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“I Became a Migrant from Eastern Europe”. Essentialism and Migrant Women with Tertiary Education

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Deconstructing Essentialism

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Abstract

The chapter presents the theoretical lens used to study the challenges faced by migrant women when looking for jobs. It critically approaches the notions employed in the literature to refer to migrant women with tertiary education, especially that of skilled migrants as it has significant implications in terms of gender, class and racialisation. The chapter also reviews the theories that aim at explaining why migrant women tend to be confined to jobs with low social recognition. It stresses that there is a need to further develop research on essentialism, as the concept makes it possible to put into light how racialisation interacts with gender and class to limit migrant women’s employment opportunities. The chapter defines the notion of essentialism from an intersectional perspective and reviews how the concept has been used in the literature. It is based on the gaps in the literature that the research questions are built and presented at the end of the chapter.

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  1. University of Milan - Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Anne-Iris Romens

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Romens, AI. (2022). “I Became a Migrant from Eastern Europe”. Essentialism and Migrant Women with Tertiary Education. In: Deconstructing Essentialism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14399-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14399-1_2

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