Public policies, migration and family: A gender approach

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to explore and make visible the links between family immigration policies and discourses with the migration projects and trajectories of migrant families and their various forms of inclusion/exclusion. Taking into account the process of feminisation of Latin American migrations to Spain, we focus on the interweaving of public policies and discourses and the way in which migrants organise their family life. This approach contributes to the field of migration studies as it combines the conceptual dimension, the political and normative dimension and the subjective and micro dimension of migration processes.

The results are obtained through a gender-based analysis of public documents and regulations, interviews with representatives of the main national and regional political parties, and ethnographic field work with Bolivian and Dominican women who have settled in Catalonia. Our study aims to explore (i) how family migration policies assign different rights to migrants depending on their gender, generation, legal status, nationality and time of arrival; (ii) the empirical consequences of policies on family reunification schemes and family relations according to gender, age, different stages of the migration project, national origins, times of arrival, and access to the labour market; and (iii) how migrants and their sons, daughters and families respond to and challenge increasingly restrictive family migration regulations.