Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries

Abstract

New forms of migration and their gendered dynamism suggest fundamental changes around the turn of the millennium. New flexible forms of migration are increasing and transnationalism is becoming a marked trend. Female migration is no longer invisible but recognised as an important phenomenon in scholarly research and in policy making. The high percentages of women in labour, refugee, educational or marriage migration are believed to constitute a new trend. While this is a flawed view because women have always participated in migration movements, the focus on the gender dynamics of these developments is indeed new. Gender relations are now seen as fluid and changing: In the past, female migrants have been portrayed as symbols of national or traditional culture, expressed in clothes and body postures, or as representatives of different moral norms and life-styles, of chastity or communalism. However, in transnational communities young women and men are nowadays developing new flexible and syncretistic identities. Over the last years scholarly debates have redrawn the boundaries around the andocentric and national understanding of migration and have integrated gender as a core concept. Scholarly work shifted from describing women as passive objects or victims of migration structures to viewing them as social actors who conceive and follow strategies of their own in often difficult and complex situations. In short: Gender is interwoven with migration and gendered migration is on the move.