Women's experiences of border crossing: gender, mobility and border control

Abstract

In recent years, new migration patterns emerged in Europe and border control operations became more complex and broader, resulting in an increasing number of non-nationals detained for migration-related reasons. This paper aims to explore how gender, migration and border control intersect in the lives of women detained for not having authorisation to remain in Portugal. Several visits were made to a detention facility, where ten women detainees were interviewed. Our findings reveal how gender plays a crucial role in women's mobility pathways, and how the lack of a secure migrant status can be used as a control mechanism within the context of gendered relationships. Overall, due attention is paid to the way crossing borders impacts the lives of these women, reinforcing their vulnerabilities, and to the ways in which women deal with and resist the precariousness and violence they are exposed to, seeking a meaning and continuity for their lives.

Gender, Vulnerability and Everyday Resistance in Immigration Detention: Women’s Experiences of Confinement in a Portuguese Detention Facility

“…11 The interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim, except in the case of one participant who did not agree to audio record and so her interview was handwritten. All transcripts were subsequently analysed through a thematic narrative analysis (Lykes and Hershberg 2015;Riessman 2008), whose results are reported here and in a previous article about migration pathways, life in Portugal and expectations for the future (Matos and Esposito 2019).…”

“…Based on evidence provided by this study, Matos and Esposito (2019) started to analyse the trajectories of women confined in Portugal for migration-related reasons. This preliminary work-which focused on women's pathways to illegalisation and detention, as well as on their expectations for the future-found that gender plays a crucial role in their experiences of mobility and crossing borders.…”