Intersectional Experiences: Experiences of Commonwealth Female Migrant Architects in the UK

Abstract

This paper presents the emergent findings of a larger research project on the lived experiences and career outcomes of female migrant architects from the Commonwealth in the UK architectural profession. I will employ a postcolonial feminist analysis, and the paper will, in particular, focus on considering the key challenges related to occupational closure hurdles. In the UK, architecture is a regulated profession. The geographic origin of qualifications is often used as a part of a professional project and closure mechanism, which can be used as a basis for exclusion. Adopting an intersectional framework merging with postcolonial feminist theory with the literature on professionalisation and professional closure, this paper addresses the question: how does the geographic origin of their architectural qualification influence the experiences of female migrant architects from the Commonwealth living and working in the UK? With a commitment to feminist research design, I am carrying out fifty semi-structured interviews with female migrant architects from Commonwealth countries. One of the key findings indicates that the re-qualification and re-certification requirements for labour market participation in the UK can create significant challenges for them. Some of the requalified migrant architects' lived experiences indicate that instead of successfully crossing occupational closure hurdles in terms of re-qualification, intersections of race, gender and migrant status significantly impact their experience at work. This research intends to contribute to the literature on professionalisation and closure of architecture by examining the intersections of migration, race and gender – an intersection hitherto underexamined in the context of architecture.