Understanding Patterns of Economic Insecurity for Post-Soviet Migrant Women in Europe

Abstract

This study deals with meanings of economic insecurity for post-Soviet migrant women in Germany, Italy, and Spain, elaborating on its cultural underpinnings. Drawing upon several data sources, including interviews, observation, and online data, as well as judicial material, this study addresses the ways women from the former Soviet Union experience economic insecurity and which strategies they develop to cope. We consider women's age, social background, and level of education, analyzing their embeddedness into different life domains. We identify four patterns of coping with economic insecurity, linked to individual characteristics, cultural values and legal frame conditions in the countries under investigation, and provide implications for social mobility and conservative backlash in Europe.

Intersectionalities and Perceived Discrimination in German Research Organizations: A Post-Soviet Migrant Women’s Perspective

“…The status of an outsider borders on invisibility (Mählck, 2013), which makes migrant women representatives of "marginalised elites" (Riaño, 2016). This significantly echoes the overall position of post-Soviet migrant women in the German socio-economic structure: while in educational terms many of them are equipped with good qualifications, they are unevenly represented in highly skilled positions within the German labor market (Färber et al, 2008;Gewinner and Salvino, 2021;Kogan, 2012). This raises the question: how do women migrants perceive discrimination in academia and what are the instances they deal with in German research organizations?…”

“…Women are not merely driven by the aspiration for career advancement, but much more by their culturally rooted family values, such as motherhood and harmonic family relationships. Previous research found that highly skilled post-Soviet women placed equal importance on both paid employment and family, which greatly predetermines the modes of their employment and family choices (Gewinner and Salvino, 2021), and as a consequence, of their life satisfaction.…”

“…Drawing upon original interviews with Russian-speaking female scholars in Germany, this study asks, whether and how migrant female scholars perceive discrimination, which factors support or counteract it, how women cope with it, and how this affects their continued participation in the German research sector. Highly skilled women from the FSU represent a particularly interesting case in German research organizations, since they not only outnumber migrant men from the post-Soviet space (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF), 2018), but also constitute a considerable share in highly skilled migration flows (Gewinner and Salvino, 2021;Zaionchkovskaya, 2004). Delving into the explorations of organizational and individual, as well as cultural and contextual factors that result in the perceptions of workplace discrimination, might further conceptualize discrimination in research organizations and design (institutional) policies, and practices of inclusiveness.…”