Migrant Women in Belgium: Identity Versus Feminism

Abstract

For more than 60 years of post-war II migratory history, the sociological profiles, the social questions and the political stakes relating to the migrant women in Belgium have known deep transformations. This chapter identifies the feminist stakes of women migrant organisations and how their feminist claims have been ignored and reduced to identity claims. Based on the case of Brussels’ women migrant organisations, this chapter shows how women migrants contribute to fight for their equality and how the Belgian feminist movement started to include their demands. The main challenge of women migrants’ struggle is not only to show the universal patriarchal oppression but also how race and class impact on their social status.