Female Nigerian asylum seekers in Italy: An exploration of gender identity dimensions through an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

We present a qualitative study exploring the subjective meanings that five female Nigerian asylum seekers hosted in Italy attributed to their pre-migratory, migratory and post-migratory experiences, with an examination in-depth of the gender identity dimensions. We developed and administered semi-structured interviews, analyzed according to the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. On the background of the identity breakdown produced by forced migration, we highlight an inadequate integration process of the gender roles of woman and mother, generating a fracture that makes women’s experiences particularly fragile. Reflections on the implication of the study and of the development of intervention programs will be outlined.

Acknowledgments

We warmly acknowledge the participants who took part in the research for their courage and capability to resist.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In Italy, the Territorial Committees, composed by three representative of the government and one delegate of the UNHCR, evaluate the international protection requests made by asylum seekers.

2 All the interviews were conducted in English but the spoken English of Nigerian people is the so-called Pidgin English. The Nigerian Pidgin English is an English-based pidgin and creole language spoken as lingua franca across Nigeria. The Nigerian Pidgin English is generally comprehensible during speaking sessions but its transcription required a certain familiarity with the language. Therefore, all the interviews were transcribed by three Nigerian interpreters who were asked to respect the grammar construction used by participants (even if it could not seem correct) and to translate only pidgin words that cannot be comprehensible to an English reader.