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Economic Immigration and Women: Not the Usual Story, Not the Usual Suspects

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Migration, Globalization, and the State

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

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Abstract

The term ‘economic immigration’ can trigger multiple associations, from the high-rolling, risk-taking entrepreneur or the jet-setting IT specialist, to the vulnerable, ‘flexible’ migrant worker (Creese, Dyck and McLaren, 2008) hired in a plethora of low-paid, low-status occupations. However, when these terms are qualified further by adding ‘women’, the spectrum of images shrinks, as research on female labor migration in the global economy has ‘focused on a narrow range of sectors in, particularly, domestic work and sex work’ (Raghuram and Kofman, 2004, p. 95). Dominant, circumscribed representations of immigrant women not only fail to convey the richness of immigrant women’s economic migration experiences but also serve to undercut the scope of opportunities for women. Moreover, studies of how various im/migration priorities play out for women at subnational levels are only recently coming to the fore, and still mostly in select contexts (for Nova Scotia, see Dobrowolsky, 2011, 2012; Bryan, 2012; or for Toronto, see Buyan, 2012). Thus more comparative work on the interface between macro-forces and meso-scale immigration choices, calculations, and commitments at the provincial level in Canada, and those of immigrant women at the micro-scale, is required.

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Authors
  1. Alexandra Dobrowolsky
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Acadia University, Canada

    Rachel K. Brickner (Associate Professor) (Associate Professor)

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© 2013 Alexandra Dobrowolsky

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Dobrowolsky, A. (2013). Economic Immigration and Women: Not the Usual Story, Not the Usual Suspects. In: Brickner, R.K. (eds) Migration, Globalization, and the State. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137033765_5

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