France
In France, “immigrant women” have been promoted as a priority category for public intervention, as they “constitute an economically and socially often more fragile public than the average population”. Hence, French authorities have established several civic integration measures, such as free access to language courses, employment services and the mainstreaming of anti-discriminatory measures. In line with several ministry reports, they aim to guarantee that immigrant women take their full place in French society though equal opportunities in all social, cultural and economic sectors. However, recent research has stressed out various limits and problems in the application of such measures.
=) Stigmatizing “immigrant women” as spouses of immigrant workers, confined to the domestic sphere or isolated within their “community”.
For example, the Law of 26 November 2003 has introduced the knowledge of French language as a condition of integration in order to obtain a residence permit, with the aim of tackling “certain vulnerable groups such as the spouses of foreigners who are sometimes kept isolated from the host society because of communitarian social practices”.
Such a representation neglects the experiences of single women, divorced, responsible for families in their country of departure, migrating outside a family framework or without any children.
- We recommend to take into account the great heterogeneity of women immigrants and to break with the victim/submissive image in order to promote women’s agency.
=) “Culturalizing” and “moralizing” citizenship through a postcolonial normative framework.
For example, civic integration courses provided by the Republican Integration Contract (CIR, Contrat d’Intégration Républicaine) have given a priority to the transmission of “Republican values”, and especially in secularism and gender equality. Immigrant women are subjected to a control system during the integration process and the different programs they follow (language courses, employment services, social support programs, etc.): their dress and food, sexual and parental practices, indicate their more or less strong adherence to the moral and cultural norms of the “French republican society”. Women who refuse to comply to such “Republican values” are considered not to deserve French citizenship.
This cultural and moral conception of citizenship contradicts the “civic turn” of immigration policies which sought to promote access to citizenship as a legal right.
- It is urgent to critically assess the postcolonial politics that continue to shape French immigration policies, according to a binary vision that separates the world between progressive/emancipated versus traditionalist/patriarchal societies.
=) Patronalizing “women’s participatory integration” and the silencing of political dissent
For example, immigrant women associations have been promoted as means of “participatory integration”. They are recognized to build on women’s personal autonomy, encourage women’s empowerment, and generate individual talents for the job market. However, research within women immigrant associations reveal how the legitimacy of women immigrants is limited to normative sexual and/or racial roles which identify them to a specific “community”. When it comes to tackle more general political issues, in relation to the fight against racism or sexism, women immigrant associations are mobilized such as “beneficiaries” of discourses and public policies, rather than resources.
This shows how women immigrants tend to be valued as “good citizens” when it comes to promoting “gender norms” or “cultural diversity” in line with neoliberal identity politics.
It is important to make visible the political discontent and social marginalization that animates many women immigrant associations, in relation to the intersectionality of sex/class/race social violence and injustices.
References
=) In 2007, du ministère des Droits des femmes L’Égalité pour les femmes migrantes (2013).
« Femmes de l’immigration, Assurer le plein exercice de la citoyenneté, à part entière, à parts égale » [“Immigrant Women. Ensuring the full exercise of full, equal citizenship]
https://www.vie-publique.fr/rapport/27762-femmes-de-limmigration-assurer-le-plein-exercice-de-la-citoyennete
Report published in 2005 by the Ministry responsible for Equality between Women and Men, Diversity and Equal Opportunities
“L’égalité pour les femmes migrantes” [“Equality for women migrants »]
https://www.vie-publique.fr/rapport/33870-legalite-pour-les-femmes-migrantes
Report published in 2013 by the Ministry of Women’s Rights.
The French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII) on the Republican Integration Contract
https://www.ofii.fr/en/the-republican-integration-contract-an-aid-to-the-integration-of-migrants/
Academic articles:
Gourdeau, Camille. 2018. “The CAI is good for others”, The injunction to integrate from the point of view of signatories of the hosting and integration contract (CAI).” Politiques de Communication 11(2): 73-101
GuĂ©nif-Souilamas, Nacira. 2006. “The other French exception. Virtuous racism and the war of the sexes in postcolonial France.” French Politics, Culture & Society, 24(3), 23-41.
Haapärvi, Linda. 2020. “The meaning of participation. The “civic turn” through the prism of participatory integration policies targeted at migrant women.” Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 34-36(4): 99-117
Killian Caitlin & Cathryin Johnson. 2006. ““I\'m Not an Immigrant!”: Resistance, Redefinition, and the Role of Resources in Identity Work”. Social Psychology Quaterly, 69(1): 60-80
Quiminal, Catherine. “The Associative Movement of African Women and New Forms of Citizenship”, in Freedman Jane & Carrier Tarr. 2000 Women immigration and identities in France” Berg, Oxford, New York: 39-57
Suvaveriol, Semin. 2012 “Nation Freezing: Images of the Nation and the Migrant in Citizenship Packages”, Nations and Nationalism 18(2): 210-229