Gendered Dynamics of Solidarity and Resistance among Displaced Kurdish and Turkish Migrants in Europe

• In Event: 20862 - Section on International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: Migration Aspirations and Decision-Making

Abstract

Although there is a vast body of literature focusing on the migrant agency and gendered dynamics of migration, less is known about the gendered dynamics of how migrants build and utilize solidarity and resist inequalities that they face related to their migration process. This paper seeks to answer how migrants’ intersecting social positions influence their migration experiences and how migrants respond to the obstacles that they face given their intersecting social positions and identities by expanding on the framework of the ‘feminization of refugee’ proposed by Sunata and Özsoy (2022). Drawing on qualitative interviews with 32 Turkish and Kurdish migrants who left Turkey due to facing political persecution, I explore how migrants’ decisions to migrate, migration trajectories, and access to resources are embedded in their intersecting social identities and positions. Findings show that migrants mobilize their transnational solidarity networks and weak ties during their journey. Additionally, as they move into more secure positions, migrants become a source of solidarity. Results also underline many migrants' resistance strategies to disrupt the victimization narrative. Understanding migrants’ solidarity and resistance strategies through their lens can shed further light on their agency during migration and how they mobilize their existing resources or accrue new ones.

Author

• Sinem Esengen, The Ohio State University