Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Women and men certainly have diverse migratory experiences stemming mainly from gender asymmetries. Migration literature is rich in gender- sensitive studies identifying the specific needs, problems, livelihood strategies of female migrants. However, many of these studies treat women as a homogeneous social category. This often results in overlooking distinctions among migrant women occurring due to other socially constructed determinants such as class position and ethnic identity. The lack of attention given to the role of spatial configurations in general is another criticism that could be directed to existing studies of urban refugees. Departing from these remarks, my paper acknowledges that there are mutual influences between class, gender, ethnicity in the construction of women’s social positions as well as their subjectivity. Besides, it underlies that spatial configurations are central to the (re)production of relations of class, gender, and ethnicity. In this sense, the main theoretical framework becomes one that takes into consideration the intersectionality of gender, class, ethnic, and spatial dimensions in grasping female urban refugees’ experiences in their complexity In an ongoing research project I am adopting this perspective to compare between Syrian women refuguees’ experiences in three districts of Bursa. Female refugees’ experiences are confined to livelihood activities (housing, employment, access to benefits etc.) and their presence in the public sphere of the city. Each of the three districts where the in-depth interviews with Syrian women were held have varying socio-economic, political, administrative and spatial characteristics which directly influence the construction of women’s multi-layered experiences.