ERIC Number: EJ1032654
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1476-7724
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Educational Work of Belonging
Devos, Anita
Globalisation, Societies and Education, v12 n3 p403-419 2014
In an age when vast numbers of people are moving globally to pursue work away from their home countries, it is timely to consider who is moving and how these moves may be gendered and produce their own gendered impacts. This article explores how one group of migrant women are learning to live and work in a new town in country Australia. The women referred to in this study are temporary migrants with visas issued under skilled migration programmes designed to address skills shortages. Most are in living in Australia as the partner of the "primary visa holder". In the article, I take up Seddon, Henriksson and Neimeyer's concept of "educational work" to analyse the forms of labour undertaken by the women as part of the migration and settlement process. My analysis is informed by Kandiyoti's theorising of transnational belonging and identity, which she describes as fragmented and gendered. The study points to the highly gendered experiences of migration and illustrates the forms of labour undertaken by the women, which I describe as the educational work of belonging. This work is carried out in the spaces the women create as they negotiate the material and metaphorical boundaries that define their position and identities. These boundaries include visa categories and professional registration, the conditions of local labour markets, their negotiations with educational systems and barriers of geography. This account of the educational work of belonging contributes to gendering the story of transnationalism, as experienced by women who may or may not have chosen migration for themselves, and who struggle with multiple identities and (be)longings.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Migration, Foreign Workers, Skilled Workers, Females, Asians, Personal Narratives, Educational Experience, Mothers, Gender Issues, Labor Market, Barriers
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A