‘Zijn Vlamingen dan ook niet goed geïntegreerd?’ - Een kruispuntanalyse van integratievertogen in Vlaanderen vanuit het standpunt van moeders zonder papieren

Abstract

‘Are Flemish people then also not well integrated?’ An intersectional analysis of integration discourses in Flanders from the standpoint of undocumented, single mothers’ is based on a longitudinal ethnographic study of ten undocumented migrant women who were residing in Flanders before and during the second regularisation period in 2009. This article deals with their confrontation with the regularisation criteria that were launched by the government in September 2009. From the point of view of single, undocumented mothers, the criterion of sustainable local anchoring relates to an ambivalent policy objective, which sometimes has contradictory outcomes. Authorities conceptualize integration largely through participation in networks, and in addition, networks are understood in a specific manner, which may disadvantage solidarity and in particular that in the lives of single, undocumented mothers. This article contrasts the way in which the authorities understand ‘networks’ to what participation in networks may mean to ten undocumented mothers, and indicates potential consequences of these different visions for social cohesion and social solidarity.