The redefinition of gender roles in immigrant women: the importance of local spaces in global processes

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn today’s complex, intercultural, transnational, glocalized world, linking conceptual analyses and theoretical representations to the empirical study of female migration also requires, among other aspects, acknowledging the importance of the arrival context in the redefinition of gender roles, since it operates as an area of opportunity or containment mainly due to a number of specific features, which interacts with women’s economic, cultural and social capital, to produce different results in the situation of migrant women. The context of arrival and the subjects, conceived of as actors inserted in social structures where they have scope for action, is the focus of our analysis. This article addresses this issue through the study of two cases of migrant women in different contexts. One of the women is a Mexican migrant who settled in Sonoma County California in the US, and the other a Bulgarian who arrived in Ribera del Duero in the Autonomous Community of Castile and León in Spain. The research used mixed methods, which included the review of various censuses and documentary sources, ethnographic fieldwork and the qualitative technique of the life story to undertake the case studies.