Chapter 1

Identity and Migration: An Introduction

MariaCaterina La Barbera

1.1 Identity Construction and Transformation

in Migration Processes

Identity has increasingly become an important keyword in contemporary human

and social sciences. Since the 1980s, research has intensively explored how mean-
ings, expectations, and conflicts are associated with the different locationalities of
individuals and groups; how individuals represent themselves using one or anoth-
er element that constitutes their identity; how these elements can be categorized;
and how multiple identities are compounded and negotiated when they conflict
(Brubaker and Cooper 2000). The literature on this topic is so rich that it is nearly
impossible to present an exhaustive overview of the different contributions in this
field (Westin 2010). However, little attention has been devoted to the influence of
migration on identity formation and transformation.
Although it has been largely recognized in most cases that the discipline di-
vide does not provide an adequate framework for academic research (Geertz 1983;
Fuller 1993), blurring the boundaries between disciplines is actually tremendously
difficult because it is often perceived as a loss of power in individual disciplines
(Bourdieu 1984). This edited volume brings together scholars engaging in a con-
versation about the issue of identity formation and transformation in contemporary
multiethnic Europe. However, identity is a broad concept that has been defined
differently by various disciplines. For this reason, a multidisciplinary approach is a
highly complex task that continuously risks to results in misunderstandings caused
by different definitions of the concept. Notwithstanding, because a single-sided
perspective on identity is not able to address the multifaceted phenomena at stake
(La Barbera 2013), a multidisciplinary approach is an appealing challenge that this
volume undertakes.

MC. La Barbera ()
Center for Political and Constitutional Studies, Madrid, Spain
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
MC. La Barbera (ed.), Identity and Migration in Europe: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 1
International Perspectives on Migration 13, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-10127-9_1
2 MC. La Barbera

This project was born out of the need to challenge the traditional discipline divi-
sion and to search for novel epistemologies and methodologies to address the re-
search questions of how identity works in contemporary societies and how identity
is negotiated in migration processes. This project is the result of a theoretical and
methodological exchange among scholars from the fields of law, social and cultural
anthropology, sociology, philosophy of law, political science, pedagogy, history,
literature, and linguistics.
This volume is structured around several interconnected issues related to the
(trans)formation, (re)construction, and negotiation of identity during migration
processes. It addresses theoretical questions related to identity in plural and mul-
ticultural societies, the effect of migration policies on marginalizing migrants, the
relevance of law and rights to the processes of identity construction; the strategies
of identity (re)construction through (dis)identification, the relationship of identity
with center/periphery dynamics in postcolonial and globalized societies, member-
ship and belonging as constitutive aspects of identity, and oppositional representa-
tions and (re)articulation of identity. Contributions to this volume fundamentally
focus on identity as a product of social interaction and address, from different per-
spectives and methodologies, how identities are constructed, negotiated, and trans-
formed by exploring how interpersonal interactions and institutional framework
interact.
The dialectic interplay among self-representation—meant as identification in
terms of interpersonal differentiations—and social categorization—meant as het-
ero-definition in terms of categories that establish boundaries between “us” and
“them” (Deaux 1993; Simon 2004)—is one of the main issues explored in this vol-
ume. Research shows that although membership is generated by the recognition
of oneself as belonging to a group, it is not fixed or definitive. Individuals choose
different ascriptions as self-descriptive in different situations and contexts (Stryker
and Serpe 1994). Moreover, implying that social categorization and self-representa-
tion conflict to various degrees, the notion of identity negotiation (Swann 1987) is
used to refer to the processes of conferring meaning to the elements that constitute
identity and reaching (explicit or tacit) agreements regarding “who is who” in inter-
actions with others and society at large.
At the crossroad between self-representation and social categorization lies the
core mechanism of individual and collective identities. Individuals differentiate
themselves by adopting criteria that are shared by the members of a group and by
developing a sense of belonging to it. When outsiders recognize individuals’ belong-
ing, collective identity emerges (Jenkins 2008). One of the main theoretical issues
is whether and how identity can be conceptualized by acknowledging individual
features and collective identification when both tend to shift over time. Critics have
argued that politicizing identity is counterproductive to the pursuit of social change.
By claiming the peculiarity of a group’s identity and asking for special group rights,
the voice of those in power within the group is allowed to be heard, while people
who face discrimination within the group are silenced and further marginalized
(Okin 1999). Among political theorists, the debate on identity has shifted toward
1  Identity and Migration: An Introduction 3

the “politics of recognition” (Kymlicka 1999), “hospitable liberalism” (Habermas

1998), and intercultural dialogue (see Chap. 2). However, the main concern is the
real feasibility of dialogical governance in contemporary multicultural societies.
Indeed, intercultural dialogue does not occur among peer interlocutors. For this
reason, argumentation, meant as the core component of dialogue, is not enough. In
multicultural societies, identities adjust one to another and are gradually modified.
The negotiation of identity, referring to a gradual transformation of identities within
new vital contexts, generates new forms of cultural hybridism (see Chap. 3).
Embodied roles, and the specific behaviors associated with them, undoubtedly
change over time and across space. Consequently, the perception, representation,
and definition of identity also change. This shift is particularly explicit during migra-
tion. The research collected in this volume shows that migrants explicitly perceive
identity as fluid and multiple. Identity is, indeed, better described as something that
individuals “do” rather than something that they “have”, as a process rather than
as a property (Jenkins 2008). Identity is the result of the negotiation of personal
given conditions, social context, and relationships, and institutional frameworks.
Following a social constructionist approach (Goffman 1959; Berger and Luckmann
1966), categorizations that rely on essential features have been rejected. A num-
ber of studies have shown that the patterns of identification among migrants vary
greatly, ranging from identification with one’s country of origin, religion or mother
tongue to receiving country, neither or both (Berry 1997; Roccas and Brewer 2002;
Schwartz et al. 2008; Ramelli et al. 2013). In the migratory context, ethnicity and
religion became especially important as identity markers and can be subjectively
appropriated (Verkuyten and Yildiz 2007).
The views of scholars gathered in this volume, most of whom are migrants them-
selves, depict the arrival in the receiving country as a “total” event (Mauss 1966)
because it requires the complete (re)construction of identity. Indeed, leaving their
country of origin, migrants lose their social status, family, and social networks. In
the receiving country, they find themselves without a history and without an image.
Faced with an unknown universe of meanings, migrants feel lost, alone, and with-
out reference points. As much as they strive to become integrated, migrants remain
strangers. Moreover, migrants face distrust and hostility. The harsh reality of exclu-
sion differs from the idealized image of the receiving country as a place to better
one’s life that originally drives migrants to leave their country of origin. Disillusion-
ment and nostalgia contribute to idealizing the country of origin, which is in turn
beautified through memory. However, when the migrant returns home, the contrast
between the ideal and the real reappears. To a certain extent, migrants live between
idealization and disillusionment both in the receiving country and in the country of
origin (see Chap. 4). Their new condition is in between, at the borderland, in transit.
The process that begins when one leaves his/her own country never ends, and it
generates an unfinished condition of not yet belonging “here” but no longer “there”.
In the postcolonial globalized world, this condition implies the
(re)conceptualization of “home” as linked to the dynamic margins/periphery and
the center/metropolis on a local and global scale. Recovering the feminist slogan
4 MC. La Barbera

“the personal is political”, “home” is defined as a geographical, historical, and emo-

tional space that has political implications (Mohanty 2003) connected to material
and symbolic resource allocation in multicultural societies (see Chap. 8). The very
notion of home is questioned by considering that it can be defined as the place
where one is born or where one grows up, the place where the family of origin lives,
or the place where one lives and works as an adult in an exclusive or simultane-
ous way. One can actually have several “homes” that only partially match with the
physical places. Nonetheless, the sense of belonging appears to be a crucial step
in the processes of formation and identity reconstruction for refugee and migrant
women (see Chap. 10). Their desire for roots and stability and belonging challenge
the traditional constructs of social codes and national boundaries.
The goals of migratory projects are frequently related to upward mobility in the
country of origin. The search for recognition and the feeling of empowerment are
crucial to the (re)construction of identity. Because identity formation is a relational
(and oppositional) process, recognition is an element that often appears in opposi-
tion to other groups or persons. Strategies of identity (re)construction through (dis)
identification within the situationally redefined in- and out-group interactions are
also addressed in this volume by examining how individuals negotiate their iden-
tity within a context of changing meaning of the social category of reference (see
Chap. 13). If it is true that the Self needs the Other to self-represent (De Beauvoir
1949), then the question concerns how the Other is selected and integrated into
the construction of identity. Belonging or non-belonging to a particular social cat-
egory is not a straightforward process. Indeed, self-representation mobilizes differ-
ent levels of belonging that do not reflect a simple dichotomous division between
“them” and “us.” Belonging emerges from a complex process of appropriation and
(re)interpretation of social boundaries that depends on whether those who are on the
other side of the boundary may accept or reject the minority group. The Other and
the Self are not clearly defined as constant categories, but serve as situational shift-
ing references used in relation to individuals who want to define themselves within
the larger interactional context.
Although painful, the condition of being at the borderlands offers opportunities
for improving one’s life. Indeed, mobility is essentially a search for better eco-
nomic, working, and living conditions; a search for food, love, and shelter; in other
words, a search for happiness. This expectation helps migrants to persist in a pro-
cess that often worsens their living conditions during the initial phases. However,
although migrants perceive mobility as a way to escape a limiting environment,
migration policies problematize migration as a destabilizing force that must be kept
under control. This representation of the problem greatly influences the construc-
tion of identity and generates the resulting condition of urban and social marginality
(see Chap. 9). As suggested by the sociological literature (Bourgeois and Friedkin
2001), social marginality is produced in forms of geographical isolation, which in
turn generates social distance.
Some contributions to this volume are devoted to exploring the effect of the rec-
ognition of rights in the process of constructing identity, in particular how it affects
self-representation. Law shapes identities in different ways by establishing a set of
1  Identity and Migration: An Introduction 5

options available for the construction of individual life trajectories (see Chap. 6).
Because the rights that migrants can access vary considerably from one country to
another, women and non-heterosexual people often undergo drastic and profound
changes of personal identity during migration (see Chap. 7). This work also ex-
plores how the legal status of migrants influences integration patterns in the labor
market (see Chap. 12). Migrant women at the intersection of the gender and ethnic
hierarchies of the labor market are often limited by their migration status. Conse-
quently, irregular migrant status caused systematic patterns of discrimination in the
labor market, urging migrant workers to accept the lowest-status jobs.
Migrants often become particularly aware of the relational and contextual nature
of gender as they attempt to fulfill expectations and behavior that may differ sharply
from the expectations in the country of origin (Donato et al. 2006). It is true that
all migrants, as they move from one society to another, show more or less subtle
alterations of their way of representing themselves. However, in the case of women
and non-heterosexual people, migration often leads to drastic and profound changes
that substantially modify the most intimate dimensions of individuals life: feelings,
strategies of self-representation and social interaction, and ability to imagine and
create their own life paths (Nolin 2006). Many of the contributions to this volume
use the intersectionality approach (Crenshaw 1989, 1991) to address identity in
migration processes at the intersection of different axes of social categorization:
gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and religion.
This volume also explores the processes of cultural identification and cultural vari-
ation in identity construction and transformation, by examining the self-positioning
against the ascribed identities, the negotiation of categories for self-identification,
and the deconstruction of those categories. As a product of belonging to multiple
affiliations, the hybridization of being at the borderlands poses serious challenges to
the existing hegemonic culture of society (Bhabha 1994). Re-interpreting practices
and discourses of the “cultures” of the country of origin and the receiving country,
migrants challenge the essentialist and homogenous representations of cultures and
ethnic communities. The identities of migrants are understood as products of inter-
sectional identifications, which require a procedural and dynamic understanding
(see Chap. 5). More than a site of discrimination and exclusion, the marginality of
being at the borderlands is reinterpreted as a speculative space (hooks 1990; Hill
Collins 1998; Anzaldúa 1999; Sandoval 2000; Mohanty 2003; La Barbera 2012).
The borderlands are hence described as an “interstitial zone of displacement and
de-territorialization that shapes the identity of hybridized subjects” (Gupta and Fer-
guson 1992), which is deemed a particularly adequate conceptualization of identity
in postcolonial and globalized societies.
The blurring of “here” and “there” has also perplexed the cultural fixities for
those who have lived in the same place their entire lives (see Chap. 6). Recent
research shows how the illusion of the essential relationship between culture and
place is broken in contemporary societies (Gupta and Ferguson 1992). The detach-
ment of identities from local places is a major concern of contemporary social sci-
ences, which approach the (de)territorialization process as linked to globalization;
claim the need to theorize how space is being (re)territorialized; and problematize
6 MC. La Barbera

the relationship among nation, state, and territory (Gupta and Ferguson 1992; Ke-
arney 1995; Cerulo 1997). In particular, the notion of political transnationalism,
referring to those political activities that migrants undertake across the borders of
two or more countries, endorses the need to reconsider the conceptualization of po-
litical communities, their institutions, and their conceptions of belonging (Bauböck
2005). Research shows that transnational political participation is driven primarily
by identity concerns and the need for belonging. Despite the positive correlation
between the attainment of double nationality and the development of a sense of
belonging to the receiving country, the concession of transnational rights distracts
from the recognition that full citizen rights are still denied to migrants in most re-
ceiving countries in Europe (see Chap. 11).
Migrants in Europe are still the most marginalized Others. However, since 9/11,
a shift from migrant to Muslim has occurred in Europe, transforming Muslim veiled
women into the Other par excellence (Aldbi Sibai Sirin 2012). The supposed anti-
modernity of Islam (Buiteleaar 2006) is considered to be incompatible with a demo-
cratic, secular, and progressist Europe (Erel 2003; Karakaşoğlu 2003). The hege-
monic public discourse essentially regards Muslim women as inferior, uneducated,
backward, and victims of their culture (Mani 1987, Spivak 1988, Mohanty 1988,
Ahmed 1992, Narayan 1997, Yegenoglu 1998). Both the media and social science
literature mostly represent Muslim women as passive victims of their religion who
are oppressed by the patriarchal structures of their communities (Okin 1999, MacK-
innon 2000). Stereotypical images of Muslim women and patriarchal societies are
repeatedly used in the media to spread this representation. In addition, the hijab is
considered as a sign of their unwillingness to integrate into European society. On the
other hand, Muslims women consider the veiling to be a crucial practice in construct-
ing their identity as Muslims in European non-Muslim countries (see Chap. 14).
The action of exhibiting one’s identity has been defined as identity performance
(Klein et al. 2007; Hopkins and Greenwood 2013). In the pursuit of challenging
stereotypes that affect a group, its members may present themselves strategically
by displaying specific elements of their identity (Ellemers et al. 2002; Barreto et al.
2003; Hopkins et al. 2007; Klein and Azzi 2001). Recent research illustrates the
two-way relationship between identity and performance by examining how the dis-
play of one element of identity is connected to the perception of oneself as a group
“representative” and how behaviors conform to ideal types (see Chap. 13). Markers
create and define the boundaries that distinguish similarities and differences. The
language, dress, behavior, and occupation of space used for the purpose of identifi-
cation are largely visible markers of identity. However, their effectiveness depends
on a shared understanding of their meaning. In a multicultural social context, misin-
terpretation of the meaning of markers—and, consequently, of identity—may occur.
Hijab is analyzed in this volume as a contested marker of identity.
Oppositional representations and (re)articulation of identity is addressed by an-
swering the questions of what the hijab means for those who wear it in contrast
to how the image of the female body is represented by the media and public dis-
course. Young migrants react to the victimizing media discourse that depicts them
as subjugated to and oppressed by patriarchal systems (see Chap. 14). Through their
1  Identity and Migration: An Introduction 7

narratives, it is possible to resignify the meaning of the hijab and transform it from
a symbol of oppression into a site of assertion of their oppositional identity (see
Chap. 15).
The theory of narrative identity argues that individuals construct their identity
by integrating their diverse and conflicting life experiences into an evolving yet
continuous narration that provides them with a sense of unity of their vital trajectory
(Somers 1994; McAdams 2001). Nevertheless, the process of identity construction
of migrants cannot be understood only with reference to subjective meanings attrib-
uted to individual biographical experiences (see Chap. 5). This process is analyzed
here as the products of the social locations of the subjects as well as the products
of the institutional framework, such as migration policies, citizenship regimes, he-
gemonic cultural norms, values and categories of both the receiving countries and
the countries of origin (Vermeulen and Govers 1994; Pessar and Mahler 2003).
The negotiation of identities is presented here as a mean through which migrants
give meaning to their (some times contradicting) experiences. It is a social practice
that can be understood as the combination of discourses, performances, and (dis-)
identification strategies constructed on a multiplicity of cultural frameworks and
reference systems. Through this practice, migrants manage to assert their agency in
the migration context.

1.2 Synopsis of the Chapters

This volume is structured around seven interlocked issues related to identity and
migration: cultural diversity, otherness, rights, belonging, membership, differentia-
tion, and self-representation. The first section is devoted to the conceptual entangle-
ments of identity and cultural diversity. Chapter 2 proposes to address multicul-
turalism as pluralism of identitarian horizons. From a philosophical perspective,
Giovanni Bombelli approaches the “multicultural issue” as located between the
universality of values and the contingency of possible multiple visions. This ap-
proach is presented as a necessary step for conceptualizing intercultural dialogue.
Chapter 3 recognizes that intercultural dialogue occurs among parties with different
degrees of power. Argumentation and negotiation are considered to be components
of this dialogue. Francesco Viola thoroughly analyzes the relationship between col-
lective identities and core values, along with the appropriateness of negotiation as a
method to address conflicts of identitarian values.
The second section of the volume addresses the relationship between identity
and marginalization, particularly the influence of the conceptualization of migrants
as the Other in contemporary European society. Chapter 4 explores the effect of
migration policies in portraying migrants as the Other in Europe. Lorenzo Ferrante
presents the case of Italy to demonstrate the weakness of European policies in devel-
oping effective forms of coexistence and integration among different ethnic groups
within the larger debate on multiculturalism and its failure in Europe. In Chapter 5,
Anil Al-Rebohlz shows how the interviewees challenge hegemonic and othering
8 MC. La Barbera

images of Muslim migrant women by generating their own creative way of being
Muslim and being young migrant women in Germany.
The third section focuses on how law shapes identity. Chapter 6 considers the
role of human rights in formal and informal processes of identity building. Daniele
Ruggiu shows how the absence of the right of immigration can create malfunctions
in the legal human rights system, which can in turn affect the very notion of Europe-
an of identity. Chapter 7 reflects on the effect of law in establishing a set of options
available for the construction of individual life trajectories. This chapter particu-
larly focuses on the processes of (de)constructing gender identities in contemporary
migration. Roberto Solone Boccardi argues that, because the rights to which women
and non-heterosexual people have access vary considerably from one nation-state to
another, migration implies drastic and profound changes in personal identity.
The fourth section analyzes the link between identity and “home” and how it
is affected by center/periphery dynamics. The notions of mobility and subjectiv-
ity on the move are approached here. Chapter 8 considers the issue of identity in
postcolonial literature. Lisa Caputo challenges representations of the relationship
between center/metropolis and margin/periphery as a one-to-one link. She focuses
on diaspora, memory, and identity through the work of three “African-Indian” fe-
male writers who blur the perception of fixed identity through the narration of their
origin, journeys, and “home”. Chapter 9 considers the concept of mobility within
internal migration processes in Francoist Spain. By examining different interpreta-
tions and values assigned to the concept of mobility, Inbal Ofer examines the condi-
tion of urban marginality of internal migrants and its influence on the processes of
construction of their identity.
The fifth section examines belonging and membership as crucial components of
the identity building process. Chapter 10 explores the need to belong as a crucial
step of identity reconstruction of refugee and migrant women in London. In this
chapter, based on a visual ethnographic methodology, Nela Milic uses images to
capture refugee women’s desire for roots and stability and to challenge the percep-
tion of migrants and refugees in the UK. Chapter 11 analyzes the concession of
external voting rights to migrants by their countries of origin as a tool of transna-
tional political participation. By analyzing the case of Ecuadorian migrants living
in Madrid and voting in the presidential elections of their country of origin, Gabriel
Echeverría critically addresses the relationship between territoriality, identity, and
politics.
The sixth section focuses the on strategies of identity (re)construction through
(dis)identification. Chapter 12 focuses on migrant women working in the domestic
sector in Spain and explores the paradox of the empowerment of migrant women
through the self-appropriation and enforcement of the traditional role of women as
caregivers. Paloma Moré Corral analyzes the process of identity construction of mi-
grant women who work in the care sector in Spain from an intersectional perspec-
tive that considers not only their gender, but also their race and class in both their
countries of origin and the receiving country. Chapter 13 addresses the relevance
of religion in the processes of identity negotiation, focusing on the refugee Mus-
lim community in Luxembourg. Lucie Waltzer examines how individuals negoti-
1  Identity and Migration: An Introduction 9

ate their identity, and discusses the changing significance of religion and its role
in shaping identities within situationally redefined in- and out-group relationships.
The final section concerns the issue of representation and explores the discursive
and embodied (re)articulation of stereotypes as a source of oppositional construc-
tion of identity. Focusing on the use of the Islamic veil, what Muslimness means
in contemporary Europe is explored here. Chapter 14 analyzes the linguistic repre-
sentation, of the hijab, women’s bodies, and social integration in the British press.
Ghufran Khir Allah analyzes metaphorical structure variations and the ideologies
that lie behind each linguistic representation, and underlines the relevance of the
religious dimension to the processes of identity construction and social integration
within British society. Chapter 15 focuses on the hijab as a contested symbol and
marker of identity. Salam Adlbi Sibai explores how Spanish Muslim women repre-
sent themselves differently from the image of oppression portrayed by the media.
The narrative of Spanish Muslim women represents the choice to wear the hijab as
a tool to oppose both the patriarchal culture of majority Muslim countries and the
victimization of Western mainstream feminist discourse.

1.3 Conclusions

Seeking to provide a tentative yet operative definition of the concept of identity, I

find it useful to recall the linguistic roots of the Latin term idem, ‘the same’. Identity
is indeed essentially comparative in nature and must be understood as originally
connected to inclusion/exclusion dynamics. Identity is intended and best described
as a relational and contextual process that refers to how individuals and groups
consider, construct, and position themselves in relation to others according to social
categories such as gender, sexuality, culture, race, nation, age, class and occupa-
tion. Identity encompasses the multiple roles endorsed by individuals in social life
that are externalized through the use of markers, such as language, dress, and oc-
cupation of space. Drawing on social psychology, sociology, anthropology, political
sciences, and feminist studies, the concept of identity that grounds this volume is a
complex social phenomenon resulting from constant negotiations among personal
conditions, social relationships, and institutional frameworks. Identity refers to the
outcome of two main processes: self-representations and social categorization. The
combination of these two processes results in the feeling of differentiation from oth-
ers, the recognition of one’s own difference, the sense of belonging, and consequent
mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, which are in turn created, maintained, and
reinforced through public policies and the law.
“Migration” is used in this volume as an umbrella term that refers to human mo-
bility from countryside to city (internal migration) or across national borders (inter-
national migration), and the term includes both the process of coming to a country
and the process of leaving another one. Migration is addressed here not merely as
the actual time of entrance into the national territory of a country that differs from
the one an individual is a member of (read: citizen) because of the birth within the
10 MC. La Barbera

national borders ( ius soli) or filiation from nationals ( iuris sanguinis). Migration is
referred to as a process that begins with the arrival into a country but continues dur-
ing one’s (regular or irregular) permanence in a foreign country while one holds the
status of alien or foreign resident. In this respect, the endurance of the migrant status
for those who were born on national soil (so-called second- and third-generation
migrants) and the effect of naturalization raise the issue of whether and how holding
papiers and citizenship rights alter one’s self-perception and social categorization,
and thus affect identity formation.
Migration is addressed here as the material and existential condition of being
at the borderland, in-between, in transit. The sense of belonging, (self)representa-
tion, and (dis)identification that is experienced by migrants is observed, analyzed,
and theorized by the authors of this collective volume. The creation of spaces for
participation, inclusion, and belonging through negotiation processes is described
as a way to maintain emotional, relational, and institutional linkages with one’s
family, group, country, culture, and religion of origin, while also striving to be part
of the social and political context of the receiving country. Strategic (dis)identifica-
tion and (re)interpretation of the context of origin and of arrival are described as
processes of identity negotiation.
Focusing on migrants as “people in transit” reveals that exploring migration
is crucial to research on identity. The “in transit” locationality implies the depri-
vation of “home protection”—meant as one’s family, town, social network, or
nation-state—and the search for new symbolic and material spaces in which to stay.
Through a conceptual and emotional re-elaboration of multiple belongings, being at
the borderlands can be transformed from a marginalized condition of exclusion into
a fruitful epistemological position from which to interrogate and theorize individual
and group mechanisms of social identification and marginalization. As a migrant
feminist scholar myself, I depict the subjectivity of being “in transit” as a suffered
but fruitful locationality, which could provides a space for developing new political
thought and impulses to social change.

Acknowledgments  This work has been supported by Instituto de la Mujer and European Social
Fund grant (ref. n. 06/10).

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