Internal migration and the negotiation of citizenship; the struggle for reproductive self-determination in Ireland

Abstract

The following paper reports on the findings of a comparative study of gender and internal migration in the EU which involved over 400 life-history interviews with EU migrant women (Community nationals residing in another Member State than that of their nationality) in five Member States. It focuses on a sub-sample of these interviews conducted in Ireland which raised a distinctive set of issues concerning migrant women‘s response to Irish policy on divorce and reproductive rights. The findings illustrate not only the impact of a framework of constraint structuring women’s experience of citizenship, but also the extent to which women are able to negotiate, within that framework, to maximize their personal autonomy.

Key Words:

• gender
• Europe
• women
• citizenship
• Ireland
• migrant