The migration experience: liberating or what?

The migration experience: liberating or what?

Migration can be a liberating experience for women or it can lead to more traditional female roles, but either way, theirs is a different experience from that of their male partners. The coordinator of AUT’s Centre for Asian and Migrant Health Research, Ruth DeSouza, says this reflects New Zealand’s immigration policy, aimed at bringing in skilled migrants.

“Often migrant women are viewed as passive appendages to skilled men in the migration process and the complexities of women’s motives and their active roles in the decision-making process have been ignored,” she said. “Migration is a profound social transformation, not only for the migrant or refugee, but also for their families and their sending and receiving communities.” “While government policy emphasises integration in all spheres of life for the migrant or refugee, in reality, practical integration often occurs before emotional integration.”

DeSouza is one of about 30 speakers presenting papers or workshops at the annual ESOL Home Tutors conference in Wellington on 19 – 20 May. ESOL Home Tutors is a not-for-profit organisation that trains volunteers to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Last year nearly 3000 volunteer tutors worked one-to-one with adult migrants and refugees in communities around New Zealand.

ENDS

© Scoop Media