Migrant Women Challenging Stereotypical Views on Femininities and Family

Abstract

‘Muslim’ migrants (whether as an ascribed or self-chosen identity) and even Muslim citizens are currently constructed as a key figure of threatening Otherness to European values (cf. Bourne, 2007). Whether through explicit policies or through implicit symbolic representations, migrants are required to position themselves vis-à-vis shared values in order to prove they can be legitimate members of the society they live in. Increasingly, gender equality and sexual liberalism stand in as measures for migrants’ ability to positively identify with the wider freedoms that ‘European values’ are associated with (cf. Haritaworn et al., 2008).