Migrant women's political practices: Gender, race and ethnicity in action. / prácticas políticas de las mujeres migrantes: Género, raza y etnicidad en acción

The emergence of the political action and mobilization by people of migrant origins is one of the main processes which challenge the dominant conceptions and practices of democracy, and it pushes to a revision of the current meanings of citizenship. Particular attention has to be given to the political practices and subjectivities enacted by migrant women, within the excluded minorities in contemporary societies. Migrant women live multiple forms of exclusion within the gendered, racialized, ethnicized and classed structure of contemporary democracies; the analysis of their political action can help in building inclusive political spheres and in advancing towards pluralistic societies.

In this paper I want to contribute to the debate on “Democracies in transition: the political cultures of excluded groups”, discussing the main results of my research on the political participation of migrant women, involved in grass-root and self-organized groups based in Andalusia, Spain. The research used a qualitative methodology, based on participant observation and discursive interviews. Forty migrant women, from twenty seven grass-root organizations, were interviewed. The interviewees come from Third and EU-27 Countries, and hold different legal statuses. Participant observation was carried out during different activities of the migrant women’s organizations involved in the research.

The presentation will focus on the multifolding ways of political expression of these women, explaining the different individual and collective strategies through which these subjects attempt to create spaces for voice, action and recognition, and try to gain visibility in the political and social sphere. Special attention will be given to the analysis of the women’s claims, exploring how these subjects negotiate their political and cultural demands with the state and local institutions.