Gender-specific and gendered migration policies

Kurdish women have been involved in film production, radio broadcasts and exhibitions, as well as in the production of a substantial number of books, journals and other publications in both Kurdish and national languages of the European states. However, the aesthetic and intellectual production of Kurdish women, which leads to the empowerment of women and advancement of gender equality in the Kurdish diaspora, has not been the subject of any notable research yet. By going beyond stereotypical portrayals of Kurdish women, presented as either victim of honour-based violence or someone who suffers violent conflict, this research will deal with the gendered experiences of Kurdish diaspora from the four regions of Kurdistan (Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey) in terms of the growth of aesthetic, literary and cultural practices by migrant Kurdish women in five nation-states (Belgium, France, Sweden, Germany, UK) along with their impacts on larger societal debates within a comparative approach. It will also investigate the varying migrant incorporation regimes of selected European countries, including the impacts of the recent influx of Syrian Kurdish refugees. It includes ethnographic fieldwork, along with multi-sited research techniques carried out in the capitals of selected European states, data collection of both primary sources (creative, literary and cultural productions) and secondary sources (EU documents, annual progress reports, press releases). This study has a potential to encourage the maximization of networks of educational and intellectual revitalization in European states. It will also encourage other Kurdish migrant women to become factors of change and reach others. This is an interdisciplinary project aiming to fill in a significant gap in the relevant socio-political, gender, migration and cultural academic studies and policy debates within the European Research Area. It is in line with the EC’s strategy for gender equality provision.

With the goal of enhancing the governance capacity and policy coherence of the EU, its member states and neighbors, RESPOND is a comprehensive study of migration governance in the wake of the 2015 Refugee Crisis. Bringing together 14 partners from 7 disciplines, the project probes policy-making processes and policy (in)coherence through comparative research in source, transit and destination countries. RESPOND analyzes migration governance across macro (transnational, national), meso (sub-national/local) and micro-levels (refugees/migrants) by applying an innovative research methodology utilizing legal and policy analysis, comparative historical analysis, political claims analysis, socio-economic and cultural analysis, longitudinal survey analysis, interview based analysis, and photovoice techniques. It focuses in-depth on: (1) Border management and security, (2) International refugee protection, (3) Reception policies, (4) Integration policies, and (5) Conflicting Europeanization and externalization. We use these themes to examine multi-level governance while tackling the troubling question of the role of forced migration in precipitating increasing disorder in Europe. In contrast to much research undertaken on governance processes at a single level of analysis, RESPOND’s multilevel, multi-method approach shows the co-constitutive relationship between policy and practice among actors at all three levels; it highlights the understudied role of meso-level officials; and it shines a light on the activities of non-governmental actors in the face of policy vacuums. Ultimately, RESPOND will show which migration governance policies really work and how migrants and officials are making-do in the too-frequent absence of coherent policies. Adhering to a refugee-centered approach throughout, RESPOND will bring insights to citizenship, gender and integration studies, ensure direct benefit to refugee communities and provide a basis for more effective policy development.

This paper tackles the socio-political aspects of gender and migration in Jordan. Our concern is to figure out whether and, if so, how public debate, institutional setup and specific governmental or government-approved policies targeting migrant women are gendered, i.e., how gender policies articulate with migratory policies, how gender determines migrants’ experience, in terms of, for instance, life cycle and employment. We also inquire about the purposes of such policies. Our main conclusion is that, though public debate is indeed gendered, migration policies are not. On immigration, gender does not have priority over other characteristics of the migrant in the overall policy-making process on migration. However, there exists an economic sector-selective gendering of policies targeting female migrants in Jordan. This process is rooted in the political necessity of engineering female and migrant issues to respond to Jordanian nationals’ concerns. As for females’ emigration and, especially, a new trend involving mainly unmarried skilled young women directed at the Arab Gulf States, it has been so far ignored in the public debate, caught between the ‘open door’ policy and the institutional setup of Jordan’s ‘blocked society’. In the Jordanian context, migration, indeed, hardly allows female empowerment let alone female immigrants in Jordan. Therefore the paper advocates a stronger involvement on the part of sending countries’ in the defence of their nationals employed abroad, especially given the situation of female English domestic workers. / Cet article traite des aspects sociopolitiques de la relation entre genre et migration en Jordanie. Nous cherchons à comprendre si et comment le débat public, le contexte institutionnel et les politiques gouvernementales (ou soutenues par le gouvernement) visant les femmes migrantes sont genrées. Comment les politiques dans le domaine du genre s’articulent-elles aux politiques migratoires ? En quoi le genre détermine-t-il l’expérience des migrants, en termes de cycle de vie, de travail et d’emploi, par exemple ? Nous nous intéressons également aux objectifs de ces politiques. La conclusion principale de ce rapport est la suivante : le débat public prend en compte la question du genre mais les politiques migratoires l’ignorent le plus souvent. Concernant l’immigration, nous montrons que le genre ne pèse pas plus que d’autres facteurs dans le processus global de conception et de mise en œuvre des politiques migratoires. Cependant, on peut repérer une sélection par le genre dans certains secteurs économiques ouverts aux travailleurs immigrés, dont l’exemple le plus emblématique est l’emploi domestique. Ce processus a pour origine la nécessité politique d’instrumentaliser les questions de la femme et de la migration en réponse aux préoccupations des citoyens jordaniens. La question de l’émigration des femmes, en particulier le récent mouvement de femmes jeunes et célibataires vers les pays du Golfe, est pour sa part absente du débat public. Celui-ci reste en effet prisonnier de la politique de la « porte ouverte » mais surtout du contexte institutionnel d'une société jordanienne « bloquée ». Le contexte jordanien n’est donc pas toujours propice à l’autonomisation (empowerment) des femmes jordaniennes mais encore moins à celle des migrantes étrangères. Notre étude appelle donc les autorités des pays d’origine des migrantes à s’investir plus fortement dans la défense des intérêts de leurs ressortissantes expatriées, et de manière urgente dans celle des domestiques asiatiques.

Western countries have significant concerns about the increasing number of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers crossing international borders. The European Agenda for Migration includes a set of priorities that address this complex and nuanced problem. Core values of European societies, such as solidarity and human rights, are being tested by irregular migration pressure and the related difficulties of immigration detention. The escalating number of detainees released into host communities instead of being deported has raised new questions about how this population is being managed. This project uses two case studies: Spain and Canada to analyze how the governance of irregular migrants and asylum seekers occurs in two complementary ways. First, at the level of discourse, this research will assess how irregular migration has been represented in the political process by focusing on how immigration detention has emerged as a response to this issue. Second, the project will examine the impact of detention in those released and supervised in the community. This study will also focus on how different actors participant in the governance of migrants and how gender, race and nationality influence this process. Theoretically, this research builds on the governmentality and border control scholarship. Policy analysis and interviews are the primary methods of data collection. This study builds on existing scholarship and will provide a comprehensive and comparative analysis of irregular immigration and detention that can inform various types of immigration policy. The research project will be structured to ensure the applicant receives a high quality and comprehensive training program that includes academic milestones and the management, communication and dissemination competences. This study project is built on the collaboration of several institutions and academics to guarantee the international relevance of the project and the academic excellence of the researcher.

L’objectif du projet NIMIK est d’identifier l’émergence de nouveaux phénomènes migratoires à partir d’enquêtes sur la région de Kayes. La mobilité vers d’autres pays d’Afrique et d’autres destinations, notamment l’Europe, depuis cette région a fait l’objet de nombreux travaux dont il s’agira de faire un bilan critique. Ces travaux permettent d’approcher les phénomènes migratoires avec une profondeur historique particulière, et on s’attachera à déceler à partir de ce terrain singulier les changements en cours. Sur une durée de deux ans, le projet réunit une équipe d’une dizaine de chercheuses et de chercheurs, économistes, statisticiens, géographes, sociologistes et anthropologues, basés en France et au Mali. La pluridisciplinarité permettra de réfléchir à l’articulation des motivations sociales, économiques, politiques et climatiques dans les projets de départ et, éventuellement, de retours. Le projet NIMIK est structuré autour de trois thèmes. Le premier coordonné par Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (IRD, UMR DIAL), a pour objet de dresser un bilan de la dynamique actuelle des migrations au Mali, notamment en matière de genre et d’étudier les aspirations nouvelles à migrer. Avec notamment l’appui de Björn Nilsson (économiste, post-doc), cet axe mobilisera des enquêtes statistiques existantes et mettra en place une enquête originale auprès de jeunes maliens sur leurs aspirations au départ. Le deuxième est coordonné par Nehara Feldman (anthropologue, Université de Picardie) associée à Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye (anthropologue, CNRS IMAF, Paris et Point Sud, Bamako) et Joanne Le Bars (géographe, post-doc) ; il examinera les dynamiques familiales liées à la migration et s’intéressera à l’émergence possible de nouvelles configurations migratoires, notamment la migration autonome des femmes. Le troisième, coordonné par Stéphanie Lima (LMI Movida et Université de Toulouse) et auquel est associée Hawa Coulibaly (géographe, post-doc, LMI MACOTER et UMR CESSMA), étudie les interrelations entre les migrations internationales et la gouvernance locale dans la région de Kayes. Outre les trois post-doctorants cités, seront impliqués dans le projet un doctorant du LMI MACOTER, deux étudiants boursiers de Point Sud, Bamako, Mariam Sissoko et Mbaré Fofana et une étudiante en master de l’Université de Picardie, Nassima Guilal.

The research project ‘Arab Overseas Voting’ aims to contribute to the academic literature and policy discussion on overseas voting by drawing the attention on Arab migrant communities in the EU participating in the elections of their country of origin. It adopts an interdisciplinary and comparative approach that builds on historical and current contrasts between two major Arab labour sending countries (Tunisia and Morocco) and between two key EU receiving countries (France and Italy). Overseas voting is a worldwide trend. It is considered as a migrants’ right, and as contributing positively to democratization and development. However, the academic literature on overseas voting is still at an initial stage, in particular in Arab and African countries. The context of the project is that of momentous political changes in the Arab World, and increasing migration flows between North Africa and the EU since two decades. The general objective of the project is to assess why and how states enfranchise non-resident citizens, and under which conditions and for what purposes the latter participate in elections of their country of origin. In a policy perspective, the project aim to assess if, and under which conditions, overseas voting should be included in common migration policy frameworks, including the EU Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM). The project responds to EU demands to further investigate the governance of migration, in particular temporary migration; and social and political changes in Arab countries, in particular empowering young generation in context of political transition. With the aim of fulfilling such objective, ‘Arab Overseas Voting’ will pursue the following interrelated research objectives: patterns for adopting overseas voting; extensive versus restrictive voting rules; voters’ turnout; and voting behaviour, with a focus on age, gender, legal status differences.

GEMMA’s specific objective is to improve access to synthesised EC-funded Gender and Migration (G&M) research results for the particular groups of policy-makers and civil society organisations (CSOs) at national level in 5 countries. This objective responds to: (i) the need for national level strategy development to promote working cultures between researchers, policy-makers and CSOs and; (ii) the need to enhance the quantity and quality of synthesised research results for policy makers and civil society. The expected results are: (i) 5 national strategies developed to enhance networking and communication between researchers and policy-makers in the field of G&M through Policy-Making and Research National Action Plans (PMR-NAPs); (ii) 5 national strategies developed to enhance networking and communication between researchers and CSOs working in the field of G&M through Civil Society and Research National Action Plans (CSR-NAPs); (iii) increased systematic dissemination and valorisation of synthesised EC-funded research results and related policy recommendations in G&M to policy-makers and CSOs in 5 countries and national languages. The main tasks to achieve result 1 will be: (i) design a Policy Briefing Sheet (PBS) template that will be used to synthesise the research results from 20 FP5 and FP6 projects regarding G&M; (ii) organise 1 Policy Dialogue and Networking Workshop in each country and produce the PMR-NAPS; (iii) organise Validation Workshops for PBS and NAP finalisation; (iv) horizontal analysis of the PBS in order to identify horizontal conclusions and recommendations for the European Commission, researchers, policy-makers and CSOs. The main tasks to achieve result 2 will be: (i) disseminate PBS to at least 20 CSOs in each of GEMMA’s 5 Member States; (ii) organise 1 Civil Society Dialogue and Networking Workshop in each country (CS-DNWs) in the 5 partner countries; (iii) organise one validation workshop in the 5 partner countries to finalise the CSR-NAPs; (

Statistical data of the Greek Asylum Service: asylum applications by gender and age ranges, region of registration and country of origin, first instance procedure, unaccompanied minors; pending applications, appeals; relocation; Dublin

Ce texte propose une analyse de la place et du rôle des femmes dans les différents flux migratoires de, vers et à travers la Tunisie. Dans cette perspective, l’accent est mis sur deux sujets particuliers : tout d’abord, l’évolution démographique et socioprofessionnelle des Tunisiens de l’étranger, notamment les migrations familiales ; puis, les conditions de vie des migrants subsahariens en Tunisie, en particulier les migrations irrégulières et la traite. En conclusion, nous insistons sur la nécessité de disposer et de diffuser des données et des informations sur le genre et la migration afin de favoriser la gouvernance des migrations. / This text analyzes the place and the role of women within the various migration movements from, to and through Tunisia. In such a perspective, it insists on two particular issues : first, the demographic and socio-professional evolution of the Tunisian abroad, mainly through the study of family migration ; second, the living conditions of the sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia, especially irregular migration and human trafficking. To conclude, we insist on the necessary access to and diffusion of data’s and information’s dealing with Gender and Migration in order to support the governance of migration.