Re-learning to be a woman: virtual space and post-migration womanhood in the Somali diaspora

Abstract

ABSTRACT Upon migrating, gender ideologies, performances, and relationships are transformed. However, little work has examined how information and communication technologies facilitate this transformation for immigrant women. In this article, drawing on observations of a Somali women created and led phone line and interviews with founders, moderators, and participants on this space, I consider how Somali immigrant women utilise virtuality to create a unique diasporic space in which they learn and practice the new identity of ‘immigrant woman’, distinct from the womanhood of their homeland or hostland. I argue that the reconfiguration of their womanhood post-migration is actively developed and negotiated communally through innovative community building and highlight how women specifically benefit from the scale and scope of a decentralised and virtual diaspora. Focusing on the domain of motherhood, I show how virtual space allows for a communal learning and negotiation of arising tensions. These findings illuminate the process underlying gendered immigrant integration.