerland; according to the theory of cultural capital, these educational resources should give them the basis to establish themselves in the upper segments of the labour market. Table 4. Educational qualifications of study participants at the time of migration to Switzerland Areas of geographical origin

Latin America


Total

7 8 4 3 2 1 1 3 1 1

6 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 -

13 9 4 4 4 2 2 4 2 1 1

-

11

11

31

26

57

Level of skills & study fields at time of migration

Highly skilled

Skilled Total

Fields of study1

Commerce & business administration Social and behavioural sciences Mass communication Law Education science & teacher training Humanities Medical science & health-related Fine arts and architecture Computer science Engineering Agriculture

High-school (later further education in Switzerland)

1: According to UNESCO/OECD’s ‘Eurostat Questionnaire on Statistics of Education at the Third Level’

Source: MINGA workshops and biographical interviews (Riaño and Baghdadi)

5.4

Labour market participation of skilled immigrant women

Our practical study of the socio-economic integration of skilled immigrant women focuses on the characteristics of their participation in the Swiss labour market. It aims at understanding the extent to which immigrant women are able to reach a position of inclusion in the labour market that: (a) provides them with an income; (b) corresponds to their level of experience and qualifications; (c) gives them stability in terms of regularity and long-term tenure, and (d) allows them to develop a feeling that they are valued and valuable for Swiss society. The assessment of the labour market participation of skilled immigrant women, at the time of the biographical interviews,6 shows that despite the fact that our research partners have very good educational qualifications, that many of them have had professional experience prior to migration, and that all of them master the German language, only a small minority is able to obtain employment that corresponds to their skill-level and that has long-term prospects. These are the three most common types of participation that have been identified: (a) not in the labour market (30%), (b) employed below skill-level (25%), and (c) employed according to skill-level (45%). As women’s employment is in many cases discontinuous and characterized by 6 One of the challenges of estimating the situation of professional integration of skilled immigrant women is due to the dynamic nature of their employment that can change over time. The results presented in this study correspond to the time when the interviews were carried out (Canton of Bern: 2004 and Cantons Zurich and Aargau: 2005).


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lack of long-term prospects a further differentiation of ‘short-term’ and ‘long-term’ employment has been introduced for types (b) and (c). From the results presented in table 5 below, it can be concluded that 55% of skilled immigrant women are not able to use their skills in the Swiss labour market because they are either not integrated in the labour market at all or because they work below their skill-level. Even in the case of women who work in positions suited to their skills, half of them face precarious situations because their employment is characterized by discontinuity and instability (short-term employment). These are the cases of women who prefer to create their own employment (e.g. home work as occasional translators, report writers or video producers) rather than being unemployed or the case of women who obtain occasional employment as replacement teachers or short-term project employees. Thus, only 21% of skilled immigrant women are able to occupy positions in the upper segments of the labour market at a level that corresponds to their skills, and in employment with long-term prospects. Table 5. Characteristics of labour market participation of skilled immigrant women Area of geographical origin

Latin America


Total

Not economically active (housewives / students) Unemployed

5

5

10

4

3

7

(b) Employment below skills (25% )

Short-term employment Long-term employment

3 7

1 3

4 10

(c) Employment according to skills (45%)

Short-term employment Long-term employment (18%)

9 3

7 7

16 10

31

26

57

Type of labour market participation (a) Not in the labour market (30%)

Total

Source: MINGA workshops and biographical interviews (Riaño and Baghdadi) When we look at the labour market participation of skilled women from Latin America, the Middle East and South East Europe a very interesting difference emerges. The percentage of Latin American women who are employed in positions that correspond to their skills and have long-term prospects is three times lower than that of women from the Middle East and South East Europe. Why this difference? In principle, and as explained before, at the time of their arrival to Switzerland, Latin American women have a higher level of education and professional experience than their counterparts from the Middle East and South East Europe. However, the majority of Latin Americans have gained their degrees outside of Switzerland, whereas a large number of women from the Middle East and South East Europe carry out their tertiary education in Switzerland. Thus, in the end, what counts most for successful labour market participation is not the amount of knowledge that an individual has but the place where that individual has earned her/his degree or professional experience. This result supports the findings obtained by researchers elsewhere (e.g. Bauder, 2003) showing that, contrary to what the theory of cultural capital presupposes, having institutionalized cultural capital is for immigrant populations no guarantee for gaining access to the upper segments of the labour market. It is difficult for immigrants to transfer their cultural capital because the standards for evaluating institutionalized cultural capital change once individuals cross boundaries. Skilled immigrant women are not only faced with the problem of not being able to transfer their institutional cultural capital but are confronted with the associated de-skilling, loss of confidence and loss of autonomy. As can be seen in table 6, presenting examples of the actual occupations of skilled immigrant women, many of them carry out occupations that are well below their skills and original socio-professional status. Thus, migration does not mean for those women an improvement but rather a loss of class status.


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Table 6. Examples of economic occupations of study participants Participation in the labour market

Professional training

Present occupation

(a) Not in the labour market

Not economically active

Medical doctor (Peru) Lawyer (Libya)

Housewife

Unemployed

Electrical engineer (Kosovo) Systems engineer (Mexico)

Unemployed

Short-term employment

Primary school teacher (Lebanon) Supermarket cashier Agronomist (Colombia) Fruit stand seller

Long-term employment

Lawyer (Venezuela) Economist (Kosovo)

Factory worker Cleaning lady

Short-term employment

Architect (Turkey) Political scientist (Peru / USA)

Freelance artist Freelance consultant

Long-term employment

Business administrator (Mexico) Ethnologist (Turkey)

Bank manager University lecturer

(b) Employment below skills

(c) Employment according to skills

Source: MINGA workshops and biographical interviews (Riaño and Baghdadi)

5.5

Understanding the problems facing skilled immigrant women: The role of class, gender and ethnicity

How can the precarious situation of the majority of skilled immigrant women be explained? What are the main problems that they face when trying to get access to skilled positions in the labour market? An analysis of the immigrant women’s narratives shows that class interests and prevailing discourses about ethnicity and gender in Swiss society – and the official policies and social practices and arrangements that result from those ideas – are main factors that hinder the professional integration of skilled immigrant women. Immigration policies can produce ‚classes’ of immigrants, which have differential rights of participation in Swiss society. This may have the practical effect of restricting the access of immigrants from countries outside the EU to the skilled labour market. For example, in the past decade, as a result of the need to develop closer links with the European Union (EU), foreigners have been portrayed by immigration policies as having differential qualities (depending on their cultural ‘closeness’ to the Swiss), and citizens of the European Union have been represented as ‘more likely to integrate’. The set of rules produced by such policies have effectively acted to reserve skilled employment for Swiss and EU nationals thus favouring the professional advancement and social status of the former and hindering the realization of the institutional cultural capital of non-EU immigrants. Ideas about ethnicity, as embedded in migration policies and in the minds of institutional representatives and employers, also play a main role in shaping the access of skilled immigrants to the labour market. The stratified system of civil rights, which currently discriminates between EU- and non-EU nationals are a clear example of ethnic discrimination by migration policies. Thus, ethnic origin determines the rights of immigrants: for example, EU nationals are able to change their one-year residence status (“B-permit”) to a permanent residence status (“C-permit”) after only five years of residence in Switzerland whereas non-EU nationals must wait a total of ten years. Because most employers require a C-permit for skilled positions, this policy acts as a significant hurdle for accessing the skilled labour market. The unequal distribution of civil rights is further manifest in that non-EU nationals must prove, before they can obtain a visa for the job that they have been offered, that there is no other EU- or Swiss national who can occupy that job. The realization of the institutional cultural capital of immigrants from countries outside the EU is further hindered by the lack of recognition of their educational qualifications. Whereas in recent years academic institutions and employers have increasingly recognized the foreign credentials of EU citizens, there is much reluctance towards accepting the credentials of immigrants from countries outside the EU. In addition, inconsistency and the lack of a unified accreditation system is a main hurdle for the recognition of foreign credentials. Many Swiss employers’ undervalue the professional qualities (educational resources and professional expeNRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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rience) of immigrants from Latin America, the Middle East and South East Europe. There is a tendency to imagine immigrants from countries outside the EU as professionally less capable than Swiss or EU nationals, and thus as belonging to a ‘lower class’ of individuals. Religious ‚visibility’ can be a further impediment for accessing the skilled labour market. For example, it has been practically impossible for the participants in this study who wear a Muslim headscarf to find skilled employment. Further, many immigrant women report that when trying to get a skilled job more weight is given to language perfection than to professional experience, social competence and the intercultural ability gained through migration experiences. The language diglossia of German-speaking Cantons, in which the spoken language is different from the written language, makes it even more difficult for immigrants to compete with the Swiss in the job market. Thus, ‘ethnicity’, or being perceived as an ‘other’ is a main disadvantage for immigrants from countries outside the EU in accessing the upper segments of the labour market. Ideas about femininity and masculinity, as embedded in migration policies and in the minds of employers, also play a main role in shaping the access of skilled immigrant women to the labour market. For example, skilled immigrants from countries outside Europe who enter Switzerland with a marriage visa (most commonly women) are subject to exclusionary regulations. Visas for foreign spouses are not designed to stimulate economic integration but to allow them to stay with their husbands. Initially, they obtain a “B” permit with no explicit permit to work. As explained before, Swiss employers tend to solicit job applications from “C” permanent residents rather than from “B” annual residents. The great majority of marriage-immigrants are women and thus the visa restrictions on foreign spouses mostly affect women. This example shows how immigration policies are conceived according to traditional ideas about femininity that construct foreign wives as having a home-making role rather than an economically productive role, and illustrates the intersection of factors of gender and ethnicity in hindering the access of immigrant women to economic participation. Conservative ideas about gender roles and institutional arrangements for child-care (or the lack thereof) are a further impediment to the labour market participation of skilled immigrant women. The lack of child-care facilities and the discontinuous school schedules for children in Switzerland forces one of the parents to remain at home, and this is usually the mother. Without institutional or family support for childcare it is very difficult for immigrant women to work. The statement below illustrates the frustration felt by immigrant women at not being able to combine their professional ambitions and family wishes: “I thought there were many possibilities in Switzerland but I was shocked to see that there are no possibilities for women with children who want to work… for women who like to work and not just have to work. (Child-care) Possibilities here are only for women who have to work because they need the money. But there are no possibilities for educated women who like to learn more. Women who would like to do something for themselves. And that is what I would like to do. I do not want to work because I need more money. No, I want to work because I do not want to forget what I have learnt. And learning more is also good for my children because they see that their mother is advancing” Rasha Skilled immigrant women are faced with the reality that they must rebuild their social and cultural capital because they have lost their social and professional networks and because their institutional cultural capital is not valued. However, it is very difficult for immigrant women to find a way out of this situation as acquiring new skills can be a very complicated matter. The cost of educational training is high and families and institutions give the educational advancement of women lower priority than that of their husbands, especially if the husband is Swiss (since his educational qualifications are valued, he is, unlike his foreign wife, the one who has the potential to earn a good salary to support the family). Furthermore, migration policies in Switzerland do not support the transfer and re-accreditation of social and cultural capital because they assume skilled immigrants do not have any problems integrating. Gender-biased immigration policies, patriarchal ideas about gender roles, the lack of child-care facilities and a paucity of policies that support skilled immigrant women produce unequal opportunities for women to access the labour market. In conclusion, this examination of the factors behind the precarious situation of skilled immigrant women shows that class, ethnicity and gender interact to shape the position of immigrant women in the Swiss labour market (for details see Riaño and Baghdadi, forthcoming b). 5.6 Skilled immigrant women’s strategies to improve their participation in the labour market

A common denominator in the narratives of our research partners is the great value that they give to their professional development. Women’s careers have been given greater weight in recent decades in many Latin American, South-east European and Middle Eastern societies. Many of our research partners recount that NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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they were raised with the notion that it is very important for women to study and work in order to gain economic independence. How do they cope with traditional ideas about gender roles in Swiss society and the challenge of labour market participation? What strategies do women develop to recreate their social and cultural capital, and thus improve their access to the labour market? What roles do class, gender and ethnicity play in structuring such strategies? Table 7 shows the variety of strategies that women in this study develop, in different realms of society, and with the aim – conscious or unconscious – of attaining social, economic and personal gains. Women may use one or several strategies at a time, deploying them differently over the years, depending on past experiences. Table 7. Women’s strategies and responses to the challenge of labour market participation Realm of action

Strategy

Means

Gains

Educational

Re-skill

Improve German proficiency Redo tertiary education Carry out postgraduate studies

Rebuild capital Wider social participation

Labour market

Work below skills Create own employment Do volunteer work

Take any available job Set up own business Unpaid work in social organisations

Social recognition Self-esteem

Family

Family planning and gender arrangements

Postpone, limit number, no children Share child-care tasks with partner

Time for work and/or study

Separate from partner

Independence

Withdraw from labour market

Assume domestic role

Motherhood

Find an escape to the situation

Adopt a victim attitude Return to the country of origin

Personal stability

Personal

Source: MINGA workshops and biographical interviews (Riaño and Baghdadi) Re-skilling is a strategy chosen by many of the participants to rebuild their social and cultural capital, especially after several years of home-making activities or of working in low-pay and/or unstable employment. As explained earlier, a very high level of German proficiency is required for skilled jobs in Switzerland. Thus, many women take advanced German classes and others learn the Swiss-German dialect in order to enhance their employment chances. Many realise that they are never going to get a skilled job unless they study in Switzerland and thus decide to either carry out tertiary studies, repeat their entire university studies or carry out postgraduate work. For example, the majority of the women in this study who reached their desired professional integration have used such strategies. Others are currently in school, such as Ayla, a graduate English teacher from Turkey who is now studying social work; Alba, a lawyer from Colombia who is repeating her law studies; Alima, a Libyan lawyer who is doing a PhD in international law; Mona, a Colombian agronomist who is doing a Master’s degree in ecology; and Juliana, a Peruvian sociologist doing a Master’s in intercultural communication. Three of these women report that participating in this study’s MINGA workshops gave them the encouragement to go ahead with these strategies. Studying requires significant effort but the women have been very resourceful in finding solutions to the problems of time and money. Alima and Mona, for example, brought their mothers from Libya and Colombia to assist them with child-care tasks. Antonia, an anthropologist from Mexico, used the compensation money that she had received as a result of a car accident to finance her postgraduate studies in gender management. Since many women cannot get a job that corresponds to their qualifications (and/or is in their original fields of study), one of the most common reactions is to take any job available, even if it is below their qualifications. This strategy is often not very successful as over the years women become ‘trapped’ in a vicious circle and cannot move to more skilled positions. Class plays an important role in choosing this kind of strategy. Some women have no choice because they need to generate an income to support their ill husbands, others need to complement their husband’s low income (mostly non-Swiss), and still others need to send money to support their families abroad. Gender also plays a role: many women have a desire to NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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exercise their professions but at the same time feel the pressure that “good mothers do not work”. Working part-time thus becomes a compromise solution. This often entails taking a job below their qualifications because most skilled jobs require full-time commitment. Other women become tired of their domestic role and/or of their failed access to the labour market. Their response is to create their own employment. Examples of women who use this strategy are Gülay, a Turkish computer specialist who opened up a travel agency specialising in travel to and from Turkey; Gloria (Venezuela), Lucia (Peru), Uenay (Turkey), Jana (Peru) and Clara (Peru) who work as freelance journalists, artists, translators or video producers; and Hamyde, an Islamic theologian from Turkey, who works as a freelance consultant for inter-cultural dialogue. It is interesting to note that many of these women use their ethnic backgrounds (language and culture knowledge) as marketable attributes that allow them access into the labour market, although the economic rewards are not always very high. Carrying out volunteer activities in organisations such as parents’ groups, home-country associations, intercultural schools, music groups, immigrant associations and organisations for intercultural dialogue is an option chosen by the large majority of the women in our study. Involvement in such organisations offers many advantages to the women: using their professional abilities, expanding their spaces of social participation, struggling for immigrant women’s rights and giving more meaning to their lives. The experience gained in these activities allows some to rebuild their social and cultural capital (networks and professional experience) and results, in some cases, in paid job opportunities, often according to their skilllevel. Gender and ethnicity play an important role in this kind of strategy. Being a woman and having firsthand knowledge of several cultures can be an added value for jobs in the field of social care and intercultural dialogue. Several of the women who do volunteer work had already worked in their countries of origin as activists or volunteers in organisations struggling for the rights of women, youth and minority groups (e.g., Antonia (Mexico), Teresinha (Brazil), Azucena (Bolivia), Alba (Colombia), Cemyle (Turkey)). Some of the women participating in this study realise the importance of taking action in the realm of family planning and gender arrangements if they are to advance professionally. Postponing having children, limiting their number, sharing child-care responsibilities with their partners, or deciding to have no children at all have been decisive factors in their ‘success’ stories. Such strategies have been mostly used by the younger, more recently arrived women, but also at times by older women whose husbands value the professional advancement of their wives, or by women who have re-negotiated gender arrangements with their husbands. Some of the women in this study report that participating in the MINGA workshops reinforced their awareness of the necessity to use that particular strategy. For other women, divorcing their husbands became a means of professional advancement. Not only did they feel freer from the need to conform to gender-specific social norms, but also the loss in socio-economic status associated with their divorces pushed them to invest much more time and energy in their careers. Women who became frustrated by the lack of value given to their foreign work experience and the difficulties they experienced in trying to combine a career and a family chose to withdraw from the labour market and concentrate on their domestic roles. Although they become economically dependent on their husbands, the personal and social reward of motherhood becomes a substitute. Class plays an important role here. Many of these women are in a privileged economic position as they are married to Swiss-born husbands who earn good salaries (not all women in that situation, however, choose to withdraw from the labour market). This strategy is not entirely satisfactory for many as they remain internally torn, miss their profession and worry about their future professional prospects. A further option chosen by a small minority of our research partners is to escape the difficult situation of labour market participation by adopting a victim attitude or by deciding to return to their countries of origin. Because they feel overwhelmed by the situation, finding an escape to it is the only way for them to maintain personal stability. 5.7

The meaning of professional participation for skilled immigrant women

This section examines the professional participation of immigrant women through an analysis of the meanings that immigrant women attribute to such participation. Central to this examination are the following questions: What importance do immigrant women attribute to participating in spaces of professional activity? How does that importance compare with other spaces of social participation? What are the underlying reasons that contribute to the significance that they attribute to different spaces of participation? The analysis NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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of immigrant women’s narratives shows that when they talk about the meaning of professional activity most of them do not simply talk about its importance, or what they would like to achieve with it, but they speak about it in reference to their role as mothers. Clearly, the meaning of professional participation and motherhood are deeply intertwined for them. Professional activity gives much meaning to women’s lives, as they see it as a main means of personal realisation, but many are torn between the roles of professional activity and motherhood. This struggle is shown by the inconsistency between their discourses of wanting professional development but at the same time carrying out actions that do not really serve that goal. The reasons for these struggles and inconsistencies are to be found in the contradictory norms and values regarding gender roles and the social value of work and motherhood in both Swiss society and their countries of origin. Many individuals, families and institutions in Swiss society are guided by the social norm that a good mother is one who dedicates most of her time and energy to looking after her children. Many immigrant women seem to marry Swiss men from families with conservative values that have a negative perception of working mothers. The social norm that men are the bread-winners and women are the caregivers is particularly enforced on immigrant women by both families and institutions. The task of working mothers is made even more difficult by the scarcity or high cost of child-care institutions and the orientation of the skilled labour market towards individuals without child care responsibilities. Whereas women with children receive the message that they are the ones mainly responsible for child-rearing, at the same time, and paradoxically, Swiss society tends to recognise individuals through their professional activity and not through motherhood. Such contradictory values put a double burden and create a paradoxical situation for immigrant women. Swiss mothers face a similar situation but the burden for immigrant women is higher for three reasons. First of all, immigrant women cannot count on their families’ help for child-care either because they live abroad; are professionally overcommitted, do not agree with a woman’s full professional involvement or are less willing to help with child-care. Secondly, the income earning potential of immigrant women is often lower than that of their Swiss husbands because of their foreign status. Thirdly, the pressure to carry out meaningful professional work is particularly high for immigrant women because this is one of the few avenues where they can gain social recognition in a society that perceives them as the less valuable ‘other’. The internalisation of the values that they are to be ‘good mothers’ and ‘good professionals’ puts an additional strain on immigrant women. The consequence is that they have particularly high standards regarding both their motherhood and professional roles. This does not ease the already challenging task of combining both roles. At the same time, and as explained in earlier chapters, immigrant women’s desire to develop themselves professionally is restricted by the labour market structure, by migration regulations (such as restrictive residence permits, non-recognition of diplomas and work experience) and by discriminating constructions of the ethnic ‘other’. In their societies of origin immigrant women are also confronted with contradictory norms and values regarding gender roles, although in a different form from Swiss society. In recent decades, women’s careers have been given greater value in Latin American, South East European and Middle Eastern societies. Most of the women participating in this study narrate how their families raised them with the notion that it is very important that women study and work so that they can become economically independent. Families spare no efforts to give their daughters a good education and support their professional development. Child-care facilities are not scarce and many institutions are oriented towards facilitating women’s work. At the same time, and despite the significance attached to women’s economic activity and professional development, women are also raised with the message that they are the ones mainly responsible for the children’s education and for the family’s unity. Thus, in practice, women grow up with a double set of norms regarding women’s responsibilities in society. This places a particularly heavy burden on their shoulders. Besides, women have few role models regarding the combination of the professional and motherhood roles in both their societies of origin and in Swiss society because: a) the mothers’ of most women dedicated their lives to raising children and b) they find rare cases in Swiss society of women who are able to achieve both a fulfilling professional career and a satisfying family life. Clearly, the addition of all the factors mentioned above generate internal ruptures among immigrant women and explain why so many of them are overwhelmed and beleaguered by frustrations, depression, insecurities, fears and loss of self-confidence and personal strength. Immigrant women develop a variety of responses for dealing with the challenge of gendered norms of social behaviour that limit their professional participation. These responses, presented below in the form of a table and illustrated through exemplary women’s narratives, basically consist of the following three: (a) accepting the norm that (immigrant) motherhood is women’s main role and putting their professional realisation on freeze; (b) partially accepting the norm of motherhood but without giving up their professional aims, and (c) NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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resisting the norm that women’s main duty is motherhood and struggling to maintain the value of professional development as of central importance for women. Opting for one or another strategy may depend on a woman’s personal history and her own family situation. For example, women who have had a history of political activism are less likely to accept the motherly role as being women’s principal means of personal realisation. The family’s financial situation (usually determined by the husband’s ability to earn money, and the number of family members to support), may facilitate or constrain the professional involvement of immigrant women. In some cases, i.e. when it is seen as a ‘necessity’, Swiss society will look upon singlemothers’ professional involvement more favourably than that of women with income-earning partners. Interestingly, in the case of this study, many of the immigrant women who divorced were more able to reach their professional aims than those who were not. The responses presented above, which are exemplified through women’s narratives below, are without doubt a clear sign of immigrant women’s agency and initiative. The strategies developed by immigrant women, however, do not solve their problem of achieving the realisation of both the aims of motherhood and professional development. In the case of the first response (accepting motherhood as their primary role), some women manage to find an internal reconciliation with this pragmatic solution but many others remain internally dissatisfied. In the other two cases, in the attempt to meet the demands of satisfactory professional development and their role as homemakers women are driven to exhaustion in a daily struggle against their families, social institutions, the labour market and themselves. Many of the women participating in the MINGA workshops expressed their desire to join with others in political struggle to help “immigrant women take their place in society”. Table 8. Responses of immigrant women to gendered norms of professional activity and motherhood (a) Accepting new norms and transforming own values „Ich liebte meinen Beruf“ „Damals war für mich die Mutterrolle weit weg’ „Aber einmal sobald Du Kinder hast, deinen Beruf auszuüben und Mutter zu sein, ist einfach zu viel“ Sahar „Früher hat mir mein Beruf alles bedeutet“ „Ich habe aber nicht Energie für beides Beruf und Familie“ „Ich fühle mich wohl in meiner Mutterrolle, aber vermisse meinen Beruf“ Paula

(b) Partially accepting new norms but maintaining own values „Beruf bedeutet mir sehr viel“ „Bin eine bessere Mutter seit ich eine Stelle habe“ „Von Anfang an wollte ich etwas machen. Nicht einfach zu Hause bleiben. Wenn man eine Ausbildung hat, kann man nicht einfach zu Hause bleiben. Aber ich möchte auch nicht, dass mein Mann 60% arbeitet und ich 100%“ Rasha (c) Resisting new norms and struggling to maintain own values „Mein Beruf ist ausserordentlich wichtig für mich. War schon so im Heimatland. Für eine Schweizer Frau ist es sehr schwierig Beruf und Familie zu kombinieren. Aber für eine Migrantin ist es noch schwieriger. .“.Ich fühle mich sicherer seitdem ich einen Job habe. Ich habe mehr Selbstvertrauen. Ich brauche keine Therapie mehr. Anerkennung ist sehr wichtig“ Ünay „Beruf ist sehr wichtig für mich. Aber mit den Kindern hat alles gewechselt. Kinder sind auch sehr wichtig. Ich konnte aber eine gute Ausbildung erreichen und kann mich nicht vernachlässigen. Ich will nicht eine Sklavin meiner Kinder sein. Ich muss mich verwirklichen. Wir wollen perfekte Mütter sein so wie die Schweizerinnen. Aber in Lateinamerika ist nichts perfekt“ Gloria „Studium und Arbeit sind sehr wichtig für mich“ „Aber der Druck von aussen! Die (CH) Familie! Die Institutionen! Alle wollten dass ich zu Hause bleibe weil ich ein Kind habe. Alle fragten mich: Warum muss Du arbeiten? Brasilianerinnen sind gute Mütter. Sie bleiben zu Hause. Du bist wie eine Schweizerin!“ Lola

Source: MINGA workshops and biographical interviews (Riaño and Baghdadi) Engaging in voluntary work is another strategy that many immigrant women participating in this study use to expand their spaces of social participation and give more meaning to their lives. An analysis of their narratives shows that voluntary work can have the following functions: (a) strengthening cultural identity and personal stability; (b) reacting against negative perceptions of immigrant women; (c) exercising social and political commitment; and (d) expanding social networks. In response to their new society’s perception of them NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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as ‘other’ many immigrant women participate in country of origin associations and find that it helps to (re)define their cultural identity. Doing voluntary work helps many women exercise their need for social and political commitment through activities such as solidarity with home-country refugees; support for newly arrived immigrants; cultural bridging between Switzerland and immigrant’s countries of origin and the strengthening of immigrant women. Voluntary work is also a very important means of both expanding social networks and facing problems of depression. Finally, voluntary work can also be seen as a way of reacting against negative perceptions of immigrant women. Voluntary work allows immigrant women to unfold their professional abilities, compensate for the frustration of not carrying out a job that corresponds to their professional capacity, open up job opportunities, gain social recognition, redefine norms about immigrant women’s identity and, finally and most importantly, fight social exclusion; nevertheless, the question remains of whether voluntary work should be interpreted as a means of fighting social exclusion or as a reinforcement of the gendered social inequalities that exist in society whereby women do the unpaid work? Thus, in conclusion, the analysis of women’s narratives regarding the meaning of professional activity has revealed three important findings. First of all, the importance that immigrant women attribute to professional activity is shaped in the context of the (gendered) norms of the societies where they live. Secondly, crossing boundaries implies a confrontation with new sets of norms and values regarding gender roles and the value of work. Having children and the confrontation with new social norms regarding motherhood causes internal strife and compels many immigrant women to transform, adapt or struggle to maintain their former values regarding professional activity. Besides patriarchal gendered norms that limit the realisation of women’s professional development, immigrant women face further obstacles which are found in the structure of the skilled labour market, migration regulations and social discourses about the ethnic ‘other’. 5.8

Representations of immigrant (women) in media-, everyday and state discourse

The sections above have shown the significant role that societal discourses on gender and ethnicity play in women’s possibilities to participate in the Swiss labour market. This section complements the results presented above by scrutinising the language of newspapers (media discourse), everyday communication (everyday discourse) and government legislation (state discourse) in order to shed light on their potential role in forming a negative public opinion of immigrant populations, and women in particular. The results of the studies presented here have been published in 3 reports and two papers, which are attached to this report, and the results presented below are therefore only a brief summary. The study of media discourse examined the representations of immigrants from the “Balkans” in 5 newspapers, during the 8 week period that preceded the 2004 popular vote on the facilitated naturalisation of second and third generation foreigners (see Wysmüller, 2006 for details). The study includes ‘quality’ press (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Der Bund), ‘boulevard’ press (Blick) and three weekly journals (Facts, Die Weltwoche, Die Wochenzeitung). Chantal Wyssmüller developed her own method of text analysis, based on the principles of content analysis (Mayring, 2003) and critical discourse analysis (Rose, 2001; Jäger, 1999), for the examination of the 122 articles that referred to immigrants from the “Balkans” during the time span mentioned before. The process of analysis is inductive and consists of developing a system of categories that stems out of the analysed text and that summarises the type of discursive constructions produced by Swiss newspapers on immigrants from the Balkans. Wyssmüllers’ results show that immigrants from the “Balkans” are mainly represented as having a negative impact on Swiss society and are portrayed as being of violent nature and predisposition to violation of the established order. Women rarely appear in the articles. However, when women do appear they are simply represented as victims of oppression by their male relatives. Thus, the cohabitation with immigrants from the “Balkans” is depicted as very difficult and problematic for Swiss society. The studied representations reveal a nationalistic, exclusionary, and polarizing discourse that constructs the “Balkans” (originally a geographical term) as Switzerland’s cultural opposite. Such representations have the function of reinforcing Swiss national identity and Switzerland’s construction as a socialgeographical unity. Indeed, media representations of immigrants that appeal to their geographical origin may have the effect of evoking stereotyped, simplistic and essentialist images of immigrants and their places of origin. Mass media have thus an important role in constructing social and geographical “reality” and structure thereby the possibilities of social integration for immigrants in Switzerland. The analysis of everyday discourse was conducted in the context of a research methods course for Geography graduate students. Students conducted several small research projects aimed towards examining the representations of immigrants in the everyday communication of 7 groups of Swiss citizens differentiated by age (children and teenagers), education (high level of education), professional activity (working with forNRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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eigners), living situation (students living with foreigners), marriage situation (bi-national marriages), and earlier citizenship (former ‘foreigners’) (see Riaño, Baghdadi, Filep, 2005 for details). The methods of analysis consisted of open-ended interviews and focus groups that aimed to create a situation of spontaneous everyday communication. The results of the interviews and focus groups were analysed by means of a qualitative method of text analysis, based on an inductive production of a system of analytical categories, and the summarisation of the research results by means of synthesis tables. The latter allow comparative analysis of the seven studied groups of Swiss citizens. The results of the studies show that children and teenagers do not have prejudices towards foreigners to the same extent that adults do. For young Swiss people, the key factor for identifying a “stranger” is not his/her origin but his/her social behaviour. For Swiss people, social contacts are very important for identifying immigrants as “foreigners” or not. It seems that all of the groups of Swiss adults studied, independently of their education, profession and marriage situation, are only able to have a differentiated image of foreigners when they have contact with them. Otherwise, they perceive foreigners as the “different” other. Generalising and stereotyped perceptions of foreigners seem to be deeply embedded in their minds. Swiss adult’s perceptions of foreigners do not distinguish individuals according to their education, age, class or gender but simply have a stereotypical image that see foreigners as ‘uneducated’, ‘having a different mentality’ and ‘not able to adapt to society’. It seems that time, places, people and their cultures of origin are seen by the Swiss adult people interviewed here as static and unchangeable. The analysis of state discourse is conducted through three studies. The first examines the history of the discursive construction of immigrants by Swiss immigration and integration policies. The period examined begins with the 1850s, the time when migration flows to Switzerland started, continues through to the two World Wars, the economic crisis of the 1970’s and ends with the present (see Riaño and Wastl-Walter, 2006a for details). The practical study of state discourse focused on three dimensions of analysis: the discourse itself, the context of discourse, and the historical events surrounding discourse. In the first dimension, the analysis of discourse consists of examining legal texts containing policies on foreigners and nationality, complemented by official position papers, politicians’ speeches, and the home pages of relevant government institutions. In the second dimension, the context analysis is based on the idea that state discourses are not independent formulations but rather a result of competing and contradictory forces in society (Foucault, 1980). The third dimension of the analysis, the historical perspective, is based on the idea that discourses are not static but vary over space and time (Blunt, 1999). The analysis is supported by a review of published material on the history of immigration policy-making. The results of the study show that state discourses regarding foreigners significantly changed after the First World War and thus the emphasis of immigration policies shifted from a facilitating to a constraining approach. Überfremdung, the notion that excessive numbers of foreigners can threaten Swiss identity, emerged as one of the most influential discourses in Switzerland and provided the foundation for a quantitative and qualitative strategy of defence against the immigration, settlement, and naturalisation of foreigners. In recent years, however, an agreement on the freedom of movement between Switzerland and the European Union has been struck, and immigration policies have once again adopted a facilitating stance. Since this stance applies only to citizens of the European Union, a stratified system of immigrant rights has been continued and perpetuated. At the same time, right-wing parties, which have in recent years risen to power, have successfully used Überfremdung propaganda to persuade Swiss populations to vote against the relaxation of conditions for the naturalisation of foreigners, thus ensuring that immigrants will be excluded from access to citizenship rights over generations. The politics of immigration in Switzerland is above all a politics of national identity. Several events have influenced discourse shifts: the country’s transformation from a rural to an industrial economy in the 1850s, the outbreak of the two world wars, the post-war economic growth, and the recent emergence of the European Union. Several actors have influenced the formulation of immigration policies including, most notably, national economic groups, xenophobic groups (through Überfremdung initiatives), and foreign governments (through bilateral agreements). Xenophobic groups, working together with rightwing parties, have been particularly successful in influencing the government in formulating policies of exclusion towards foreigners. Centre- and left-oriented political parties in Switzerland have had an ambiguous position on foreigners. The Left, for example, has defended immigrants’ rights while trying to attend to the interests of the trade unions they represent, which are primarily interested in securing jobs for their members and not in open policies of immigration. The second study of state discourse uses a similar approach to investigate the history of the discursive construction of refugees by Swiss asylum policies since 1850 until today (see Riaño and Wastl-Walter, 2006b NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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for details). The study shows that state representations of refugees have shifted from a predominantly humanitarian attitude towards asylum-seekers before the First World War to a mainly defensive attitude, which partly persists today, where asylum-seekers are increasingly perceived as a cultural threat and a financial burden. Several events have influenced these shifts in discourse: the outbreak of the two world wars, the rise and fall of the communist regimes, the rapid increase in numbers of refugees during the 1990s, the globalisation of refugee flows, the recent weakening of the Swiss economy and the rise of populist right-wing parties. Several actors have influenced the contradictory formulation of refugee policies including xenophobic groups and right-wing parties on the one hand, and progressive intellectuals and humanitarian organisations on the other. Imaginations of race, class and political systems have structured Swiss state discourses on refugees. The third study of state discourse examines immigration and integration policies from a gender-specific perspective that aims to understand the underlying constructions of femininity and masculinity; i.e. the social roles ascribed by the state to immigrant men and to immigrant women (see Riaño and Wastl-Walter, 2006c for details). The analysis gives special attention to integration policies as formulated by local authorities, i.e. at the city level. The integration policies of Switzerland’s four biggest cities are thus examined: Zurich, Basel, Bern and Geneva. The following legal texts are included in the analysis: Bundesgesetz über den Aufenthalt und die Niederlassung der Ausländer (ANAG, 1931), new Bundesgesetz über die Ausländerinnen und Ausländer (AuG), Asylgesetzrevision (AsylG), Verordnung über die Integration von Ausländerinnen und Ausländern (VIntA, 2000) and Integrationsleitbilder from Zurich, Basel, Bern and Geneva. This analysis is complemented by expert interviews carried out with Swiss officials responsible for integration programmes in the four cities earlier described. The study shows that Swiss migration policies, both in legislation and in practice, give limited attention to factors of gender. In regard to their possibilities of immigration and integration migrant women experience three-fold discrimination related to their country of origin (EU / non EU), education (skilled / unskilled) and residence status (labour migrant / family migrant). An example of the latest point is ANAG’s regulation that family migrants do not receive an independent resident status from their spouses and must remain together in order to stay in Switzerland. At the same time, their residence status does not foresee economic activity but mainly a homemaking role. The status of immigrant women is also determined by the VInta decree (on the integration of foreigners) and the New Foreigners Law (AuG). In both these pieces of legislation immigrant women are constructed as the ones being ‘especially’ in need of state support for their social integration. Such ‘special’ need is not seen by state policies as the result of the three-fold discrimination that women experience but as the result of immigrant women’s limitations and home-making role. Immigrant women are constructed by such policies as uneducated, isolated and as having limited knowledge of the German language. They are also constructed as the ones responsible for the integration of their children into Swiss society. The conjunction of these two sets of views, together with the view that mastering the German language is the key for social integration, leads immigration and integration policies to foresee German language courses as a special need for immigrant women. Thus, although these policies build on the premise that they address ‘gender specific needs’, such policies actually strengthen the prevailing negative view of immigrant women and the traditional idea that women’s role is the homemaking role. The structural and gender specific factors limiting immigrant women’s possibilities of social integration are not addressed. An exception to the former policies is Basel’s “Integrationsleitbild” which builds on the premise that immigrant women in Switzerland suffer a double discrimination: as women and as foreigners. In practice, however, the problem of gender inequality in Swiss society receives little attention in the formulation of specific measures of integration. Thus, in summary, it can be said that the gender-specific disadvantages that immigrant women face in Switzerland for their social integration are not directly and systematically addressed by Swiss immigration and integration policies (for details see Forschungsbericht 11). 6. Contribution to central questions of the National Research Programme on ‘Social Integration and Social Exclusion’ ( NFP 51) Frage 1: Wie haben Sie im Rahmen ihrer Untersuchung Integration und Ausschluss definiert? Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Studie wird Integration als gesellschaftliches Ziel und zugleich als Prozess verstanden. Die Zielvorstellung von Integration beinhaltet auf der Ebene des Individuums, anknüpfend an die NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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gegenwärtigen Diskussionen um das Konzept von citizenship (bspw. Appelt, 1999; Yuval-Davis, 2002; Anthias, 2001), eine „vollständige Mitgliedschaft in einer Gesellschaft“ (Marshall, 1950). Bei dieser Sichtweise bedeutet soziale Integration politische, wirtschaftliche, soziale und symbolische Teilhabe an und Zugehörigkeit in der Gesellschaft. Auf der strukturellen Ebene zielt eine umfassende citizenship auf die Schaffung von gesellschaftlichen Rahmenbedingungen, die einen gleichberechtigten Zugang zu allen gesellschaftlichen Ressourcen in den verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen ermöglichen. Integration oder citizenship stellt gleichzeitig den Prozess des „Anstrebens eines Idealzustandes“ (Richter, 2005: 82) dar und ist somit nie abgeschlossen und muss als dynamisch verstanden werden. Integration und Ausschluss wird hier erfasst und evaluiert, anderen Worten stellte sich die Frage, inwiefern (im vorliegenden Fall geschlechtliche und ethnisierende) Diskurse, institutionelle Praktiken und staatliche Regulierungen Integrations- bzw. Ausschlussprozesse begünstigen, welche Rolle verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen zukommt und welche Strategien indem untersucht wird, welche Mitglieder einer Gesellschaft (in unserem Fall verschiedene Gruppen von Migrantinnen) unter welchen Umständen Zugang zu welchen sozialen Ressourcen haben. Dabei richtet sich der Blick einerseits auf Integrations- und Ausschlussprozesse in verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen und andererseits auf die verschiedenen Ebenen, nämlich die des Individuums, der Gruppen und der Struktur. In und Ressourcen den einzelnen Individuen zur Verfügung stehen, um sich Zugang zu gesellschaftlichen Ressourcen und Positionen zu verschaffen, um sich soziale Netzwerke aufzubauen und sich zugehörig zu fühlen. Wir gehen davon aus, dass die Möglichkeit eines gleichberechtigten Zugangs ein Gefühl der Zugehörigkeit, im Sinne von place making erlauben sollte. Place making wird verstanden als die Fähigkeit eines Individuums oder einer Gruppe sich in einer Gesellschaft zu verorten und Gefühle von sozialer und räumlicher Zugehörigkeit zu entwickeln (Massey, 1994; Riaño, 1999; Ehrkamp, 2005). Frage 2: Welche Zusammenhänge zwischen den drei Untersuchungsebenen (Diskursen, institutionellem Handeln und Akteurs- bzw. Betroffenenperspektive) haben sich als besonders wichtig erwiesen? Diskurse werden in der vorliegenden Studie als ein spezifisches Wissen über die Welt begriffen, das die Art und Weise formt, wie die Welt verstanden wird und wie auf der Basis dieses Wissens darin gehandelt wird. Wie auch unter Frage 3a und 4a weiter ausgeführt wird, erweisen sich hierarchisierende Diskurse der Differenz, im vorliegenden Fall insbesondere geschlechtsspezifische und ethnisierende Diskurse, für die Handlungsmöglichkeiten von Migrantinnen als besonders prägend. Diese Diskurse manifestieren sich in verschiedenen Bereichen und auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen (Individuum, Gruppen, Struktur) und gestalten die Rahmenbedingungen für die Partizipation von Migrantinnen (im Sinne einer strukturellen Ermöglichung oder Behinderung). Repräsentationen und Normen in Bezug auf Geschlechterrollen etwa beeinflussen als Bestandteile von Diskursen menschliches und institutionelles Handeln massgeblich. Vorstellungen beispielsweise von Männern als „Ernährer“ und Frauen als „Mütter“ spiegeln sich in der sogenannten Ausländergesetzgebung und in Integrationsprojekten. Forschungspartnerinnen mit Kindern berichteten uns, dass sie von Vertretern und Vertreterinnen von Institutionen in Bezug auf die Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf/Ausbildung wenig Unterstützung erhalten haben. So erzählten verheiratete Frauen, dass sie wenig Aussicht auf Stipendien hätten, und dass sie auf den Wartelisten bei Krippenplätzen immer weiter nach hinten rutschten mit dem Argument, dass ihre Ehemänner gut situiert seien und sie deshalb nicht unbedingt zu arbeiten/studieren bräuchten. In diesen Fällen verschränken sich die allgemeinen strukturellen Rahmenbedingungen – zu kleines Angebot an familienergänzender Kinderbetreuung – mit dem Handeln von institutionellen Akteuren – Migrantinnen bzw. Frauen in guter finanzieller Familiensituation werden v.a. in ihrer Mutterrolle gesehen – mit der Folge, dass der Handlungsspielraum für die berufliche Verwirklichung von Migrantinnen eingeschränkt wird. Nichtsdestotrotz wäre es verkürzt daraus zu schliessen, dass die Betroffenen, aber auch Akteure und Akteurinnen in Institutionen, lediglich Opfer dieser Strukturen und konkreten Handlungen sind. Vielmehr internalisieren Akteure und Akteurinnen Normen oder unterlaufen sie, sie lehnen sich gegen einengende Rahmenbedingungen auf oder definieren Repräsentationen um und wirken damit wiederum auf Diskurse und Institutionen mitgestaltend ein. Beispielsweise organisieren einige Migrantinnen die Kinderbetreuung auf privater Basis. Wie unsere Ergebnisse anschaulich belegen können, sind die genannten drei Untersuchungsebenen als eng miteinander verwoben und sich gegenseitig beeinflussend zu denken und zu analysieren.


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Frage 3a) Welche Normen, Institutionen und Praktiken haben Sie festgestellt, die zu Integration und Ausschluss führen? Frage 4a) Wie wirken sich staatliche und weitere gesellschaftliche Integrationsprozesse auf die Handlungsfähigkeit betroffener Individuen aus? (Frage 3a und 4a werden gemeinsam beantwortet) Wie bereits oben angesprochen, zeigten sich in dieser Studie besonders Normvorstellungen und Diskurse, welche Differenz entlang der Linien von Geschlecht, Ethnizität und Klasse produzieren, als bestimmend für die Partizipationschancen von Migrantinnen. Die drei genannten Kategorien prägen hierarchisierende Konstruktionen des “Anderen”, auch Othering genannt, und beeinflussen den Zugang zu materiellen und symbolischen Ressourcen sowie die Positionierung von Migrantinnen. Darüber hinaus prägen sie die Möglichkeit ihres place making (Zugehörigkeit) in der Gesellschaft. Durch Ethnisierung, d.h. die Zuschreibung von kultureller Differenz, werden Migranten und Migrantinnen zu ‚Fremden’ stilisiert. Vorliegende Studie konnte aufzeigen, dass u.a. Repräsentationen von kulturnahen und kulturfernen ethnischen Gruppen sowie Vorstellungen in Bezug auf Ressourcen und Anpassungswille bzw. –fähigkeit in der sogenannten Ausländergesetzgebung als Subtexte fungieren. Es werden Differenzen entlang von Herkunft produziert, indem die Regelungen bezüglich der Gewährung von Aufenthaltsbewilligungen zwischen zwei Kategorien von Personengruppen unterscheiden: Migranten und Migrantinnen aus dem EU/EFTA-Raum und solchen aus „Drittstaatenländern“. Ausserdem werden Differenzen entlang von Klasse produziert, indem aus letzteren nur hoch qualifizierte Personen zugelassen werden. Aus einer geschlechtersensiblen Perspektive betrachtet zeigt sich, dass die Gesetzgebung darüber hinaus oft von einem patriarchalen Verständnis der Geschlechterrollen geprägt ist und Differenz entlang der Genus-Gruppen (re)produziert. Normvorstellungen in Bezug auf die Aufgabenteilung der Geschlechter (etwa „Migrantinnen als nachziehende Ehefrauen“ und „Mütter bleiben zu Hause“) spiegeln sich in der Gesetzgebung (s. bspw. VIntA) und werden mit herkunftsspezifischen Vorstellungen („Migrantinnen haben wenig Ressourcen“) verknüpft. Solche Vorstellungen können auf der Ebene der institutionellen Handlungen etwa die einschränkenden Aufenthaltsregelungen, die eine berufliche Tätigkeit von nachziehenden Migrantinnen nicht vorsehen, die mangelnde familienergänzende Kinderbetreuung oder fehlende Programme für qualifizierte Migrantinnen erklären. Im Arbeitsmarkt zeigt sich der Einfluss ethnisierender und geschlechterspezifischer Vorstellungen in Anstellungs- und Anerkennungspraxen. So deuten die oft fehlende Anerkennung von ausländischen Diplomen und Arbeitserfahrung sowie der Inländervorrang und die Bevorzugung von Personen aus dem EU-Raum auf deren vermeintlich grösseres Potential und eine Werthierarchie von Herkunft hin. Negative Vorstellungen von „Drittweltfrauen“ und/oder „muslimischen Frauen“ erschweren den Zugang zum qualifizierten Arbeitsmarkt in verstärktem Mass. Diese Problematik wird dadurch akzentuiert, dass die professionelle Stellung zugleich von den Forschungspartnerinnen als eine der wenigen Möglichkeiten gesehen wird, gesellschaftliche Anerkennung zu erlangen. Auf der anderen Seite deutet unsere Studie auch darauf hin, dass viele Migrantinnen einen starken Druck von der Familie ihres (i.R. Schweizer) Ehemannes verspüren, als „gute Mutter“ zu Hause bleiben zu müssen. So wirken Geschlechternormen auch in der Familie und Paarbeziehungen widersprüchlich auf das Handlungsfeld von Migrantinnen. Die verschiedenen z.T. gegensätzlichen und widersprüchlichen Normen auf den unterschiedlichen Ebenen führen dazu, dass sich Migrantinnen in Spannungsfeldern befinden, welche ihre persönlichen Werthierarchien in Frage stellen und ihre Integrationsmöglichkeiten einschränken. Auf einer gesamtgesellschaftlichen Ebene betrachtet, stellt sich die Frage, ob solche Spannungsfelder in Bezug auf Zugänglichkeit von gesellschaftlichen Ressourcen und erschwerter Zugehörigkeit eine solide Basis für eine soziale Kohäsion in der schweizerischen Gesellschaft bilden können. Frage 3b) Was sind die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Integration und Ausschluss? Wir haben festgestellt, dass Ausschluss in einem für ein Individuum als wichtig erachteten gesellschaftlichen Bereich immer zu einer Reaktion führt. Allerdings muss in diesem Zusammenhang einschränkend bemerkt werden, dass Personen einer Gesellschaft nur in den seltensten Fällen in jedem Bereich (politisch, wirtschaftlich, sozial und symbolisch) vollständig integriert sein können. Wir haben zudem gesehen, dass Integration bzw. Desintegration in verschiedenen Bereichen nicht zwangsläufig voneinander abhängen und sich die Integrationssituation auch im Laufe des Lebens eines Individuums ändern kann. In unserer Studie zeigt sich, dass die meisten Forschungspartnerinnen, wenn sie sich mit Ausschluss in einem zentralen, hier meistens beruflichen Bereich, konfrontiert sehen entweder a) vermehrte AnpassungNRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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sanstrengungen unternehmen, b) sich in andere Bereiche stärker zu integrieren versuchen oder/und c) eine Abwehrhaltung einnehmen. Beispiele für den ersten Fall sind Frauen, die zusätzliche Ausbildungen und Weiterbildungen in der Schweiz absolvieren, um sich „schweizerische“, anerkannte Fähigkeiten anzueignen. Im Fall einer vermehrten Anstrengung um Integration in andere Bereiche handelt es sich v.a. um Frauen, die freiwillige Arbeit leisten oder die Familienrolle als Alternative in den Mittelpunkt ihres Lebens rücken. Im letzten, eher seltenen Fall, sind Abwendung von einer symbolischen Zugehörigkeit und Verortung („ich gehöre nicht dazu“, „ich bin anders“) sowie Selbstethnisierungen zu beobachten. Die Abwehr kann bis hin zu einer Rückkehrmigration führen oder einem Selbstausschluss aus gewissen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen, etwa einem totalen Rückzug aus der Arbeitswelt, wenn der Zugang zu einer qualifizierten Arbeitsstelle auch nach vielen Jahren nicht gelingen will. Frage 4b) Unter welchen Umständen entscheiden sich Menschen für oder gegen Normen und nehmen dabei Ausgrenzungen in Kauf? Wir haben gesehen, dass sich die Teilnehmerinnen der MINGA-Workshops jeweils dann für eine Norm bewusst oder unbewusst entscheiden, wenn sie sich davon klare (Integrations-)Vorteile erhoffen und wenn diese Norm nicht mit anderen für sie wichtigen Normen im Konflikt steht. Um ein Beispiel zu nennen: Viele Frauen haben die Prämisse, dass „Sprache der Schlüssel zur Integration ist“ internalisiert. Sie versprechen sich durch das Erlernen der deutschen Sprache und insbesondere auch des schweizerdeutschen Dialekts vermehrte Anerkennung und verbesserte berufliche Chancen. Ein anderes Beispiel ist die Einbürgerung, zu deren Voraussetzung zwar bestimmte Integrations- bzw. Anpassungsleistungen gehören (Einhaltung der Gesetze, eine gesicherte finanzielle Situation, Sprach- und Systemkenntnisse), welche jedoch zu erweiterten Rechten führt. Auf der anderen Seite stehen Beispiele von Frauen, welche Diskriminierungen am Arbeitsplatz ihres Geschlechts, ihrer Religion, Hautfarbe, Herkunft oder politischen Einstellung wegen erfahren haben. In diesen Fällen sind viele der Frauen nicht bereit, sich anzupassen und auf ihre religiöse oder politische Überzeugung zu verzichten (beispielsweise das Tragen eines Kopftuches oder ein politisches Engagement) bzw. war es ihnen nicht möglich sich den Normen anzugleichen (etwa im Falle von Rassismus aufgrund der Hautfarbe oder Sexismus). Die betroffenen Frauen nahmen in diesem Fall Ausgrenzung aus dem Arbeitsmarkt in Kauf und zogen eine temporäre Arbeitslosigkeit der Diskriminierung vor. Einschränkend ist zu bemerken, dass sich gewisse der befragten Frauen je nach persönlicher Lebenslage, beispielsweise einer ungesicherten finanziellen Situation, eine Ausgrenzung nicht „leisten“ können. Einige Frauen sehen sich etwa gezwungen trotz ihrer guten Ausbildung unqualifizierte Putz- und Pflegearbeit zu verrichten – einem Migrantinnen typischerweise zugeschriebenen Bereich – oder Diskriminierungen in Kauf zu nehmen. Widerstand, Verweigerung der Anpassung bzw. (Selbst-) Ausgrenzung ist in diesen Fällen erschwert. Frage 5) Welche Forschungslücke schliesst Ihr Projekt in Bezug auf die Dynamik von Integration und Ausschluss und welche neuen Forschungsfragen tun sich damit auf? Unser Forschungsprojekt hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, folgende in der Schweiz bislang vernachlässigte Themen zu untersuchen: (a) die sozio-ökonomische Integration qualifizierter Migrantinnen aus Nicht-EU-Ländern; (b) die Strategien von Migrantinnen zur Erlangung der gewünschten sozialen Position und von Zugehörigkeit; (c) die Rolle von Geschlechtervorstellungen in der Migration und Integration (d) Gesellschaftliche Diskurse über ´Fremde Frauen´ und ihren Einfluss auf die soziale Integration von Migrantinnen. Qualifizierte Frauen aus der Türkei, dem Balkan, arabischen Ländern sowie aus Ländern Lateinamerikas sind in der Forschung bislang wenig beachtete Gruppen. Zudem trägt eine geschlechtersensible Perspektive auf die unterschiedlichen Migrationsprojekte qualifizierter Frauen dazu bei, das Bild der qualifizierten Migration als männliches Phänomen in Frage zu stellen. Die vorliegende Studie leistet jedoch nicht nur einen Beitrag zur Schliessung einer Wissenslücke, sondern versucht darüber hinaus verschiedene Forschungsperspektiven zu kombinieren und so Theorien zur qualifizierten Migration sowie Debatten um Integration und Ausschluss zu ergänzen. Das Thema von Integration und Ausschluss wurde aus einer citizenship- Perspektive unter Berücksichtigung verschiedener Untersuchungsebenen (agency und Struktur, vgl. Strukturationstheorie von Giddens, 1984) untersucht. Darüber hinaus half der ´Intersektionalitätsansatz´, der die Rolle und das Zusammenspiel von Geschlecht, Klasse und Ethnizität theoretisiert, die sozialen Positionierungen (vgl. Einschluss/Ausschluss) von Individuen in der Gesellschaft besser zu verstehen. NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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Der hier verfolgte partizipative Ansatz leistet einen methodischen Beitrag zur verbesserten Integration von „Forschungssubjekten“ in die Wissensproduktion. Uns erschien im Rahmen des NFP-51 leitenden Begriffspaar von Integration und Ausschluss, inspiriert von der postkolonialen und feministischen Kritik, besonders wichtig, dass die aus der Studie gewonnenen Erkenntnisse der untersuchten Gruppe tatsächlich von Nutzen sind. Sodann sollte unsere Forschungspraxis nicht zu einer weiteren Marginalisierung der Teilnehmerinnen führen bzw. Ungleichheit reproduzieren. Partizipative Forschungsansätze schienen uns eine Möglichkeit, die postkoloniale und feministische Kritik methodisch umzusetzen, Teilnehmerinnen besser in die Forschung einzubeziehen und diese durch Standortbestimmung, Wissenserweiterung und Vernetzung zu stärken und damit zu ihrem Empowerment beizutragen. Zur gemeinsamen Wissensproduktion wurde in Kooperation mit Migrantinnenorganisationen ein Projekt mit dem Namen MINGA 7 entwickelt. Ein vertieftes Verständnis der Situation von qualifizierten Migrantinnen dient jedoch nicht nur der Wissenschaft und den Teilnehmerinnen, sondern kann darüber hinaus in die Migrations- und Integrationspolitik, die Berufsberatung und die Gleichstellungspolitik einfliessen. Unsere empirische Studie trägt wie gesagt dazu bei, die (berufliche) Partizipation von qualifizierten Migrantinnen aus Lateinamerika, dem Nahen Osten und Südosteuropa besser zu verstehen. Im Laufe des Forschungsprozesses sind drei wichtige Aspekte für das Verständnis des Phänomens der sozio-ökonomischen Teilnahme aufgefallen, welche in weiteren Studien vertieftere Betrachtung verdienen: (a) Die Dynamik der sozio-ökonomischen Partizipation: Die im vorliegenden Bericht präsentierten Ergebnisse der beruflichen Partizipation von qualifizierten Migrantinnen basieren auf Datenerhebungen, welche in den Jahren 2004/2005 durchgeführt wurden. Nach Abschluss der Datenanalyse im Jahr 2006, sandten wir den Forschungspartnerinnen einen Fragebogen (zweite kleinere Datenerhebung) zu, um Änderungen und Entwicklungen in ihrer sozio-ökonomischen Teilnahme zu erfassen. Wir konnten in einigen Fällen grosse Veränderungen – manchmal zum Besseren, manchmal zum Schlechteren – feststellen. Sozioökonomische Partizipation muss folglich als dynamisch verstanden und untersucht werden. In Bezug auf die Erklärung der neuen Situation blieben einige Fragen offen: Inwiefern spielen Veränderungen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt (Angebot, Nachfrage, Konjunktur usw.) eine Rolle? Gibt es Veränderungen im Bereich Integrationspolitik und -programme, welche möglicherweise zu einer verbesserten Integration von qualifizierten Migrantinnen führten? Welche neuen Strategien haben Frauen bewusst oder unbewusst angewandt, um ihre sozio-ökonomische Partizipation zu verbessern? Was ist der langfristige Einfluss unseres MINGA Forschungs-/mentoring Projekts? Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, dass eine Langzeitstudie zum besseren Verständnis der Dynamik der sozio-ökonomischen Partizipation und den Faktoren, welche diesen Prozess beeinflussen, nötig wäre. b) Sozio-ökonomische Partizipation und Haushalt: Wir konnten zeigen, dass Haushalte den Zugang qualifizierter Migrantinnen zu sozio-ökonomischen Ressourcen massgeblich beeinflussen. Auf der Ebene des privaten Haushaltes zeigen sich unausgeglichene Machtverhältnisse zwischen den Geschlechtern, welche geprägt sind durch, aber auch einwirken auf Institutionen und soziale Praxen im Bereich des Öffentlichen. In bi-nationalen Ehen zeigen sich besonders ausgeprägte asymmetrische Machtbeziehungen zwischen Migrantinnen und Schweizern. Dabei befinden sich Migrantinnen häufig in einer Situation der Abhängigkeit von Partnern, die im Gegensatz zu ihnen über volle Bürgerrechte verfügen. Eine fortführende Untersuchung der Arbeitsteilung zwischen produktiven und reproduktiven Aufgaben innerhalb der Paarbeziehung und den darin involvierten Entscheidungsfindungsprozessen stellen ein für das Verständnis der Arbeitsmarktpartizipation von Migrantinnen wichtiges Forschungsfeld dar. Zudem ist bei einer solchen Haushaltsanalyse, gerade im Fall von bi-nationalen Paaren, die (erweiterte) Familie des (Schweizer) Mannes zu betrachten. Die Normen und Werte einer solchen „Mikrogesellschaft“ scheinen den Handlungsspielraum von Migrantinnen stark zu beeinflussen. Zukünftige Forschungen in diesem Feld scheinen für das vertiefte Verständnis von Ein- und Ausschlussprozessen auf der Mikroebene der Gesellschaft vielversprechend. (c) Differenzen zwischen Migrantinnen in Bezug auf ihre sozio-ökonomische Partizipation: Die vorliegende Studie hatte sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die Rolle religiöser Zugehörigkeit bei der sozio-ökonomischen Partizipation von Migrantinnen zu untersuchen. Wir haben gesehen, dass sichtbare Religiosität – wie muslimische Frauen, die ein Kopftuch tragen – eine schwerwiegende Hürde für den Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt sein kann. Zugehörigkeit (und zugeschriebene Zugehörigkeit) zum Islam vermindern die Chancen von Migrantinnen eine höhere berufliche Position zu erreichen. Trotz diesen Beispielen sind die Gründe für die beobachteten Unterschiede in der sozio-ökonomischen Teilnahme von Frauen aus Lateinamerika, dem Nahen Osten und 7 MINGA heisst in der Indiosprache Quechua in etwa „zusammen arbeiten“, „etwas gemeinsam bauen“.


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Südosteuropa anderweitig zu finden. Erstens, obwohl mehr Frauen aus Lateinamerika als aus dem Nahen Osten und Südosteuropa mit einer abgeschlossenen Ausbildung auf Tertiärstufe in die Schweiz kommen, haben letztere eine bessere Position im qualifizierten Arbeitsmarkt erreicht. Ein Erklärungsansatz dieses Unterschieds lautet dahingehend, dass viele der Migrantinnen aus dem Nahen Osten und Südosteuropa zum Zeitpunkt der Einreise in die Schweiz jünger waren und einen Grossteil ihrer Ausbildung auf Tertiärstufe in der Schweiz absolvierten. Ihrer schweizerischen Ausbildung wird von potentiellen Arbeitgebern mehr Wert zugeschrieben als den ausländischen Diplomen der Forschungspartnerinnen aus Lateinamerika. Zweitens gelangten rund die Hälfte der Forschungspartnerinnen aus dem Nahen Osten und Südosteuropa als politische Flüchtlinge in die Schweiz. Sie verfügen über einen unabhängigen Aufenthaltsstatus (offiziell und symbolisch), während die grosse Mehrheit der Frauen aus Lateinamerika im Kontext einer bi-nationalen Heirat in die Schweiz gekommen sind und in den ersten Jahren eine von ihrem Ehemann abhängige Aufenthaltsbewilligung erhalten haben. Aus dieser Beobachtung kann die These abgeleitet werden, dass Differenzen in Bezug auf Abhängigkeit/Unabhängigkeit sowie offizieller und symbolischer Status die Bedingungen für den Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt stark strukturieren. Diesen Annahmen sollte jedoch in weiteren Studien nachgegangen werden, um die Unterschiede der Teilnahme verschiedener Gruppen von Migrantinnen tiefer auszuloten. Frage 6) Inwiefern haben sich die untersuchten Integrations- und Ausschlussprozesse in der analysierten Zeitperiode gewandelt? Wo stellen Sie Umbrüche fest? Wir stellen in den letzten drei Jahren verstärkt zwei wichtige, aber gegensätzliche gesellschaftliche Trends in Bezug auf Integrations- und Ausschlussprozesse im Bereich Migration fest. Einerseits sind die in den letzten Jahren umgesetzten Integrationsbestrebungen des Bundes (z.B. die Verordnung über die Integration der Ausländerinnen und Ausländer, kurz VIntA) und der Kantone (z.B. Integrationsleitbilder) als positiv zu nennen. Zudem sind einige der Änderungen, die im neuen Ausländergesetz (AuG) und durch die bilateralen Verträge mit der EU vorgesehen sind, und teilweise bereits umgesetzt werden, als eine Verbesserung zu bewerten. Dazu zählen beispielsweise die verbesserte gesetzliche Ausgangslage für EU-Bürger und Bürgerinnen und die Möglichkeit als qualifizierte Person aus einem Nicht-EU-Land eine Aufenthaltsbewilligung zu erlangen. Andererseits schaffen diese Regelungen gleichzeitig ein duales und hierarchisierendes System von Integrationsmöglichkeiten und citizenship je nach Herkunft und Qualifikation einer Person. Nicht zu vergessen sind in diesem Kontext auch die fortwährenden Debatten beispielsweise um „Missbrauch von Sozialleistungen durch Ausländer“ und Massnahmen zur Verschärfung der Asylpolitik. Auf der Ebene der Forschungspartnerinnen und in Bezug auf ihre berufliche Situation können wir eine tendenzielle Verbesserung der beruflichen Integration ausmachen. Dies lässt sich erklären mit: a) Dem Projekt MINGA, das bei einigen Frauen zu mehr Selbstvertrauen geführt hat und ihnen Inputs zu einer Verbesserung ihrer beruflichen Strategie gab b) Neuen Chancen durch vermehrte Förderung von und Teilnahme an geschlechtsspezifischen und z.T. migrationsspezifischen Mentoring-Projekten c) Freiwilligen Tätigkeiten, die einigen Frauen Zugang zu einer bezahlten Arbeit ermöglichten d) Veränderter Lebenssituation (z.B. erwachsene Kinder), welche berufliche Projekte besser ermöglicht 7.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Vorliegende Fallstudie zeigt, dass qualifizierte Migrantinnen aus Lateinamerika, dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten sowie Südosteuropa nur sehr schwer Zugang zu sicheren und unbefristeten Anstellungen finden, die ihrer Ausbildung und ihren Erfahrungen entsprechen. Hohe Qualifikationen allein sind folglich noch keine Garantie für eine erfolgreiche sozio-ökonomische Integration. Die Benachteiligung von Migrantinnen aus nicht-europäischen Ländern kann zurückgeführt werden auf Diskurse über Geschlecht und Ethnizität, welche zu institutionell verankerten Ungleichheiten beim Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt führen. Es ist klar, dass eine den Qualifikationen entsprechende Integration in den Arbeitsmarkt sowohl Ziel der Migrantinnen als auch der gegenwärtigen Migrationspolitik ist. Dieses Ziel kann jedoch nur mit abgestimmten Massnahmen erreicht werden, die es qualifizierten Migrantinnen ermöglichen, ihre Bildungsressourcen und Berufserfahrungen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt auch einzubringen. Hierbei müssen auch migrationspolitische Rahmenbedingungen einbezogen werden (siehe Riaño und Wastl-Walter, 2006). Wir haben drei wichtige Interventionsbereiche für die Entwicklung von gezielten Massnahmen identifiziert: (a) Bildung und Kommunikation, (b) NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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Brücken bauen und (c) Frauengleichstellung. Hinsichtlich „Bildung und Kommunikation“ sind Massnahmen notwendig, welche der Entwertung des kulturellen und sozialen Kapitals qualifizierter Migrantinnen entgegenwirken. Ein wichtiger Schritt in diese Richtung ist die Entwicklung eines angemessenen, transparenten und bundesweit einheitlichen Systems der Anerkennung aussereuropäischer Bildungstitel. Um die Gleichwertigkeit ausländischer Bildungszertifikate mit schweizerischen Abschlüssen darüber hinaus zu fördern, sind Stipendienprogramme hilfreich, welche ein zusätzliches oder aufbauendes Studium hierzulande ermöglichen. Weiters sind arbeitsmarktorientierte und berufsqualifizierende (Fach-)Sprachkurse für qualifizierte Migrantinnen zu nennen, die in Kooperation mit Berufsverbänden entwickelt werden könnten. Im Bereich „Brücken bauen“ sind Interventionen erforderlich, welche helfen geschlechts- und ethnizitätsbezogene Vorurteile abzubauen. Vielversprechend sind Programme zur Förderung der beruflichen Vernetzung qualifizierter Migrantinnen etwa durch längere Einsätze von Migrantinnen in Schweizer Firmen und Institutionen. Dadurch wird Migrantinnen ermöglicht Berufserfahrungen zu sammeln, während sich Arbeitgeber und -geberinnen die Gelegenheit bietet, qualifizierte Personen aus nicht-europäischen Ländern näher kennen zu lernen und dadurch Vorurteile abzubauen. Programmbegleitend sind Mentoring-Angebote sinnvoll, bei welchen erfahrene Mentoren und Mentorinnen die Migrantinnen vor, während und nach den Arbeitseinsätzen begleiten und dabei sowohl als berufliche als auch als kulturelle „Brückenbauende“ wirken. Auf dem Gebiet „Frauengleichstellung“ ist Unterstützung unentbehrlich, welche Migrantinnen einen uneingeschränkten Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt zusichert. Besonders wichtig sind diesbezüglich Kinderbetreuungsangebote, da Migrantinnen aufgrund des fehlenden familiären Netzwerks in der Schweiz von solchen Möglichkeiten abhängig sind. Diese sollten den Bedürfnissen von Arbeitnehmerinnen entsprechend erschwinglich sein, an günstigen Standorten liegen und zeitlich flexibel sein. Ausserdem ist eine berufliche Planung ausserordentlich wichtig, welche unterstützt werden kann mittels Beratungsangeboten – ähnlich den im Rahmen dieses Forschungsprojekts durchgeführten MINGA-Workshops, die die Standortbestimmung und Entwicklung von beruflichen Perspektiven in Form von Gruppenarbeit erlaubten. Darüber hinaus sensibilisieren Schulungen von berufsberatenden Personen diese hinsichtlich möglicher unbewusster geschlechtsspezifischer Annahmen. Ferner kommt Migrantinnen und ihren Partner die Aufgabe zu, eine partnerschaftliche Aufteilung von Hausarbeit und Kinderbetreuung innerhalb der Familie auszuhandeln, damit die berufliche Weiterentwicklung beider Partner möglich ist. 8. References Anthias, Floya (2001). „The material and the symbolic in theorizing social stratification: issues of gender, ethnicity and class”. In: British Journal of Sociology, 52(3), 367-390. Appelt, Erna (1999). Geschlecht – Staatsbürgerschaft – Nation: politische Konstruktionen des Geschlechterverhältnisses in Europa. Frankfurt/Main: Campus Verlag. Bauder, Harald (2003). “Brain Abuse”, or the Devaluation of Immigrant Labour in Canada. Antipode, Volume 35, 699-717. Blunt, Alison (1999). “Discourse/discursive practices”. In: McDowell, Linda and Sharp, Joanne (eds.), A Feminist Glossary of Human Geography. London: Arnold, pp. 60-61. Bochsler, Regula and Sabine Gisiger (1989). Städtische Hausangestellte in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz des 20. Jahrhunderts. Zürich: Chronos. Bourdieu, Pierre (1986). ”The forms of capital”. In: John G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press, 241-258. Canlas-Heuberger, Patricia (1995). Wir leben hier, Frauen in der Fremde. Zürich: Autorinnen Verlag. Ehrkamp, Patricia (2005). “Placing identities: Transnational practices and local attachments of Turkish immigrants in Germany”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2005, Vol. 31(2), 345-364. Foucault, Michel (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books. Freire, Paulo (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. Gamson, William and Modigliani, Andre (1989). Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach. In: American Journal of Sociology, 95(1), 1-37. Giddens, Anthony (1984). The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press. Gregory, Derek (1978). Ideology, Science and Human Geography. London: Hutchinson. NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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Riaño, Yvonne (2005). “Women on the Move to Europe. A Review of the Literature on Gender and Migration”. In: Maria Gloria da Marroni and Gloria Salgado (eds.), Latinamerican Diaspora: Migration within a Globalized World. Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization. Riaño, Yvonne, Nadia Baghdadi, Béla Filep (eds.) (2005). "Wie wird man Fremd? Bilder von ‚Fremden' in Alltagsdiskursen von SchweizerInnen". Forschungsberichte N. 8, Bern: Department of Geography, University of Bern. Pp. 166. Riaño, Yvonne and Doris Wastl-Walter (2006a). “Immigration Policies, State Discourses on Foreigners and the Politics of Identity in Switzerland”. Environment and Planning A, Vol. 38(9) September, pages 1693 – 1713. Theme issue: ‘Rethinking Immigration and Citizenship: New Spaces of Migrant Transnationalism and Belonging’, Pion Publishers. Riaño, Yvonne and Doris Wastl-Walter (2006b). “Historical Shifts in Asylum Policies in Switzerland: Between Humanitarian Values and the Protection of National Identity”. In: Refugee Watch, June 2006, No 22, South Asia Forum for Human Rights. Riaño, Yvonne and Doris Wastl-Walter (eds.) (2006c). „Migration- und Integrationspolitik aus der Geschlechterperspektive“. Forschungsberichte N. 11, Bern: Geography, University of Bern. Pp. 70 Riaño Yvonne and Nadia Baghdadi (2007). “I thought I could have a more egalitarian relationship with a European. The Role of Gender and Geographical Imaginations in Women’s Migration”. In: Nouvelles Questions Féministes, No 1: Genre et frontières - frontières de genre. Editions Antipodes. Riaño Yvonne and Nadia Baghdadi, forthcoming 2007: “Understanding the Labour Market Participation of Skilled Immigrant Women in Switzerland: The Role of Class, Ethnicity and Gender”. In Journal of International Migration and Integration, Special Issue on ‘Foreign Training and Work Experience: The Skilled Immigrants’ Perspective’, Rutgers, Transaction Publishers. Richter, Marina (2006). Integration, Identität, Differenz. Der Integrationsprozess aus der Sicht spanischer Migrantinnen und Migranten. Bern: Peter Lang. Rose, Gilian (2000). Visual Methodologies. London: Sage. Said, Edward (1978). Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul/Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin. Schertenleib, Marianne and Annette Hug (2001). Illegal unentbehrlich: Hausangestellte ohne gültige Aufenthaltsbewilligung in der Region Zürich. Zürich: Limmat Verlag. Scott, A. (1982). The Meaning and Social Origins of Discourse on the Spatial Foundations of Society. In:Gould, P. and Olsson, G. (eds.), A Search for Common Ground. London: Pion, pp. 141-156. Somers, Margaret R. (1994). "The narrative constitution of identity: a relational and network approach". In: Theory and Society 23, 605-649. Spring, Katrin (1992). Gekauftes Unglück: Frauenhandel in der Schweiz. Luzern: Caritas Verlag. Swiss Federal Statistics (2003). Swiss National Census 2000. Economic Activity and Education of Persons who were born in Latin America. Neuchâtel: Bundesamt für Statistik. Swiss Federal Statistics (2004). Ausländerinnen und Ausländer in der Schweiz. Bericht 2004. Neuchâtel: Bundesamt für Statistik. Tabin, Jean-Pierre (2004). "Les paradoxes de l'intégration". In: Migration – eine Herausforderung für Gesundheit und Gesundheitswesen, Departement of Migration SRK. Zürich: Seismo, pp. 30 – 43. Truong, Thanh-Dam (1996). “Gender, International Migration and Social Reproduction: Implications for Theory, Policy, Research and Networking”. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 5(1), 27-53. Waldis, Barbara (2001). A propos de quelques stéréotypes sur l'immigration féminine en Suisse. In Association Romande Femmes Immigrées et Santé, Femmes migrantes et souffrance psychique Valentine, Gill (2001). Social Geographies. Space and Society. London: Pearson Education Limited. van Dijk, Teun Andreus (2004). “Theoretical Background”. In: Wodak, Ruth and van Dijk, Teun Andreus (eds.), Racism at the top. Klagenfurt: Drava, pp. 13-30. Wicker, Hans-Rudolf and Sabine Schoch (1996). Leitbild zur Integrationspolitik der Stadt Bern, Institute of Ethnology, University of Bern. Wysmüller, Chantal (2006). “Menschen ‘aus dem Balkan’ in Schweizer Printmedien. Diskursive Konstruktion und (Re)Produktion von Raum- und Identitätsbildern und deren Bedeutung für die soziale Integration. Forschungsberichte N. 9, Bern: Dept. of Geography, University of Bern. Pp. 99. Yuval-Davis, Nira and Pnina Werbner (eds.) (1999). Women, Citizenship and Difference. London: Zed Books. Yuval-Davis, Nira (2002). “Citizenship and Anti-Racism". In: Anthias Floya and Lloyd, Cathie (eds.), Rethinking Anti-racism. London: Routledge. NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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9. Project publications 1. Riaño Yvonne and Nadia Baghdadi, forthcoming 2007: “Understanding the Labour Market Participation of Skilled Immigrant Women in Switzerland: The Interplay of Class, Ethnicity and Gender”. In Journal of International Migration and Integration, Special Issue on ‘Foreign Training and Work Experience: The Skilled Immigrants’ Perspective’, Rutgers, Transaction Publishers. 2. Riaño Yvonne and Nadia Baghdadi, forthcoming 2007: „Warum können qualifizierte Migrantinnen ihre Ressourcen nicht besser in den Arbeitsmarkt einbringen?“ In: Thematische Publikation Integration und Ausschluss in der Arbeitswelt, Nationales Forschungsprogramm 51, Zürich: Seismo. 3. Riaño Yvonne, forthcoming 2007: "La migration des femmes latino-américaines hautement qualifiées en Suisse. Géographies migratoires, projets de migration et questions de genre". In Bolzman, Claudio, Carbajal, Myrian, Mainardi, Giuditta (eds.), La migration latino-américaine en Suisse, Les Editions IES, Genève. 4. Baghdadi, Nadia and Yvonne Riaño, forthcoming 2007: “Negotiating Spaces of Participation: Experiences and Strategies of Skilled Immigrant Women to Achieve Professional Integration” In: Elzbieta H. Oleksy, Dorota Golanska and Jeff Hearn (Eds.). Gender and Citizenship: Equality, Diversity, Migration. Palgrave MacMillan. 5. Riaño, Yvonne, 2007: „Die Selbstorganisation von Immigrantinnen hin zu einer vollständigen Teilnahme in der schweizerischen Gesellschaft“, In: Selbstorganisation in prekäre Arbeitsbedingungen, Shedhalle Zeitung, Zürich. 6. Riaño, Yvonne, 2007: “Die Migration hoch qualifizierter Frauen aus Lateinamerika und ihre berufliche Integration: Brain Drain oder Brain Gain? 4. Treffen deutschsprachiger Südamerika- und KaribikforscherInnen. Conference Proceedings, Vienna: Lateinamerika Institut (LAI). 7. Riaño, Yvonne und Nadia Baghdadi, 2007: “Unbekannte Migrantinnen in der Schweiz - Studie zu qualifizierten Frauen aus Lateinamerika, dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten und Südosteuropa“. In: Widerspruch 51, "Migration, Integration und Menschenrechte". Zürich: Ropress, S. 43 – 51. 8. Riaño Yvonne et Nadia Baghdadi, 2007: « Je pensais que je pourrais avoir une relation plus égalitaire avec un Européen ». Le rôle du genre et de l'imaginaire géographique dans la migration des femmes. In Nouvelles Questions Féministes, No 1: Genre et frontières - frontières de genre, Lausanne, Editions Antipodes. 9. Riaño, Yvonne und Nadia Baghdadi, 2006: „Integration und Ausschluss von qualifizierten Migrantinnen aus Ländern ausserhalb der Europäischen Union in der Schweiz“. In: „Qualifizierte Migranten: von der Dequalifizierung zur Entwicklungszusammenarbeit“, InterDIALOGOS, N. 2, Geneve. 10. Riaño Yvonne and Wastl-Walter Doris, 2006: “Immigration Policies, State Discourses on Foreigners and the Politics of Identity in Switzerland”. Environment and Planning A, Vol. 38, Issue 9. Special issue on ‘Rethinking Immigration and Citizenship: New Spaces of Migrant Transnationalism and Belonging’, pp. 1693–1713. London, Pion. 11. Riaño Yvonne and Wastl-Walter Doris, 2006: “Historical Shifts in Asylum Policies in Switzerland: Between Humanitarian Values and the Protection of National Identity”. In Refugee Watch, Issue No 27, Calcutta: A South Asian Journal on Forced Migration. Pp. 1- 18. 12. Riaño Yvonne and Wastl-Walter Doris, (eds.) (2006). „Migration- und Integrationspolitik aus der Geschlechterperspektive“. Forschungsberichte N. 11, Bern: Department of Geography, University of Bern. Pp. 70. 13. Wysmüller, Chantal (2006). “Menschen ‘aus dem Balkan’ in Schweizer Printmedien. Diskursive Konstruktion und (Re)Produktion von Raum- und Identitätsbildern und deren Bedeutung für die NRP 51 “Social Integration and Social Exclusion“, Final scientific report,

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soziale Integration“. Forschungsberichte N. 9, Bern: Department of Geography, University of Bern. Pp 99. 14. Riaño Yvonne y Nadia Baghdadi, 2006: “Migrantes calificadas: entre el desempleo y el subempleo”, Swissinfo, 24.08.06, Rosa Amelia Fierro Wirz. http://www.swissinfo.org/spa/busca/detail/Migrantes_calificadas_entre_el_desempleo_y_el_subemp leo.html?siteSect=881&sid=6999035&cKey=1156493435000 15. Riaño, Yvonne, 2006 "Die Ökonomin arbeitet als Putzfrau". Uniaktuell. Das on-line Magazin, Geist & Gesellschaft. 05.04.06, Von Kathrina von Wartburg. (www.uniaktuell.unibe.ch/lenya/uniaktuell/live/magazin/geistgesellschaft/2006/migration.html) 16. Riaño Yvonne, 2006: “The Role of Gender Representations and Geographical Imaginations in Latin American Female Migration to Europe” In: Sonia E. Alvarez, Frances Aparicio, Amalia Pallares, De-Centering Latin American Studies. XXVI International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 17. Baghdadi, Nadia (2005): „Islamische Identitäten in der Migration“. In: SGMOIK-bulletin N.21: 24f. 18. Riaño, Yvonne, 2005: “Women on the Move to Europe. A Review of the Literature on Gender and Migration”. In: Maria Gloria da Marroni and Gloria Salgado (eds.), Latinamerican Diaspora: Migration within a Globalized World. Instituto de Ciencias 8Sociales y Humanidades, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization. Pp. 207-238 (www.giub.unibe.ch/sg/immigrantwomen) 19. Riaño, Yvonne, Nadia Baghdadi, Béla Filep (Eds.), 2005: "Wie wird man Fremd? Bilder von ‚Fremden' in Alltagsdiskursen von SchweizerInnen". (How does one become a foreigner? Images of foreigners in everyday discourses of Swiss citizens) Forschungsberichte N. 8, Bern: Department of Geography, University of Bern. P 166. 20. Riaño, Yvonne and Nadia Baghdadi, 2005: "Wie wird man Fremd? Bilder von ‚Fremden' in Alltagsdiskursen von SchweizerInnen". Introduction to Forschungsbericht N. 8, Bern: Department of Geography, University of Bern. Pp. 7-13. 21. Nosotras, 2005: DVD “Die Arbeit zu tun. Gespräche, Interviews, Portraits zum Thema Arbeitswelt aus der Perspektive von Migrantinnen“. Interview mit Yvonne Riaño. Ein Projekt von Nosotras, do it productions 22. Riaño, Yvonne and Nadia Baghdadi, 2004: “Social Integration and Social Exclusion of skilled Migrant Women from Latin America and Muslim Countries in Switzerland”, Progress Report, Swiss National Science Foundation, Programme 51 Integration and Inclusion. (http://www.giub.unibe.ch/sg/immigrantwomen/presentationsandpublications.htm) 23. Riaño, Yvonne, 2004: „Der Einfluss der Migrationspolitik auf die Integration von Migrantinnen“. Paulus Akademie, Zürich (http://www.paulus-akademie.ch/berichte/vortrag-yvonne-riano.pdf)


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©Yvonne Riaño, Nadia Baghdadi, Doris Wastl-Walter Geographisches Institut, Gruppe für Sozialgeographie, Politische Geographie und Gender Studies Universität Bern 2006

Dieses Projekt wurde im Rahmen des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms 51 „Integration und Ausschluss“ des Schweiz. Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung SNF (Kredit Nr. 405140-69125) unter der Leitung von Yvonne Riaño und Doris Wastl-Walter in den Jahren 2003-2006 durchgeführt. Für weitere Informationen: www.giub.unibe.ch/sg/immigrantwomen


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