Multiple Boundaries of Turkish Migrant Women's Access to Public Space in the UK

Gender has emerged as one of the most important lenses through which to examine and interpret migration in the last several decades. Race, class, gender, and national identity are all components of migration and are constantly being reconstructed on a worldwide scale. Feminist studies have problematised women's migration, which has contributed to women's greater visibility in migration studies beyond just a numerical increase after the 1980s. In particular, feminist methodology acknowledges the particularity of women's experiences and points to a critical research approach that seeks to make women's everday experiences visible by revealing this particularity. The difficulties that women face during all stages of the migration process, together with studies focused on illuminating and resolving these concerns from an intersectional viewpoint, currently lack adequate representation in migration literature. This presentation aims to examine the opportunities and limitations inherent in the connections that Turkish women, who have immigrated to the UK from diverse social, cultural, and economic backgrounds, have established with public space; the interplay and permeability of these boundaries with the private sphere; and the relationship between migrant women's concerns regarding identity, empowerment, and belonging and their access to public space. The constraints of migrant women's everyday interactions with public space will be assessed in connection to their ties with the private sphere, informed by the results of the ethnographic research I conducted in Liverpool, England, in 2023, involving 21 participants through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observation.