Immigrant Women's Identity and Integration: Liverpool, "The World in One City"

Abstract

This article is based on the original research that studied immigrant women who have been living in Liverpool since 2001. It deals with issues concerning the identity of immigrant women. One of the aims was to identify if there was a difference between subjective perception and findings derived from an objective evaluation of their integration based on the collected data. The study, conducted in Liverpool in 2009, explores the choices immigrant women have made with respect to their preferred identity, i.e. by nationality, religion, or ethnicity. The inductive explorative research is postpositivist in approach and a questionnaire was used to collect primary data. The results have demonstrated how the various challenges immigrants face when moving to another country influence their choice of identity. Their preference of identification by nationality, religion and ethnic group helped to define the level of integration of these women within the wider society. The study has found that the way the respondents wanted to be identified depended on a number of factors; degree of integration, knowledge of the local language, and participation in the local community. The quantitative method and the multiple correspondence analyses have enabled the mapping profile of the sample and have demonstrated the existence of spatial urban self-segregation. The study shows that these women live in their diaspora space rather than within the wider community.