"Are women migrating towards Europe like men?"
-Hello Camille Schmoll.
-Hello.
-Camille Schmoll, you are a geographer,
a member of the Institut universitaire de France, a lecturer
at the Paris-Diderot University,
and a specialist in European migration issues.
Why are some of your researches specifically based on migrating women?
-Actually, I wanted to work on women, with other researchers, because,
for a long time, we considered that migration was mainly a male fact.
We considered that women were mainly followers, that they joined
their husbands in a second phase,
in the scope of family reunification processes.
We also considered that women less often found a job on the labor market,
at least directly, compared to migrating men.
We realized that, actually, women have always emigrated.
They often emigrated alone or sometimes played a pioneering role.
That is to say they arrived before men and were joined by their husbands.
We realized that, eventually,
women always played an important role in emigration.
Nowadays, we have also observed, over the last 20 years,
an increase of the number of women in migratory flows,
in particular women who leave on their own.
It is linked, in the case of emigration towards Europe,
among other things, many reasons can explain this mobility of women,
to labor demand in the care service fields, for example,
or in children care fields. In fact, it is linked both to the fact
that more and more European women participate in the labor market,
and also to demographic issues
such as the ageing process in the European Union.
-Did you notice, with this feminization
of migrations towards Europe, a change in what researchers
have to say on the migratory issue,
migratory flows, integration and how it happens?
-A change in what the researchers have to say...
First, specific issues arise when studying female migrations.
Today, regarding what we call the migratory crisis, we realize
that women suffer from a specific vulnerability.
The persons who reach Europe's maritime boundaries often seek asylum,
are often vulnerable. But, in the case of women,
in addition to certain experiences men also live through, they suffer
from specific experiences, in particular a more and more frequent
experience among women who reach Europe's maritime boundaries,
sex-specific violence.
Violence, in particular sexual violence, on women.
So specific issues are arising with women.
Nowadays, it is obvious that the care for these issues, as well as research
related to them, is still in its infancy.
Then, regarding integration, it is a complex issue.
We have a certain number of preconceived ideas on this issue.
For example, we often consider that women often tend to settle
and integrate themselves by nature.
Actually, we can get back to the issue of knowing if women are more or less
able to integrate themselves compared to men.
But for sure, when we consider families, it is different
and the integration issue is raised, a fortiori.
But we can notice, for example, that in Europe today,
many women are circulating.
They do not necessarily want to settle, even if it is something
that we take into account with difficulty today.
We still struggle with the idea that a part of the migrants
do not want to settle but want to go back and forth.
Maybe move between several countries.
Take advantage of the favorable conditions in a specific moment
on the labor market. Some of these women, for example,
keep their family ties in their country of origin.
I particularly think about women from Central and Eastern Europe who,
nowadays, move to work in Western Europe countries
and then periodically get back, sometimes 6 months a year,
in their home country to take care of their relatives.
-So, did the feminization of migrations in Europe
and towards Europe change the migratory geography of Europe?
-Quite certainly. Europe's migratory geography is linked
to the European integration process.
This European integration process led, within the European space,
to a major mobility of women indeed.
Both with regions that demanded a great amount of female labor,
particularly in Southern Europe.
This is still the case despite the economic crisis.
And, what is more, women mobility, particularly originating
from Central and Eastern Europe, with the possibility,
thanks to the European integration and the free movement that follows,
for these women, to freely move from one state to another.
-Thank you very much Camille Schmoll. -Thank you.
Sylvain KAHNProfessor
Thomas RAINEAUProfessor
Philippe PERCHOCProfessor
