| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-02-21T08:15:35Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-02-21T08:15:35Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022 | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.17170/kobra-202301167391 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/14432 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | Urheberrechtlich geschützt | |
| dc.rights.uri | https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Familie | ger |
| dc.subject | Heiratsmigrantinnen | ger |
| dc.subject.ddc | 300 | |
| dc.title | Home is where the Heart is? Experiences, Expectations and Struggles of Highly Qualified Female Love Migrants | eng |
| dc.type | Dissertation | |
| dcterms.abstract | This thesis aims to explore topics related to social and professional integration amongst highly qualified women who are third-country nationals or non-European Union citizens living in bi-national relationships in Germany and have predominantly migrated for familial reasons. This is a small but ever-increasing migrant group entering Germany for non-economic reasons. So far, they are only limitedly addressed in academic migration studies. Administratively, they are grouped as marriage migrants suggesting a family-oriented position of this group with little economic participation and significance of this type of migration for the receiving countries. This study aims to increase the visibility of the ‘skilled’ amongst female marriage migrants by recognising their resources and creative agency to transform their futures and succeed. The inquiry examines aspects of their biographies that construct their experiences as female highly qualified love migrants and how these definitions shape their post-migration lives. It also explores the subjective experiences of limitations and strategies in pursuit of professional integration in Germany. It does so to cover the missing narratives and give context to subsequent large-scale quantitative studies on marriage migration in Germany. It challenges the notion of female marriage migrant’s economic inactivity by presenting their untapped potential and the emotional work they undertake when they give up an established life to start anew for reasons of love and family. The inquiry applies a reflective participatory approach, where the inquirer’s involvement with the research topic appears alongside the data and theoretical framework to add context.
Further, to collect the accounts of highly qualified female love migrants, focus-group discussions are used as ‘think tanks’ for developing a largely applicable web survey. The main research questions are explored via in-depth interviews. Concepts of cultural capital are extended to include emotional capital and agency. These are theoretical lenses to understand how the female migrant’s personal and professional success can foster belonging and better social, cultural, economic and political participation. The findings suggest love migrants use their agency as qualified, independent and brave women to carve out their professional and personal pathways pre/post-migration. Their life choices are interconnected with the lives of their significant others in a local and global context, and success entails negotiations for both their personal and professional lives. Limitations faced by them at the labour market are pro-actively overcome through reskilling, re-education and building networks. The significance of this inquiry lies in how it informs our theoretical understanding of the migration and integration process by focusing on highly qualified female love migrants amongst family migrants, which was hitherto lacking. Via biographical narratives of efforts to participate and belong in Germany, it highlights how emotional capital is vital to evaluate their resources and integration process. The inquiry confirms that family life practised at multiple locations and in front of a diverse audience has a critical place in the migration trajectories of these women and must be given equal attention. Lastly, the participatory methodological approach in this inquiry has enabled a platform to share ‘multiple voices’, which encourages women of diverse backgrounds within migration research to include subjectivity as an empowering action in their inquiries. Knowledge originating from such inquiries would offer an alternative standpoint based on lived experiences to inform communities and policy. This can create favourable environments to enable a sense of belonging and boost socio-economic conditions and diversity. | eng |
| dcterms.accessRights | open access | |
| dcterms.creator | Pant, Saumya | |
| dcterms.dateAccepted | 2022-06-21 | |
| dcterms.extent | VII, 323 Seiten | |
| dc.contributor.corporatename | Kassel, Universität Kassel, Fachbereich Humanwissenschaften, Institut für Sozialwesen | ger |
| dc.contributor.referee | Westphal, Manuela (Prof. Dr.) | |
| dc.contributor.referee | Kämpfe, Karin (Jun-Prof. Dr.) | |
| dc.subject.swd | Geschlechterforschung | ger |
| dc.subject.swd | Migration | ger |
| dc.subject.swd | Einwanderin | ger |
| dc.type.version | publishedVersion | |
| kup.iskup | false | |
| ubks.epflicht | true | |
