Professional Migrant Women Decentring Otherness: A Transnational Perspective

Date01 April 2014
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12003
Published date01 April 2014
Professional Migrant Women Decentring
Otherness: A Transnational Perspective
Edwina Pio and Caroline Essers1
AUT University, School of Business and Law, 42 Wakefield Street, Auckland, New Zealand, and 1Radboud
University, PO Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Email: Edwina.pio@aut.ac.nz, c.essers@fm.ru.nl
Embraced by their ethnicity and gender many migrant women have negotiated their own
spaces in the host country. Yet, much of the literature on migrant women focuses on
those who are struggling to make ends meet with low levels of education and how this
defines the construction of the Other. We contribute to the limited scholarship in man-
agement research on professional migrant women by illustrating how transnational
processes play out in the lived experience of professional migrant Indian women in New
Zealand, and how they invoke agency in decentring Otherness. This qualitative study
foregrounds the navigation of asymmetrical power relations and the strategic deploy-
ment of ethnicity, education and caste affiliation, when confronted with processes of
exclusion in the labour market. We argue for the need to highlight narratives of profes-
sional migrant women which reflect the agency and articulation of their voices, thus
reworking notions of the Other in transnational space.
Introduction
Migrant women travel to different corners of the
globe in search of a better life. In many instances
migrant women face a triple discrimination due to
their simultaneous gender, ethnicity and minority
migrant status. While countries sign various forms
of legislation, as for example the Human Rights
Act of 1993 in New Zealand (NZ), the chasm
between policies, legislation and good intentions is
frequently rather wide. Yet migrant women choose
to stay in the host country, as despite various forms
of discrimination their general lifestyle is enhanced
in comparison with their home countries (Al Ariss
and Syed, 2011; Essers and Benschop, 2009; Pio,
2007, 2008). Often such women have navigated
‘their selves’ beyond the demands and expectations
of both the majority (white) population, as well as
their own migrant community, with shifts in power
towards more reciprocal rather than hierarchical
understandings.
There exists a rich burgeoning literature in the
area of ethnic minorities at work, in employment
(Anthias and Mehta, 2003; Kamenou, 2008;
Phizacklea and Wolkowitz, 1995; Tatli, 2011) and
in ethnic and transnational entrepreneurship
(Kloosterman, Van Der Leun and Rath, 1999;
Portes, Guarnizo and Haller, 2002). However,
such literature primarily focuses on problems
which migrant women face at work, but the way
they create agency for themselves within their
professional context has been researched very
sparsely. Proudford and Nkomo (2006) write that
organizational processes are not neutral to ethnic-
ity; gender and racio-ethnic inequality persists in
the workplace (Nkomo and Stewart, 2006). With
regard to the relation between ethnicity and
gender, Mirchandani and Butler (2006) discuss the
significance of utilizing transnational anti-racist
feminist perspectives for understanding and imple-
We would like to express our deep thanks to Professor
Stella Nkomo for her constant encouragement, to the
three anonymous reviewers for their detailed and meticu-
lous gaze and suggestions and finally to our sons for their
laughter and support.
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British Journal of Management, Vol. 25, 252–265 (2014)
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12003
© 2013 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management © 2013 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.

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