Resumen de Skilled migrant women and citizenship
This chapter addresses the experiences of skilled migrant women in the labour market and how these are linked to issues of citizenship. I begin by discussing different concepts of citizenship, the relation between citizenship and paid work, and its impact on migrant women. Then I present two cases studies, of migrant women of Turkish background1 in which I discuss the obstacles they encountered in having their skills recognized in Britain and Germany. While these obstacles are a common experience for migrant women, my case studies focus on how the interviewees overcame these difficulties. I examine the resources they mobilized to realize their skills and access a skilled labor market, and thus highlight women’s agency. I look at their agency in the context of gendered and ethnocised processes of skilling, de-skilling and re-skilling. In earlier feminist debates the gendered division in the social construction of skill and professionality has been pointed out (Cockburn, 1986; Philipps & Taylor, 1986; Witz, 1992), here I would like to include the dimension of migration and ethnicity in the social construction of skill.
