Transnational experiences of eastern european women and feminist practices after 1989

Abstract

In the context of new and developing democracies in Eastern and Central Europe, research accounts on the experience of women in general and (women) migrants from the post-communist states in particular are very scarce. Recent Eastern European scholarship on migration focuses on the dynamics surrounding the ethnicity of migrant populations, rather than gender, race or class, and puts emphasis on the link between internal and external migration. Compared to the extensive research on the earliest waves of Eastern European migrations to the United States and the current focus on recent waves of immigrants from Latin America and Asia, little attention has been given to the Eastern European coming to U.S. after the fall of the Soviet bloc. Furthermore, research on gender and migration has been greatly enriched by the works of scholars from Latin America and Asia-but generally overlooks the experience of Eastern European migrant women. From a theoretical standpoint, the experience of immigrants in general, and of Eastern European immigrants in particular, has been largely understood at the macro level with the conventional “push and pull” theory and at the micro-level constrained by the assimilationist model. Consequently, the purpose of this chapter is twofold. First it attempts to apply the new transnational model in the interpretation of immigration experience of Eastern European women and their families who migrated to the United States after 1989. Second, it integrates the macro-structural context by presenting the mediating role of women who either returned home or who engaged in circular migration in shaping the socio-cultural environment of their home countries. More specifically, this chapter looks at the effects of immigration on Eastern European migrant women, and the ways in which their immigration experiences advance feminist ideas and practices in their home countries including the form it takes in the context of the new developing democracies in Eastern Europe.