The thesis analyses the meanings and lived experiences of citizenship of migrant women living in a South European context (the Spanish region of Andalusia). The analysis focuses on how these migrants “become citizens” in the immigration context, as they affirm themselves as full and competent members of the social and political community where they live. The study deepens into the process of construction of citizenship “from below”, through the situated and everyday practices of these “new subjects” of citizenship. More in detail, the analysis focuses on the participation of these women in self-organized groups and voluntary associations which are composed and directed mostly by migrant women. The study shows how these women - through their associative practice - contribute to transform the meanings and structure of contemporary citizenship. Therefore, the work underlines migrant women’s social and political agency and questions the representation of migrant women as passive subjects. The theoretical framework encompasses two main directions of the contemporary debate on citizenship: 1) the debate on international migration and citizenship transformations; 2) the feminist critique and gendered analysis of modern and contemporary models of citizenship. The empirical analysis is based on an ethnographic research carried on in 2008, based on two main qualitative methods: participant observation and semi-structured interview. 27 migrant women’s associations (distributed in 6 provinces of Andalusia) have been involved, and 40 migrant women activists (from Third Countries and from EU-27 new Countries – e.g. Romany) have been interviewed.

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