Photo credits: Tatiana Diniz UNU-GCM

"How Migrant Women are Leading Locally in France, Spain & Beyond" by Janina Pescinski, UNU-GCM.

Gender Full Spectrum Blog Series represents a journey through various UNU institutes and UN bodies, exploring gender’s multifaceted roles in different research areas. Co-organised by UNU-GEST in Iceland and UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands, it will showcase a wide range of gender-related research. The series will focus on research findings with a gender perspective, methodological challenges for researching gender, as well as topical discussions on gender from various perspectives. 

Janina Pescinski, a Junior Research Fellow at UNU-GCM in their Female Agency, Mobility and Sociocultural Change programme, has contributed to the UNU Gender Full Spectrum blog series with an article on how female migrants can have a voice in local politics and challenge the divide between formal and informal politics by enacting their universal human rights to assembly, association and expression in the public sphere. Janina has looked at two case studies that illustrate this ongoing reality about how women lead locally in France, Spain and beyond.

"The experiences of migrant women cannot be grouped together simplistically by virtue of them being women. Other factors such as race, social class, level of education, sexuality and other socio-economical factors must be recognised" - Janina Pescinski. 

Despite all kinds of barriers, female migrants have established numerous organisations to represent their interests in local politics across Europe. The women who lead these organisations play a decisive role in their success and represent the political empowerment necessary for migrants to be fully included in their countries of residence.

See full article here.

For further information about the work of UNU-GCM please visit their website. 

Media credits: © UNU-GCM / Tatiana Diniz, Barcelona, 2015.
Bombo Ndir was featured in the UNU-GCM project “Women of the World: Home and Work in Barcelona”