Gender, Migration and Social Inequalities: The Dilemmas of European Citizenship

In particular, in the present section we will reframe the social, political and ideological theory of the ‘gender contract’ and the structure of national constitutions, by including the perspective of ‘foreigners’, that is non-citizens, and migrant women among them in particular. In the second section we will consider the influence of migration on the constitution of the European Union. For European unification has transformed previous definitions of migration, and ofwho have to be considered migrants. (Hence the ‘old migration’ refers to that before 1989, when the EEC became the EU; see section 6.2.) In fact, since 1989 migrants in the EU have been considered only as those individuals who are not citizens of a European member state. (The ʼnew migration’ is thus after 1989; see section 6.2.) Migration, however, cannot be considered to be culturally and economically homogeneous. For this reason, in section 6.3, we will discuss the phenomenon of the ‘feminisation’ of migration. This is of fundamental importance for understanding the structure ofgender roles in a trans-cultural way and the emergence of new forms of social inequalities within each European nation state. The case of domestic workers, who are mostly employed by indigenous women will be taken as an example. Finally, taking as background the new situation, of migrants in Europe, and the increase in new kinds of discrimination (including that between women), in section 6.4 we will try to indicate some perspectives which can help us to conceptualise European citizenship in a new way. This should not be based any longer on the principle of the iussanguinis (literally the ‘right of the blood’), but should be understood as a negotiable and flexible political and cultural construct, open to ʼnew workers and citizens’. © 2000 Simon Duncan and Birgit Pfau-Effinger for selection and editorial matter.