Migrant Women Transforming Citizenship

"Migrant Women Transforming Citizenship" develops essential insights concerning the notion of transnational citizenship by means of the life stories of highly educated Turkish migrant women in Germany and Great Britain, interweaving and developing theories of citizenship, identity and hybridity with the lived experiences of an immigrant group that has so far received insufficient attention. By focusing on the British and German contexts, it introduces a much needed European and comparative perspective, whilst exploring the ways in which diverging concepts and policies of citizenship allow for a differentiated examination of ethnicity, gender, multiculturalism and citizenship in Europe. Presenting a significant and welcome contribution to our understanding of the complexities of multiculturalism it challenges the Orientalist picture of women from the East as backward and oppressed. Through engagement with the changing realities of work, family and social activism, this volume provides a situated account of how the concepts of citizenship, transnationality and hybridity play out in actual social relations. With its rich empirical material in its exploration of the ways in which migrant women, though often marginalized from the nation as legal or cultural outsiders, create new meanings of belonging, this book suggests how citizenship debates can be reframed to be inclusive of migrant women as actors. As such it will appeal to those working across a range of social sciences, including sociology and the sociology of work, race and ethnicity; citizenship, cultural and gender studies, as well as anthropology and social and public policy.