Gender and Turkish migration in Belgium

1
Gender and Turkish migration in Belgium

• Christiane Timmerman
• Research Unit on Poverty, Social Exclusion and
  the city/ Centre of Research on Equal
  Opportunities
• University of Antwerp

2
I. SETTLED IMMIGRANTS

• Turkish identity remains important among men and
  women ne mutlu Türküm diyene gtirrespective of
  their ideological orientation
• Influences
• how they experience their situation in Belgium
• how they perceive gender roles

3
Gender and frames of reference

• 1.Local or folk Islam
• Patrilineality
• Segregation men women
• honour/shame
• gt private life

4
Gender and frames of reference

• 2. Kemalism/ secular republican nationalism
• a modern nation
• united around a single Turkish culture
• Secularism
• 1926 a new civil code, based on the Swiss civil
  code, gt equal rights for women
• Education
• important and compulsory for girls and boys
• for women instrument to become full citizens
• gt public life

5
Gender and frames of reference

• 3.ISLAMISM
• instrumentalisation of Islam for political aims
• Basis for a just society Islamic family values
• gt private and public life

6
Young men in Belgium

• feel ignored by modern society
• threatened by socio-economic developments
• victims of racism
• Private life (local/folk Islam)
• favourable status
• threat lost of status in reference to women
• Public life
• difficult to meet the demands (local/folk Islam
  and Kemalism)
• discrimination
• Islamist discourse
• social justice (public level)
• promoters of patriarchal ideas (private level)

7
Young women in Belgium

• Public Life
• Access through education (Kemalism)
• Socio-economic promotion (Western society)
• Socio-cultural promotion legitimate place in
  public life (Turkish community)
• positive connotation (kültürlü)
• social facilities
• Access through Islamist organisations
• opportunities to develop their skills
• gt positive identity
• women fundamental to Islamic family values/
  embody Islamic authenticity most appropriately
• to be part of world religion
• discourse of resistance

8
Young women in Belgium

• Private life
• Within confines of traditional frames
• Confrontation with socio-familial praxis of
  western women
• Considered to be different
• Anxious to be misunderstood/ to look backwards

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II. NEWCOMERS

• Settled immigrants preference for
  bride/bridegroom from the country of origin
• family loyalties
• disappointment in local
• Turkish youth too western
• feeling uncomfortable in western society
• in search of an authentic culture
• Newcomers
• Looking for social and economic emancipation

10
Male newcomers

• Role inversion (local Islam/Kemalism)
• depending on family in law
• no work
• no skills to manage public life
• BUT do not take up female jobs
• gt a double workload for the wife
• gt emptiness for the man

11
Female newcomers

• no role inversion
• completely depending on family in law
• social isolation
• potential abuse
• Newcomers challenge the gender roles
• being inadequate for coping with this new reality

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Concluding remarks

• For men
• public life threatened by surrounding society
• Private life comfortable heaven but threatened
  by surrounding society
• For women
• Public life difficult access
• Private life in conflict with values of
  mainstream society