Straipsnyje analizuojami interviu, atlikti su priverstinę migraciją dėl Rusijos pradėto karo Ukrainoje patyrusiomis migrantėmis iš Ukrainos, kurios atvyko į Lietuvą po 2022 m. vasario 24 d. Gilinamasi į pasakojimus apie karo bei priverstinės migracijos patirtis bei aiškinamasi, kokios situacijos įvardijamos kaip kritinės individualiame, šeimos bei bendruomenės lygmenyse, taip pat – kokios strategijos pasitelkiamos minėtoms krizėms įveikti.

In this article, I report on a Bulgarian female migrant caregiver's “life-story,” especially focusing on her relationship with an old Italian woman, on the care practices performed in her favor in Italy, and on her daughter and parents still living in Bulgaria. I chose to do it by means of an anthropological approach based on experience as field of mediation between personal dimensions and historical and social processes and therefore centered on the body conceived as historical product, the influence (...) of political and social forces on shaping human lives, and finally interest in the specific link between bodies and work. From this analysis, based on language and narratives, I think useful cultural aspects may emerge about “gender” and care practices, regarding the two women linked by an assistance relationship, and the activities/strategies used by the Bulgarian caregiver to fulfill her family obligations. (shrink)

This study reanalyses data on migrants to Alberta, collected by Statistics Canada in a 1980 Labour Force Survey. The findings indicate that migrant men are gainers and migrant women, particularly migrant wives are the losers from such movement, even during a period of relative economic prosperity in the Province. Women's occupational status tends to improve with time spent in the new labour force. However there is a failure to return to occupational statuses enjoyed before the move. This means, (...) first, that male and female workers are more sex-differentiated after the move than before it; second, that migrant women, especially wives, enjoy fewer occupational returns on their educational investment than migrant men; third, that the balance of economic contribution, and possibly therefore influence, within a migrant household is shifted towards greater male dominance by the move.It is to be emphasized that each of these findings is to be regarded as tentative pending the completion of further analyses on this and three related data sets. In particular the analysis of household level data will be critical in assessing any hypotheses about family power before and after the move. (shrink)

Female migrant workers are doubly disadvantaged in China's urban labor market because of their doubly marginalized identities as both women and rural residents. This article takes a process-centered approach to explore how female migrants' two identity categories generate intersectional effects on their job-search experiences in cities. Data from in-depth interviews conducted in Xi'an city, China, in 2010 and 2011 reveal that three patterns of relationship explain the processes where the gender–hukou intersection affects female migrants. (...) In the first pattern, a splintering relationship, hukou and gender work singly to form employment discrimination against female migrants. The second, a contesting relationship, indicates that hukou and gender alternate as the primary identities that affect their employment opportunities. In the third, a collaborating relationship, hukou and gender work together to either positively or negatively shape female migrants' employment prospects. No matter which of the relationships plays out, female migrants' disadvantages as cheap urban laborers have become deeply entrenched in the urban labor market. This can be explained by two powerful social institutions in contemporary China, the hukou system and patriarchy. (shrink)

This article presents the results of a case study that aims to highlight the processes by which French female migrants in London and Manchester attempt to de/re/construct identities to negotiate the challenges of the cultural and social structures in England. This research centres on 15 semi-structured interviews with French women residents of diverse backgrounds. The interviews conducted represent counter-narratives to existing studies which focus only on highly skilled French migrants in London and define them as free movers (...) and ‘invisible migrants’. This study attempts to fill a gap by examining solely French women migrants in Manchester and London as a strategic research site for a number of key research questions taken from the current literature of intra-European migration, gender and identity. Indeed, the ways in which migrants negotiate their identity are crucial to migration studies and have to be analysed in relation to women’s specific experience. The study exemplifies how migrants’ identities are a ground of negotiation, contestation, deconstruction and reconstruction. Patterns that emerged in this study first highlight the high heterogeneity among women’s strategies of self-identification and definition and sense of belonging in a changing Europe. The article concludes by proposing a refined notion of transculturality as a useful concept for future explorations of changes in contemporary European societies and the role women can have in them. (shrink)

This article, based on original research from 57 villages in four provinces from North and East India, sheds light on a hitherto unexplored gendered impact of colorism in facilitating noncustomary cross-region marriage migrations in India. Within socioeconomically marginalized groups from India’s development peripheries, the hegemonic construct of fairness as “capital” conjoins with both regressive patriarchal gender norms governing marriage and female sexuality and the monetization of social relations, through dowry, to foreclose local marriage options for darker-hued (...) women. This dispossession of matrimonial choice forces women to “voluntarily” accept marriage proposals from North Indian bachelors, who are themselves faced with a bride shortage in their own regions due to skewed sex ratios. These marriages condemn cross-region brides to new forms of gender subordination and skin-tone discrimination within the intimacy of their marriages, and in everyday relations with conjugal families, kin, and rural communities. Because of colorism, cross-region brides are exposed to caste-discriminatory exclusions and ethnocentric prejudice. Dark-skin shaming is a strategic ideological weapon employed to extract more labor from them. The article extends global scholarly discussion on the role of colorism in articulating new forms of gendered violence in dark-complexioned, poor rural women’s lives. (shrink)

RESUMO Durante o processo da Perestroika soviética, Iuri Lotman escreveu reflexões sobre o conceito de fronteira. Como testemunhou migrações em massa, expulsões forçadas e reconfigurações etnogeográficas sem precedentes, sabia o quanto uma fronteira pode ser carregada de significado cultural que transcende sua dimensão espacial. Ter esse tipo de consciência era ainda mais urgente tendo em vista ser esse um período histórico de transição, reconstrução e abertura, quando as políticas linguístico-culturais poderiam ser um meio de promover integração e aceitação do "estrangeiro". (...) Esta contribuição parte desse quadro histórico-conceitual e busca analisar um fenômeno cultural de grande interesse na literatura italiana contemporânea: a presença "intrusa" crescente de escritoras das antigas colônias que escolheram escrever suas obras em uma língua estrangeira, o italiano, usando a escrita como um campo de experimentação, hibridismo cultural e criação de um espaço discursivo público que traz o olhar da mulher migrante.ABSTRACT In the midst of the Soviet Perestroika process, Yuri Lotman wrote his reflections on the concept of boundary. Having witnessed massive migrations, forced expulsions and unprecedented ethno-geographical reconfigurations, he knew how much a border can be loaded with a cultural meaning that transcends its spatial dimensions. To be aware of this was all the more urgent at a historic time of transition, rebuilding and opening, when linguistic-cultural policies could be a means of promoting integration and accepting the "foreigner." This contribution takes this historical and conceptual framework as its starting point and aims to analyze a cultural phenomenon of great current interest in contemporary Italian literature: the increasingly "intrusive" presence of women writers from the former colonies who choose to produce their works in a "foreign" language, using writing as a field of experimentation, cultural hybridization, and generation of a public discursive space, bearer of the female migrant gaze. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Driven from Home: Protecting the Rights of Forced Migrants Edited by David Hollenbach, SJ, and: Kinship across Borders: A Christian Ethic of Immigration by Kristen HeyerRené M. Micallef SJDriven from Home: Protecting the Rights of Forced Migrants EDITED BY DAVID HOLLENBACH, SJ Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2010. 296 pp. $20.46Kinship across Borders: A Christian Ethic of Immigration KRISTEN HEYER Washington DC: (...) Georgetown University Press, 2012. 210 pp. $29.23Although based on a conference held at Boston College in November 2008, Driven from Home is no less timely today, given the context of current debates on immigration in the United States, the European Union, Australia, and the Middle East. David Hollenbach’s introduction explains how the book brings together Christian (mostly Catholic) theologians, human rights activists, humanitarian practitioners, and legal scholars to help us focus on a class of persons referred to as “forced migrants” or “persons needing protection.” These individuals are neither classical “convention refugees” (according to international law definitions) nor are they simply “migrant workers” (in the classical sense) since their basic human rights to security and subsistence cannot [End Page 230] be adequately guaranteed in their home country or region. They do not emigrate merely in search of a higher standard of living; rather, forced migrants enter and settle in foreign lands seeking some sort of “protection” similar to that afforded to “conventional” refugees. More concretely, the book focuses on persons on the move—individuals fleeing violence and the extreme poverty rampant in regions devastated by ecological degradation and natural disasters.Extending the logic of the 1952 Refugee Convention and adapting it to the realities of today, one can argue convincingly that the international community has a duty to protect such persons when their states of origin are structurally unable or unwilling to afford protection (as argued in Susan Martin’s essay). However, paternalistic approaches that diminish rather than augment the agency of local governments and migrants are to be avoided (as maintained in M. Brinton Lykes’ essay). The book helps us reflect on what can be done to guarantee the basic rights of forced migrants not only at the level of international law and institutions but also through domestic and regional policymaking spurred and inspired by both Christian and secular global-humanitarian values. Such values are eminently compatible when applied to this particular issue (see Silvano Tomasi’s contribution). Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator’s essay—which offers insightful reflections (albeit rather general ones) from Christian ethics, ecclesiology, and biblical theology—likewise points to the need for a truly interdisciplinary approach to the issue. The other authors help the book achieve precisely this. Theological ethics finds its own distinctive place and voice in dialogue with a range of perspectives: legal and political sciences and case studies (Frank Brennan, Daniel Kanstroom); philosophical approaches (Arash Abizadeh); and sociological research on particular migrant populations (M. Brinton Lykes, Maryanne Loughry). The book includes essays that integrate case studies, technical reflections, useful summaries of theological principles and doctrines (J. Bryan Hehir, Mary M. DeLorey, and Tomasi), and philosophical stances (Abizadeh, Thomas G. Weiss), and present practical and legal proposals (see Martin’s essay). A stimulating read for scholars and for the general public, the volume provides good training material for faith-based activists and practitioners.The argumentation strategy in many of the essays in Driven from Home is to appeal to the reader’s sense of solidarity with the needy or suffering neighbor. It promotes the virtues of hospitable citizenship and hospitable disciple-ship while carefully trying to convince national and international policymakers to reinforce and expand the international protection regime. Emboldened by the 2005 “Responsibility to Protect” breakthrough at the United Nations, the authors seek to remain acceptable to a wide audience in an atmosphere of resurgent nationalism, nativism, and protectionism. The authors generally avoid harsh critiques of Westphalian models of sovereignty and do not dwell [End Page 231] on the Catholic doctrines of the universal destination of created goods and the (circumscribed) right to immigrate (and not only to emigrate). Rather, they seek to introduce a new protection niche without fundamentally challenging the prevailing ideology of sovereignty, gently proposing new legal instruments as though they... (shrink)

In recent years, rather than addressing the needs of sex workers themselves or of trafficked persons, international anti-trafficking law has been mobilised towards an ideological end, namely the abolition of sex work. The vulnerability of ‘third world’ female sex workers in particular has provided a potent image for justifying state intervention backed by the full force of the criminal law. Moral legitimacy has been afforded to this by a radical feminist discourse which views sex workers as nothing but hapless (...) victims. Drawing on the work of Martha Fineman and legal realists like Robert Hale, this article redeploys vulnerability in trafficking debates to depart from its narrative of victimhood and to offer a renewed critique of liberal legalism, which has in the trafficking context been characterised by legal strategies of criminalisation and the attendant rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked persons. Specifically, it examines how three Indian social legislations regulating bonded labour, contract labour and inter-state migrant labour, and targeted at the domestic trafficking of men, conceptualise vulnerability in substantially different ways when compared to the 2000 Palermo Protocol on Trafficking (at least as it has been enforced to date). To the extent that these Indian laws construe the vulnerability of labour as systemic, trafficking is understood as a problem of labour migration to be addressed primarily by labour law. As such, this view of vulnerability, I argue, not only helps to de-exceptionalise trafficking as always equivalent to the trafficking of women for sex work, and therefore sex work, but also to substantively address the vulnerability of both male and female workers in other labour markets. (shrink)

This study uses the longitudinal data from the Building a New Life in Australia survey to examine the relationships between human capital and labour market participation and employment status among recently arrived/approved humanitarian migrants. We find that the likelihood of participating in the labour force is higher for those who had pre-immigration paid job experience, completed study/job training and have better job searching knowledge/skills in Australia and possess higher proficiency in spoken English. We find that the chance of (...) getting a paid job is negatively related to having better pre-immigration education, but it is positively related to having unpaid work experience and job searching skills in Australia, and better health. We also explore the ethical implications of the findings. (shrink)

This paper aims to explore the experiences of female leaders considering the interplay of gender, religion, and culture. Drawing on an inductive-qualitative study, the paper examines perceptions regarding the role of religion and cultural norms in women’s ascension into leadership positions in Jordan. The results indicated that Jordanian women leaders adopted an Islamic feminist worldview and did not embrace a liberal nor a socialist/Marxist feminist worldview. Women leaders seemed wanting to claim their religion back from those forces that (...) are reportedly holding their aspirations hostage to monolithic interpretations of religious texts. By constantly referring to their religion, female leaders wanted to be granted spaces of trust and responsibility in leadership positions that they did not see contradictory to the way they understood their faith. The paper provides insights into how women leaders understand prejudicial stereotypes and discrimination in their society, explaining how those are linked to patriarchal socio-cultural traditions emphasizing male control. (shrink)

The article deals with the activities of the UGCC in the field of preservation of Ukrainian identity of a new wave of migration. Using traditional strategy, the church is looking for new approaches to migrants, based on old and seeking new cultural codes which are understandable for present-day Ukrainian in his incultural intentions in abroad.

some years, the German public has been debating the case of migrant workers receiving German benefits for children living abroad, which has been scandalised as a case of “benefit tourism.” This points to a failure to recognise a striking imbalance between the output of the German welfare state to migrants and the input it receives from migrant domestic workers. In this article I discuss how this input is being rendered invisible or at least underappreciated by sexist, racist, and (...) classist practices of othering. To illustrate the point, I will use examples from two empirical research projects that looked into how families in Germany outsource various forms of reproductive work to both female and male migrants from Eastern Europe. Drawing on the concept of othering developed in feminist and postcolonial literature and their ideas of how priv‐ ileges and disadvantages are interconnected, I will put this example into the context of literature on racism, gender, and care work migration. I show how migrant workers fail to live up to the normative standards of work, family life, and gender relations and norms set by a sedentary society. A complex interaction of supposedly “natural” and “objective” differences between “us” and “them” are at work to justify everyday discrimination against migrants and their institutional exclusion. These processes are also reflected in current political and public debates on the commodification and transnationalisation of care. (shrink)

There is an increasing number of female migrants among the international migrants in Russia. The purpose of this study is to identify the social risks female migrants face. Statistics and data from surveys were analyzed, interviews were held with experts providing practical assistance to women and focus groups were conducted with female migrants. The employment sector in which young female migrants face the most risks and are likely to work illegally (...) is commercial sex services. The social risks are mainly related to a lack of knowledge about the culture, their illegal status; risky behavior is also a big issue. The conclusion is that the social risks are linked to the gender asymmetry existing in the labor market and to the more vulnerable position of women with regard to sexual exploitation and trafficking. (shrink)

The basic features and problems of male consumption in 1920-1930s are considered. The main aim of research is to analyze the material world and everyday life of the male consumer and his demands mainly in the urban space of Soviet Ukraine. The crucial role of Communist ideology and propaganda in the emergence of male consumer culture is discussed. It has been also paid attention on the great role of Soviet planned economic system that influenced on the material needs of (...) ordinary consumers. Thus, it has been emphasized that the image of male consumer was not homogenous. Such features as social status, professional surroundings, accessibility to the distribution sources constructed its mosaics. Due to these reasons, it is not possible to construct the general image of male consumer, but only to characterize its various types, which belonged to different representatives of male population such as workers, Communist party's members, traders, "red directors", or intellectuals. It has been examined that biography of male's things, their longevity was not the same as in comparison with female's ones, because of the less developed practices of suing and remaking clothes among the men. As consumers, they were not also broadly presented in various fashion magazines. It could be explained by the existing consumer policy towards them that excluded man from the fashion discourse. That's why as a result the male consumption could be presented as "forgotten" area of Soviet official discourse. Communist authorities were building new "byt" and had forgotten to satisfy everyday needs of the builders. Notwithstanding, the problems with shortages of goods and clothes forced men to create the new everyday practices, which included the usage of women's sewing services. Therefore, the practices of individual sewing of clothes were not developed among the men. Nevertheless, they took part in the modernization process of Soviet society and consequently accepted new industrial goods into their everyday consumer practices. The investigation of male consumer goods led to the conclusion that their biography, durability differed from female material world. (shrink)

The study examines the consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic‐induced lockdown on the socio‐economic status of 212 female migrant workers employed in the informal sector, originating from four underprivileged districts of West Bengal, India. The study assesses the changes in their scope of employment, financial instability, and the level of violence experienced within households and workplaces in the pre‐pandemic and post‐lockdown phases. We apply the binary logistic regression to identify factors influencing their low employment scope, the t‐test to observe (...) changes in their income as a consequence of the pandemic, and the Wilcoxon signed‐rank test alongside effect size analysis to detect any rise in experiences of violence and exploitation against women. The findings suggest a notable decrease in their employment scope due to the absence of previous jobs, low wages, insecure workplaces, and family constraints; a decline in earnings; and an increased incidence of violence against them. The research suggests designing reforms to improve the current situation of female migrants, who represent one of the most marginalized sections of society. Formalizing the labor market and ensuring proper registration of these women would enable them to gain access to social security benefits, pension schemes, and relief packages that are vital for their well‐being. (shrink)

This article examines the issues of social (re)integration in Ukraine, which were actualized during the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014-2022. The first part of the article is devoted to the consideration of theoretical issues related to the conceptualization of social integration in the social sciences and the role of the state in reproducing social relations. The author assumes that during the last decades, ideas about the role of the state in these processes have changed significantly, which was caused by the (...) departure of the governments of developed democratic countries from the policy of the welfare state. This caused a reorientation of the state towards policies of inclusion, that is, targeted support and assistance to the most vulnerable social strata. The second part of the article is devoted to the consideration of the processes of social integration of migrants and refugees during the war in Ukraine. The author concludes that during the first full-scale invasion, processes of rethinking one's own national identity intensified in Ukrainian society. The armed confrontation and the catastrophic consequences caused by it contributed to the nationwide consolidation of Ukrainians and neutralized socio-cultural differences, which for a long time became the cause of political opposition and electoral divisions. Instead, the long stay of part of the territory and citizens of Ukraine under occupation under conditions of repressive and propaganda pressure, violent mobilization to the armed forces of the self-proclaimed republics and participation in the armed confrontation on the side of the occupiers revealed new divisions between Ukrainians who were on different sides of the front line. These divisions will obviously become an obstacle to the successful reintegration of Ukrainians after de-occupation, which will require a balanced and careful integration policy from the state authorities during the post-war reconstruction. (shrink)

The article proposes to analyse whether the current configuration of national migration legislation from Arendt's perspective on the universalization of human rights and Agamben's reflections on bare life and the state of exception demonstrates its capacity to protect the human rights of people undergoing forced migration. To this end, a literature review of a bibliographical nature was used, using the historical procedure method. In order to interpret the effectiveness of the current configuration of the human rights of this (...) vulnerable group, an analysis of international and national legislation on migration was carried out, focusing mainly on the case of the New Brazilian Migration Law. To this end, a theoretical discussion was built to understand how human rights are framed considering the situation of migration and statelessness in the face of an increasingly prevalent state of exception. It was noted that the constitutive fragility of forced migrants is a perennial situation, aggravated by the political inaction of nation states. It has also been noted that there is a need for states and international organizations to adopt new practices to promote the human dignity of forced migrants. (shrink)

The South African labor market is characterized by a high degree of inflexibility and complexity which poses significant challenges for both indigenes and migrants looking to be integrated into the labor market. These challenges are likely to be more poignant for international migrants as they face additional barriers owing to a chronically high employment rate, xenophobic sentiments, and racial exclusion. For female tied migrants, gender bias, expressed through migration policies and legislation, adds yet another layer of (...) complexity to long-term aspirations of settling in South Africa. How well tied migrants fare in the South African labor market is an important matter for consideration. Using an intersectional approach and the theory of governmentality, this study sought to deconstruct the labor market subjectivities of tied migrants in South Africa. This paper used a qualitative approach, with a narrative and interpretivist research paradigm, on female tied migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa who either accompanied their husbands or followed them to South Africa in a process of family reunification. Although 13 interviews were carried out in total, as part of a broader study, the narratives of six participants were included in this study, to zone in on labor market experiences. The study found that despite their high human capital, tied migrants are not likely to be well integrated into the South African labor market. Their inequality in the South African labor market was attributed to their gender, ethnicity, race, migrant status and locality and various intersections thereof through which they are subjected to informality, immobility and precarity. (shrink)

Population mobility has been one of the most basic social characteristics of China’s reform and opening up for more than 40 years. As the main labor force in Chinese cities, young migrants have made major contributions toward China’s economic miracle as the country has experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization. However, frequent mobility has caused an imbalanced social mentality in young migrants and often leads to issues with social integration, which has made this group more vulnerable with respect to (...) their health. This study used the 2013 and 2015 Chinese General Social Survey data of 1,007 young migrants to investigate social mentality mediating the linkage between social integration and health among young migrants. Additionally, to probe the moderating role of gender, multi-group structural equation modeling was applied to test if the pathways in the mediation model differed between young male and female migrants in a significant way. The results suggested that after controlling for the influence of age, marital status, education, and personal annual income, social integration positively impacted the health of young migrants in a significant way; social mentality mediated the action of social integration on this group’s health; and with respect to gender difference, on the three paths of social integration affecting health, social integration affecting social mentality, and social mentality affecting health, young male migrants were more affected than young female migrants. The findings of this study could help improve gender-specific policies on the health of the floating population and offer important theoretical reference and practical suggestions for future research. (shrink)

Background Research shows that undocumented migrants have difficulties in accessing healthcare. Act 2013:407 came into force in 2013 and entitled undocumented migrants to healthcare that cannot be deferred. To date, studies about undocumented migrants’ access to care in Sweden and the impact of Act 2013:407 are sparse. Hence, the aim of this study was to describe professionals’ experiences of access to healthcare for undocumented migrants in Sweden and the impact of Act 2013:407. Methods A qualitative design (...) with semi-structured interviews was employed. Nine interviews were carried out in 2015 with nurses at two NGO healthcare centres for undocumented migrants – and an additional seven interviews in 2022 with staff at an NGO healthcare centre for undocumented migrants and personnel at a regional health and medical care administration. Interpretive description was used for the analyses. Ethical considerations Permission to carry out the study was obtained from managers at the participating NGOs and the regional health and medical care administration. Participants received verbal and written information about the study, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. Findings Six categories emerged from the analysis: Changes since the Act was introduced, General problems with healthcare access, Care for undocumented migrants – politics and social economy, Lack of knowledge, ‘Healthcare that cannot be deferred’ and Being an undocumented migrant. Conclusion Undocumented migrants’ social needs are as great as their needs for healthcare. Healthcare staff are burdened with healthcare cost considerations which affect their judgement of care provision and prioritization. Healthcare staff attitudes towards undocumented migrants affect their access to healthcare. Undocumented migrants in need of healthcare are especially vulnerable due to their legal status, being ill and the fear of being reported and deported. To assure undocumented migrants’ access to healthcare and maintain healthcare ethics, the only possible solution is to provide healthcare based on needs. (shrink)

There is a growing interest in researching the plight, health, and social care needs of forced migrants and the complex ethical issues related to researching this vulnerable group. Conducting health and social care research with forced migrants is a sensitive and complex issue and can place emotional demands on contributors, requiring high ethical and moral standards which safeguard participants, researchers and the integrity of the study. Researchers and those who review research need to be sensitive to (...) the needs, privacy and fears of participants. In addition to the medical and personal benefits that can be obtained from undertaking research with forced migrants, there comes the risk of stigmatization, exploitation and harm. This paper identifies some, but by no means all, key ethical issues confronting researchers, these dilemmas include the complex issues of language and translation, immigration status, contextual issues, lack of familiarity with the research process, issues of informed consent and safeguarding anonymity. Confidentiality, sensitivity to cultural traditions and values, and avoiding re-traumatization also need to be considered as this knowledge can minimize research risks and protect the rights and welfare of research participants. This paper will draw upon experience of working with refugees and asylum seekers for many years and from experience gained from small-scale qualitative research undertaken with Somali and Ethiopian forced migrants. It argues for the need for a consistent, robust, ethical framework to ensure that the ‘researcher’ does not inadvertently ‘do harm’ by infringing on the security, privacy and well-being of the subjects of the research. This paper in turn adds to the knowledge base on good practice and research ethics and is hoped that it will provide useful guidance for those undertaking the ethical review for this type of research. (shrink)

This article concentrates on the rapid growth of trafficking in women from Eastern and Central Europe who end up working in the sex industry in Athens. Such movement of people is constituted around global networks of female labour. The social processes and mechanisms that produce and reproduce the somatic and social exploitation of female migrants caught in the web of the sex industry are analysed. These processes are responsible for a continuation and accentuation of women’s loss (...) of power to represent their interests, to seek viable economic alternatives. The living and working spaces of these women rest upon their isolation and individuation and total control of their everyday activities. Ethnicity, age and racialized exclusions all intersect with sexist relations and practices within Greek society and the ethnic communities under study. The interplay of these processes operates differently within different ethnic groups of women to produce different outcomes. (shrink)

The illegal migration of Basotho women to South Africa in order to render domestic service is alarming because they are subjected to harsh treatment. This is a pastoral and theological concern for the church. As migrants, their struggle begins from the household circumstances that often force them to leave and seek job opportunities undocumented or without following prescribed migration procedures. They are then subjected to migration processes and procedures: for example, corruption and bribery by migration officers and illegal (...) dealers. The working and living conditions in South Africa are often unconducive for illegal migrants. As economic and illegal migrants, they are often considered as lesser by prejudiced employers who treat them inhumanely. Accessing essential services also imposes a significant threat to their lives.Contribution: Through this study, the article will reveal the vulnerability faced by illegal migrant Basotho women as domestic workers in South Africa. (shrink)

The text analyses rituals as endeavours to preserve the identity of a people or a portion of a people. Rituals present or re-present the supposed common history of all the migrants. Social memory and history then tend to merge and to forget... forgetfulness is the driving force behind the writing of history. Particularly critical is the moment when the migration starts, because the need to adapt to new conditions as well as to maintain what is represented as their social (...) identity makes dual – and at times contradictory – demands on the migrants’ imagination. Examples taken from Portuguese migrations are offered as expressions of the conceptual issues raised. (shrink)

Immigration politics are almost universally characterized by their complexity, their ability to raise public passions, and misinformation, often based on generalizations and stereotypes. Recently, immigration has been intrinsically linked to crime, and public agendas have squarely focused on security issues as nativist political forces have successfully created a prominent image of migrants as threats to public security. This article argues that immigrant participation in criminal markets should be studied at the local level, where micro-criminal economies often dominated by (...) class='Hi'>migrants actually develop. By examining criminal activity at its base, the article investigates the nature of power in these markets. Specifically, it examines migrant crime in four cities and compares it to migrant integration in regular labour markets. By doing so, the article studies levels of migrant autonomy in both criminal and regular markets and argues that this autonomy indicates whether migrant crime is entrepreneurial or a sign of social deviance. (shrink)

Unlike Russia, one of the most potent forces in reinterpretations of Ukraine’s cultural legacy is its matriarchal myth. This article explores the ways in which that myth has been reconfigured to conform to the requirements of Ukraine’s contemporary historical circumstances. It also examines how a cult figure, known variously as the great goddess, domestic madonna, hearth mother and today as the nation’s mother, and widely portrayed in the media as such, can be transformed into an instrument of women’s (...) subjugation. Although in her original incarnation Berehynia conveyed a message of female empowerment, today she represents nothing more than a free-floating symbol of an allegedly unchanging Ukranian reality, and the woman’s essential status within it, without any real connection to the society in which she once flourished. The idea of female empowerment which she embodies, however, seduces contemporary Ukranian women into a false sense of their own centrality even as it consigns them to inferior status. (shrink)

Temperance literature, though widely popular in America and Britain between 1830–80, lost its allure in the decades that followed. In spite of its didactic and moralistic nature, the public eagerly consumed temperance novels, thus reciprocating contemporaneous writers’ efforts to promote social ideals and mend social ills. The main aim of this paper is to redress the critical neglect that the temperance prose written by women about women has endured by looking at three literary works—two novellas and one confessional novelette—written by (...) mid-nineteenth-century American female writers. These works serve as a prism through which the authors present generally “tabooed” afflictions such as inebriation among high-class women and society’s role in perpetuating such behaviors. The essay examines the conflicting forces underlying such representations and offers an inquiry into the restrictive and hostile social climate in mid-nineteenth-century America and the lack of medical attention given to alcohol addicts as the possible causes that might have prompted women’s dangerous behaviors, including inebriation. This paper also demonstrates the cautious approach that nineteenth-century female writers had to take when dealing with prevalent social ills, such as bigotry, hypocrisy and disdain directed at female drunkards. It shows how these writers, often sneered at or belittled by critics and editors, had to maneuver very carefully between the contending forces of openly critiquing social mores, on the one hand, and not being censored, on the other. (shrink)

In Ukraine, there are now officially registered six All-Ukrainian Muslim departments and centers, a number of Islamic-based public and political organizations, associations of national minorities, the Islamic lands dominated by Islamic religion. The Islamic community of the country is replenished annually by migrants and students from countries of different Islamic orientation. It is clear that all this actualizes the problem of inter-institutional relations in the Islam of Ukraine, the search for ways and means of minimizing and (...) preventing possible confrontations and conflicts between them. (shrink)

This Article examines how the legal subjectivity of the migrant subject is intimately connected to the construction of the citizenship subject and how both have been products of the colonial encounter. Deploying the lens of postcolonialism, I argue that the migrant is addressed through a spectrum of legal rules based on normative criteria reminiscent of the colonial encounter. These criteria reinscribe citizenship within dominant racial, sexual, and cultural norms as well as claims of civilizational superiority. That which does not fall (...) within the boundaries of citizenship is regarded as outcast, an "Other," and subject to restraint, persecution, censorship, social stigma, incarceration, and even annihilation. The discussion draws examples from recent judicial decisions in the context of postcolonial India, dealing with migrant bar dancers and migrant Muslims, highlighting the deep and lasting impact of the colonial encounter and the imperial imagination on understandings and constructions of citizenship in the contemporary period. The cases further illustrate how notions of "global" or "world" citizen, unbound by territory or the nation-state, are unable to account for the complex and contradictory understandings of citizenship that have emerged from within a postcolonial context. The arguments force us to inquire into the role of citizenship, its relevance or meaninglessness in the lives of the migrant once its exclusionary potential has been exposed. (shrink)

After the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the flow of forced migration from Ukraine has significantly increased as people tried to protect their lives and find a safe place to live. Given that Ukraine shares the external border with the European Union, most people sought protection precisely in the Member States of the European Union. The study aims to analyze the features of the legal regulation of the provision of temporary protection in (...) the European Union and determine the reasons and conditions that led to its activation after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The leading method of the research was the method of systematic analysis, which helped define temporary protection as a multifaceted phenomenon and determine the reasons and conditions that led to its activation in the European Union after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In order to regulate the mass influx of Ukrainian displaced persons, the European Union has activated the mechanisms of temporary protection, which is an emergency mechanism introduced by a decision of the Council of the European Union. The status of a person with temporary protection provides certain rights analyzed in the article. Thus, the activation by the European Union of the Temporary Protection Directive is a justified and appropriate measure to protect the mass influx of displaced persons from Ukraine. (shrink)

This article explores the ways in which friendships between women may promote gender transformation. The study is based on 25 in-depth interviews with young women in Geneva disposed to gender transformation but not necessarily considering themselves to be ‘feminist’. The findings, based on a dispositional and contextual analysis, show that female friendships provide women with a place where they find respite from men, become aware of gender relations, take action to further their emancipation and receive support for changes (...) made. Furthermore, this research shows the way in which women are shaped by their friendships, but also how they shape them actively to model their emerging critical dispositions. It therefore indicates how women are active in modelling their dispositions within the dynamics of gender relations and other social forces. (shrink)

Before the passage of the US Immigration Act of 1924, governments of migrant-receiving countries decided whether to admit most prospective immigrants only after they arrived at the border; afterward, the United States and then later other migrant-receiving states required prospective migrants and visitors to apply for visas in their country of residence before coming—an institution that Zolberg has termed “remote control.” Previous scholars wrote about remote control in terms of how it increased the capacity of states to reduce immigration, (...) protect their societies from external threats, and maintain sovereignty, but did not analyze in detail how it did so. Here I analyze three ways through which remote control was a model for a more general revolution in migration control that simultaneously reduced interactions between inhabitants in migrant-receiving societies and those in migrant-sending societies, slowed down the historical reduction of inequality between migrant-sending and migrant-receiving societies, and reduced research and critical awareness within migrant-receiving societies about remote control’s structural impact on societies in general. First, this institution brought more order and precision to the process of individually evaluating prospective visitors. Second, it enabled states to select and define authorized migrants according to their migratory purpose and to force other migrants either to demonstrate enough stamina and strength to enter unauthorized or to die trying. Third, by moving the migrant selection process to migrant-sending societies remote control reduced contact between residents in migrant-receiving societies and prospective migrants in migrant-sending societies. In these three ways, remote control has more generally constrained migratory opportunities and global mobility of individuals between distinct societies. (shrink)

In 1991, Ukrainian independence opened an important theoretical channel for debating the status of its women. The people's collective memory of an ancient matriarchy generated a neo-matriarchal mythology which has been transformed into a delusional ideology that legitimizes female subordination, in the name of her alleged empowerment. Fieldwork in Ukraine – annual visits, including travel from one end of the country to another in official capacities, and many extended stays in Ukraine, as a scholar, researcher, educator (...) and participant in key events, provided opportunities for exchanging views with countless people from many walks of life throughout the country. Participation in a host of programs – television ‘specials’ on gender, seminars, retreats, workshops and conferences, designed to raise the consciousness of women and men alike – provided an array of opportunities to observe at first hand the way that today's women construct individual identity. Extensive research in the press (many runs of daily newspapers, including Den’, in Kyiv, and Vysoky Zamok in Lviv, and women's journals such as the widely read Zhinka, among others) added further insights. Television viewing, popular publications collected habitually during my numerous visits to Ukraine, copies of documents contributed by my Ukrainian friends and colleagues, outdoor advertising, posters and intimate gatherings at the homes of likeminded women, all played a part in the formation of my impressions of Ukrainian women's inferior status. In this paper I use my findings to explore the conflicting discourses on women's alleged empowerment, and the essentialist constraints on their self-realization, together with measures adopted to date on changing gender stereotypes and promoting equal rights and opportunities. (shrink)

This article explores the possibility of resistance under conditions of extreme state power in liberal democracies. It examines the strategies of migrants without legal status who, when threatened with one of the most awesome powers of the liberal state—expulsion—shed their legal identity in order to escape the state’s reach. Remarkably, in doing so, they often succeed in preventing the state from exercising its sovereign powers. The article argues that liberal states are uniquely constrained in their dealing with undocumented (...) migrants. Not only are they forced to operate within the constraints of the international legal order—making repatriation contingent on the possession of identity documents—but the liberal state is also constitutionally limited in its exercise of coercion against the individual. The article concludes that it is those individuals who have the weakest claims against the liberal state that are most able to constrain its exercise of sovereignty. (shrink)

This research paper aims to examine the association between product market competition and gender diversity on the corporate board. More specifically, this paper examines the likely corporate governance determinants of firms operating by female directors. This study included all the Australian listed companies in the primary list of samples from 2001 to 2015. This research explored that low competition increases the probability of existing female directors on the corporate board. Results also reveal that low product market competition (...) is positively associated with firms’ female directors where female directors are the member of the audit committee and have long service experience. This research obtains evidence that low-competitive firms encourage board gender diversity even if their presence is insignificant (as a token). This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence that first, low competition drives managers to appoint female directors on board as few primarily large firms with low competition show fairness to comply with corporate governance regulations, especially on gender diversity. Moreover, low competition forces firms to search for unique competitive advantage, and gender diversity is one of them which can increase the visibility of female directors. Finally, a firm’s board gender diversity can ensure intense monitoring, rational decision, advising, calculative risk-taking comparing with a gender bias board and leading to a good firm image for the stakeholders. (shrink)

The violent events of the revolutionary 1917 rocked the church life in Ukraine. Church movement began to become quite controversial in its content of national-political character. In the new political conditions, not only the clergy but also secular authorities, public organizations and private individuals took an active part in discussing the problems of church life, which politicized in some way Orthodoxy. The Civil War of 1918-1920 did all the efforts of church activists and clergy dependent on the state of (...) affairs - the activity of many church and church organizations ceased or, on the contrary, restored under the rule of certain political forces. It was only from the beginning of 1921 that we could speak of more clearly defined lines of church development. (shrink)

In this short study, the Scroll of Ruth, and especially Ruth's undisclosed motives for following her mother-in-law, are read alongside the situation of foreign, female migrant workers in contemporary Israel—and vice versa. This allows a bi-directional reading that supplies a possible context both for the biblical text and for the evaluation of today's issues.

For a long time, female endorsers in advertising have been doing product information promotion in the market. However, with more and more highly educated women participating in the labor force, the conception of feminist depictions in advertising have become a perplexing issue. The traditional female role portrayals or stereotypes of the past are not able to totally reflect the expectations, behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of contemporary women. The author collected print ads as data from three types of (...) the highest circulation magazines: foreign women’s magazines, domestic women’s magazines, and domestic management magazines subscribed to in Taiwan to investigate what were the favorite feminine patterns and feminist depictions in a traditionally masculine society. The results showed classical beauty and girl-next-door images were “acceptable” gender-role behavior exposed highly in domestic magazines, which might contribute to conservative Confucian beliefs. On the other hand, being trendy was a significantly high preference for contemporary feminist depictions in foreign women's magazines; it might be considered as being due to the increased educational level of women and female labor participation rate in the work place as well as upgrading of social status. (shrink)

Since commencing its illegal invasion in 2022, the Russian military and authorities have committed numerous war crimes against the people of Ukraine. These include the mutilation and execution of combatants; the torture, kidnapping, forced expulsion, rape, and massacre of civilians; and indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas. In this essay, I evaluate the strategic implications of this misconduct, focusing exclusively on Western responses. I argue that war crimes can and often do negatively impact the strategic goals of the (...) perpetrator, but whether and how this occurs is rarely governed exclusively by the offending action. Western perceptions of battlefield atrocity, shaped as they are by identity, race, and politics, may radically shift from one context to another. In the case of the Russia-Ukraine war, the status of both the participants and the conflict itself has helped inculcate a particular sensitivity among Western actors to the battlefield criminality of Russia. Drawing on evidence from the 2022 Bucha massacre and the ongoing bombing of Ukrainian civilians, I argue that Russian misconduct has consolidated Western support for the Ukrainian military effort, politically, diplomatically, and materially. (shrink)

This article explores some of the key dynamics of the UK fashion sector as an example of a post-industrial, urban based, cultural economy comprising of a largely youthful female workforce. It argues that the small scale, independent activities which formed the backbone of the success of British fashion design as an internationally recognized phenomenon from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, represented a form of female self-generated work giving rise to collaborative possibilities and co-operation. However without (...) an effective lobby or association (despite the expansion of the fashion media) and under conditions of rapid individualization and in an increasingly harsh climate of neo-liberalization, this creative economy has been overtaken and virtually demolished by the joint forces of a re-vitalized high street fashion culture and the aggressive presence of corporate fashion (‘Prada-ization’). While the UK government celebrates the growth of the cultural economy, it also overlooks the processes making the livelihoods of its predominantly female workforce either untenable or else requiring de-specialization and ‘multi-tasking’. (shrink)

Starting symbolically from a place of transit and mobility such as the Galleria in Naples, I look at the pace of immigration movements to Italy from both ex-colonial territories and other countries. Precarity characterizes the migrant condition in Italy: entrance and stay permits; work and housing, which are difficult to obtain and always temporary; bureaucratic control is severe and the right to citizenship is distant. The collective amnesia of the colonial enterprise obscures the fact that at least some (...) of the guests of today were the hosts of yesterday. I analyse these, and other aspects, in the literature of migration that in recent decades has emerged in Italy, focusing on women's writing and confronting the problem of how long it will take for this literature to receive recognition in the Italian literary canon. In women's narratives, precarity emerges in the journey of emigration, described as a real odyssey; in tensions over identity and language; in contrasting cultures of departure and cultures of destination; in the problematic concept of ‘home’. Racial and gender differences subsumed in the colour of skin are a recurrent motif. For women, hardships may be more deeply felt: isolation and loneliness is augmented by the distance from children and family; the relationship between past and present more troublesome as it often leads to a double oppression. independence is more fiercely fought for in the affirmation of identity. Finally, I show that, alongside conditions of isolation and despair, strength and hope in the new life emerge from these writings, touching on the importance of writing in Italian and on the motives leading to this choice. (shrink)

Maternity is a biological process that has increasingly changed into an authoritative medicalized phenomenon and requires techno-medical intervention today. Modern medicine perceives women’s procreative functions as pathological that need medical involvement and control. Medical biologists claim that the female body is destined to procreate in which medical sciences can assist them with techniques. But is a woman’s body biologically evolved merely for procreation? Or is it a sexist interpretation of her socially situated self? How can we justify the idea (...) of universality and neutrality of medical sciences in a social context? Arguing against deterministic biology, existential feminists advocate that female body is not merely a biological fact but rather a social situation under which the maternal act has become the essence of being a woman. Social situations influence medicine in a way that they are used as a rhetorical tool to achieve social desires authoritatively. The present paper explores and examines the increasing medicalization of female body and maternity through the lenses of biological determinism and phenomenological existentialism. I argue that medically supported theories of female body are socially interpreted that perpetuate the traditional role of women as mothers instead of emancipating them from their immanence. The paper discusses how the scientific model of medicine is implicitly influenced by socio-cultural forces and, consequently, tries to reduce social phenomena into biological factors to justify women’s inevitable destiny as motherhood. Thus, we need a de-medicalized model of medicine in order to comprehend the true meaning of maternal body and self. (shrink)

The formation of the chaplaincy movement in the context of the formation of independent Ukraine (after 1991) required the solution of a number of issues, primarily of a conceptual nature. The initiators of the restoration of chaplaincy faced the underestimation of the chaplaincy factor, the risks of transferring interfaith disputes to the military environment. In fact, it was a question of finding their own model of chaplaincy service, which would provide an optimal model for organizing the work of chaplains. (...) The authors propose to divide the development of the chaplaincy movement in independent Ukraine into three stages, which differ not only chronologically but also in their characteristics. The first stage (1991-2005) was characterized by a rethinking of the role and place of religion in the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The idea of a chaplaincy service was revived primarily on the basis of the volunteer movement. Volunteers also encouraged churches to form appropriate structures that would be responsible for chaplaincy work. At this stage, the driving force behind the formation of the chaplaincy movement was the unstable informal ties between church and security forces in Ukraine. With the advent of the first legal acts that regulated the search for optimal models for creating the chaplaincy institute, the second stage of development of the chaplaincy movement in Ukraine began. It lasted from 2006 to 2013. During this time, regulations were developed and implemented that institutionalized the relationship between the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the country's largest churches and religious organizations. The third stage began with the beginning of the Russian Federation's attack on Ukraine in 2014 and continues to this day. The annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine created the need to sharply increase the number of chaplains and to legalize them in military institutions. Already in 2015-2016, the formation of the state regulatory framework of the chaplaincy institute began and staff positions of chaplains in military units were introduced. On the other hand, there has also been a qualitative growth in the theoretical and practical training of chaplains and their material support. These processes show that the establishment of the institute of military chaplaincy in Ukraine has actually taken place. In each period, the authors highlight the problematic issues that government agencies and religious organizations addressed in organizing the chaplaincy movement. Particular attention was paid to the attempts of activists to form their own model of chaplaincy ministry and the problematic issues of improving the quality of chaplains' training. In particular, it was pointed out that the best way for Ukraine is to organize separate chaplaincy faculties in the country's higher educational institutions to train specialists at the level of world standards. (shrink)

It is well known that the European cultural space has been developing under the slogan of secularization over the last five centuries. It is social secularization that has become one of the main forces that has shaped the modern image of Europe. Secularization has affirmed the secular spirit inherent in modern man. Therefore, we Europeans now live in a secularized society. This is manifested in the fact that the appeal of citizens to God, the scale of appeals to religious interpretation (...) in finding out different aspects of reality, the participation of religious institutions in solving life's problems of society and personality are significantly reduced. The language of religion and its concepts are increasingly distant from everyday experience. There is less and less mutual space between the life of the modern world and church preaching. According to P. Berger, "the current situation does not contribute to the truth of the authority of religion.". (shrink)

The collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991 opened up an important window of opportunity for female self-reidentification in Ukraine. Broadly speaking, thus far the country’s transition from a totalitarian society to a democratizing one has produced two waves of opposition. The First Wave began with a neotraditional form of rejection of communist values. Eventually, it was succeeded by a new opposition, this time to the newly established dominant cultural code. One of the most important characteristics to (...) distinguish the First Wave from the Second was a generational divide. This article compares the two waves with regard to the nature of their respective oppositions and their ability to produce changes calculated to minimize the negative stereotyping and abuses against women. The article focuses on one dominant form of opposition to existing cultural norms, in each of the two waves. (shrink)