More than Transmitters of Culture: Evolving women’s agency in migrant families

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 08. Gendered processes in migration

Abstract

Much of the scholarly literature on South Asian women in Gulf migrant families revolves around two main categories of women: left-behind women and female migrant workers in the Gulf. While these two may be the dominant groups of women in Gulf migrant families, there is another category of women that has received insufficient scholarly attention but whose role is just as critical in the migration experience of migrant families. It is the group of women who accompany their husbands as dependents. By borrowing from the frameworks of feminist theories of women as producers of culture and transnationalism in light of the recent developments in marriage trends and host-country politics and policies, I conducted a qualitative study to analyze the agency of women who accompanied their husbands to the host country as dependents. Through narrative interviews, I gathered the migration stories of 20 Indian women living in Saudi Arabia. Responses of my participants challenged the broader narrative of migrant wives as entirely dependent and immobile in the host countries. While their visa status was still dependent on their husband, women demonstrated more agency in familial and societal affairs. They actively spoke on marital migration and current affairs such as citizenship policy, employment, and gender-related policies in the host country. My findings suggest a more dynamic position of women in the migration discourse and a transforming agency of migrant women in shaping their own and their families’ migration experiences. These findings contribute to the growing feminist literature on migrant women’s experiences. It opens avenues for further investigation on the intersections of gender, migration, and politics. This study also contributes to research on belonging and enacting of citizenship without a passport-holding status.

Author

• Shumaila Fatima, University of South Florida