##### 8. Borders and Bodies

###### Topic Summary

In this seminar we focus on migration, and on how feminist attention to bodies in movement disrupts and denaturalises IR assumptions about states as unitary actors with fixed borders. Migration is almost entirely ignored within the mainstream of the discipline, and is relatively new to feminist IR, although it has long been studied within its own subfield of migration studies and there is plenty of relevant feminist work in sociology, geography, ethnicity studies and the like. With the long-term politicisation of migration accompanying the rise of the populist, xenophobic right in the UK, across Europe and in the US, and with the ongoing catastrophe of what has been called a global refugee crisis, the issue of migration has become harder for IR to ignore, as have its gendered and racialized dimensions and implications. Our seminar discussion will open by exploring feminist critiques of the ways in which states ascribe national identity and belonging. We will then examine the opportunities and constraints driving women to migrate from their home countries to work abroad before looking at the gendered and racialised dimensions of forced movement across borders, particularly in the context of the current refugee crisis.

###### Seminar Questions

- • does a feminist lens on citizenship and national identity tell us about who 'belongs' • does a feminist lens on citizenship and national identity tell us about who 'belongs' in states and how?
- • are the main push and pull factors shaping women's transnational migration for • are the main push and pull factors shaping women's transnational migration for work? What is the global care chain?
- • what extent is the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe gendered as well as raced? And • what extent is the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe gendered as well as raced? And how have feminist activists responded to the crisis?

###### Seminar Reading

Hochschild, Arlie R. 'Love and Gold', various versions available - in Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie R. Hochschild, (eds). (2002) Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy . New York: Metropolitan Books, pp.15-30; in Luciani Ricciutelli et al (eds) (2004) Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision, London: Zed; and online at http://lnx.a77web.it/index.php?option=com\_docman&task=doc\_view&gid=18 Horn, Denise M. (2015) 'Citizenship, Nationality and Gender' in Laura J. Shepherd (ed) Gender nd Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations , 2 edition, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 320-330. .Ebook via library website Pettman, Jindy with Lucy Hall (2015) 'Migration' in Laura J. Shepherd (ed) Gender Matters in nd Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations , 2 edition, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 285-298. .Ebook via library website

###### Beyond the Reading List

Check out online resources on the gendered dimensions of the contemporary ' refugee crisis ' , and on feminist responses, such as this short piece by the European Women's Lobby (2015) ' Asylum is not Gender Neutral: The Refugee Crisis in Europe from a Feminist Perspective or the series of short articles on ' Women and the Refugee Crisis ' by Global Fund for Women.

###### Further Reading

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