Migrant African women: tales of agency and belonging

Bailey, OG ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7266-7651, 2012. Migrant African women: tales of agency and belonging. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35 (5), pp. 850-867. ISSN 0141-9870

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Abstract

This paper explores issues of belonging and agency among asylum seekers and refugee women of African origin in the UK. It discusses the ways these women engendered resistance in their everyday life to destitution, lack of cultural recognition, and gender inequality through the foundation of their own non-governmental organization, African Women’s Empowerment Forum, AWEF, a collective ‘home’ space. The focus of this account is on migrant women’s agency and self-determination for the exercise of choice to be active actors in society. It points to what might be an important phenomenon on how local grassroots movements are challenging the invisibility of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ lives and expanding the notion of politics to embrace a wider notion of community politics with solidarity. AWEF is the embodiment of a social space that resonates the ‘in-between’ experience of migrant life providing stability to the women members regarding political and community identification.

Item Type:	Journal article
Description:	Special issue: Gender, Migration and the Media: Politics of Representation in a Cosmopolitan World
Publication Title:	Ethnic and Racial Studies
Creators:	Bailey, O.G.
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Date:	2012
Volume:	35
Number:	5
ISSN:	0141-9870
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/01419870.2011.628037 DOI
Rights:	© 2012 Taylor & Francis
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:16
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:24
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/10455

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