Constructing Meaningful Lives: Biographical Methods in Research on Migrant Women

The article argues that biographical methods are particularly suited to shift themethodological and theoretical premises of migration research to foreground theagency and subjectivity of migrant women. It is argued that structural andcultural readings can usefully be applied to the self-representations of migrantwomen. The context of migrant women's self-representations is explored throughlooking at the story-telling communities they develop and through the expertknowledges of institutions regulating migration. The dichotomisation of uniqueversus collective modes of life-stories is questioned. Applying the Foucauldianconcept of subjugated knowledges, it is argued that migrant women's life-storieshold transformative potential for producing knowledges critical of gendered andethnocised power relations that research should pay attention to.