Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

‘Building a Platform for Our Voices to be Heard’: Migrant Women's Networks as Locations of Transformation in the Republic of Ireland

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 37; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1369183x.2011.526780

1469-9451

Carla De Tona, Ronit Lenṭin,

Migration, Refugees, and Integration

Abstract Several migrant women's organisations have been set up in Ireland over the last decade. This article surveys three such groups: NOUR (Al Huda Women's Group), a Dublin independent Muslim women's group; WOMB (Women of Multi-Culture Balbriggan), a suburban multi-ethnic women's network; and AkiDwA, the African and Migrant Women's Network. In the second part of the article we focus in more depth on the evolution of the first two—NOUR and WOMB—both very different associations. Using the concept of network and focusing on the networking practices of these groups, we argue that migrant women's networks attest not only to women's agency and resourcefulness in transforming their lives but also to the nature of contemporary Irish society. We also suggest that, while the resilience and flexibility of networking embody a culture of global gendered resistance, networking also bespeaks the contradictions that migrant women face in Ireland, showing the everyday experiences of belonging and living in the margins and in-between social locations. Keywords: Migration and GenderMigrant WomenNetworksIntegrationIreland Notes 1. All the citations and names of the migrant women who took part in our research are published with the women's permission. The leaders of WOMB and NOUR (Pamela Chiriseri and Djamila Bouacid) have read an early draft of this paper and commented on it. We thankfully acknowledge their help and suggestions. 2. This is one of the six projects in the Trinity Immigration Initiative research programme on Diversity, Integration and Policy, http://www.tcd.ie/immigration/networks/index.php 3. For examples in the European context see: European Feminist Forum—http://europeanfeministforum.org/; European Forum of Muslim Women—http://www.efomw.eu/; and the Philippine Women's Network in Europe— http://www.babaylan-europe.org/. 4. According to the 2006 census, of 419,733 'non-Irish' people, 275,775 migrated from the EU, 112,548 from the UK, 35,325 from Africa (of whom 16,300 from Nigeria, a top sending country for asylum applications), and 46,952 from Asia (of whom 11,161 from China)—www.cso.ie/census/Census2006. 5. According to the CSO (2008), the total number of immigrants fell in 2008 by 26,000 from 109,500 in 2007. Interestingly, in 2007, the proportion of women migrants was lower, at 47.5 per cent. We are not certain how to interpret this fall. 6. These are: AkiDwA—the African and Migrant Women's Network; Diaspora Women's Initiative; Dublin 12 Ethnic Minority Group; FM WEPON Tallaght Partnership; the Irish Hijab Campaign; The Louth African Women's Group; Network for the Integration of African Children In Ireland/IACI; NOUR—Al Huda Women's Group; Russian Speaking Women—Slavanska; Women From Minority Networks; Women's Integrated Network—WIN; WOMB—Women Of Multi-Culture Balbriggan; and the Women's Section, Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, Clonskeagh. We have also been studying informal networks of migrant women (Italians, young Chinese with student visas, Sikhs and Filipinas who form part of a church choir loosely associated with the Migrants' Rights Centre Ireland)—www.tcd.ie/immigration/networks. 7. See Southall Black Sisters, http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/ 8. 'Irish-born children' is the term used by the Irish state to designate children of migrant parents. In 2004 a referendum on citizenship discontinued the automatic right to citizenship to children born on the island of Ireland, limiting automatic citizenship only to children of Irish citizens or parents entitled to Irish citizenship. In 2003 the government discontinued granting residency rights to migrant parents, yet this right was restored after the state won the citizenship referendum by a majority of four to one (see Lentin and McVeigh 2006). 9. Such as FM WEPON Tallaght and Info Centre Skerries. 10. For a critique of the Irish Community Development model of anti-racism and migrant support see Lentin and McVeigh (2006). 11. The 2003 Supreme Court ruling made 11,500 migrant parents candidates for deportation. Among the 341 people actually deported, there were 20 Irish-citizen children who were made to leave Ireland with their deported parents (Lentin and McVeigh 2006: 52). 12. AkiDwA: 'Understanging gender-based violence, an African perspective'; 'Women and Asylum'; 'Assessing the needs of African Women in Ireland' http://web.mac.com/greville1/AkiDwA/Events.html.