Research Abstract

Liberté Egalité Islamité: Completion of research project

In this project three axes cross each other: Gender, immigration and the Maghreb. Although immigration has gender aspects, studies on immigration most often result in either gender blindness or exclusive studies on women. In the proposed research I intend to consider a solution to this problem of male and female who migrate from the maghreb to Europe. 

In previous studies I have already shown that women assimilate better then men in the public sphere at the country of destination (Dahan Kalev and Marzel, 2013). However, in the private sphere they are still restricted to the family codes of the country of origin. This tension create contradictions and difficulties in the immigrants lives even when the hosting countries provide social services and protect the immigrants’ rights.

The main problems this research suggest to analyse is: How do women cope with the contradictions that result from the tension between the private and the public spheres? What is the impact of these experiences on?

Research hypotheses: Two hypotheses are guiding the research: a) Consciously or unconsciously, the liberal and democratic state of destination made a strong confusing impact on the immigrants world view, however, male and female experienced the impact differently and responded in a different way. b) The gender roles were affected by the differences of the above experiences and required readjustments of family codes and children education.

Literature covering and critical reading: there exists a gap of understanding of the problems in the intersection point of approaches to what should be the proper immigration policy and the future citizens in the literature written in English and in French. My purpose is to incorporate critical analysis consisting of empirical data stemming from the interviews and synthesise them in the articles this study will produce.

Expected outcomes: Prepare the material for publication in the form of two (or three) articles: 1)  the policy of the hosting countries, 2) The immigrants’ point of view of the assimilation policy process. 3) the young generation of the immigrants, mainly those who were educated in the country of destination.