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‘She's always the person with a very global vision’: The Gender Dynamics of Migration, Narrative Interpretation and the Case of Jamaican Transnational Families
Author(s) -
Bauer Elaine,
Thompson Paul
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
gender and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-0424
pISSN - 0953-5233
DOI - 10.1111/j.0953-5233.2004.00344.x
Subject(s) - narrative , interpretation (philosophy) , gender studies , dynamics (music) , sociology , focus (optics) , history , art , literature , pedagogy , physics , optics , computer science , programming language
Migration and gender are two areas in which oral history and life story evidence has been recognised as having a special potential. The article begins with a review of social and historical research on migration, indicating that there has been a surprising lack of in‐depth research published on gender in migration. It then looks at the contribution of oral historians to this literature, and suggests that the focus on narrative styles may not always help us to understand the gender dynamics of migration. Next it presents a case study of Jamaican families who migrated to Britain and North America, showing how women were as often autonomous migrants as men, and that some women, unlike men, were activators of multiple family migration. In conclusion, it argues for more comparative research, using a broader methodological approach.