Displaced Women in the Immigration Process

Displaced Women in the Immigration Process

Being both a displaced person and a woman creates different disadvantageous situations in different interaction patterns. Displaced women are in a more difficult struggle for life than both men who are immigrants like themselves and local people. For example, displaced women are employed in unskilled jobs at a much higher rate than displaced men and non-immigrant women.

Immigration experiences of men and women, their level of being affected by immigration, the problems brought by the immigration process and the strategies to combat these problems are different. Gender roles and their social experiences based on gender can be shown as the reason for experiencing problems of different severity and dimensions. For example, women are at greater risk of being exposed to violence and aggressive behavior. Social rules can be more restrictive for women and women cannot benefit from social networks adequately compared to men. However, women's limited employment opportunities and poor and inadequate working conditions are among the other important problems encountered. It is inevitable for displaced women to experience these problems more intensely during the immigration process.

However, the long-term indifference of immigration studies to women and gender issues has led to women being seen as a homogeneous mass and ignoring the existing differences among displaced women. It is certain that the social life experiences, lifestyles and socioeconomic status of displaced women may be different. For example, displaced women should be considered as a heterogeneous category according to their education level and employment status. Accordingly, it is possible to observe the effects of many factors such as the reasons and forms of immigration, religious beliefs, socio-cultural structure of the countries of origin, the social structure of the region they come from (rural and urban), economic opportunities and legal rights on the formation of different femininity and immigration situations.

In pioneering immigration studies, women are positioned in a "passive" and "dependent" gender category, considering them only as family members who adapt to their husbands' decision to immigrate and accompany their spouses. Although marriage and family reunification is one of the important reasons for women's immigration, which intensified in the '60s and '70s, it should not be overlooked that independent women's immigration is an ongoing and effective movement. The presentation of family reunification as a type of immigration rather than a legal entry route leads to the definition of women who have immigrated with family reunification as “dependent immigrants”. In this way, it results in being indifferent to their problems such as their position in the job market.

Receiving countries' goals are to maximize social benefits from the immigrant population while minimizing the cost of immigration. In this context, the economic and social security of women who immigrate with their spouses is not considered a burden for countries as their spouses or families pay for it. Because women who take part in immigration process with their spouses are generally considered to be tied to their husbands who take care of them legally and economically because of their accompanying and mothering roles. This point of view indicates that there is no risk of women replacing men in the job market. Therefore, it is much easier for this group of women to enter the country of immigration than for (independent) women who immigrate alone, and their position in the job market is structurally and functionally different from that of independent displaced women.

We cannot deny the existence of the vulnerable lives of many struggling displaced women in the UK who have to work formally or informally and without social rights and job security. The increase in the number of displaced people, half of whom are women, has an impact that affects and transforms the structure of societies on a global scale. Displaced women, although they have different statuses and roles, should find a place in social policies and services created in a very comprehensive framework.