Madonna or Whore: Misconceptions and stereotypes of migrant women in Europe

Ever since I moved to France, I sometimes refer to myself as an immigrant, just to see how people respond. Most of the time, they react amused and bewildered. Of course, they know that I am merely stating a fact but it still seems like an odd self-attribution, not just because the word “immigrant” has become such a loaded and problematic term, but also because I don’t seem to fit the idea of an immigrant. After all, I am an EU citizen and white, which somehow translates to ‘I might as well be French’.

When talking about misconceptions and stereotypes of migrants, this is one of the first major issues: Often what people really think of are “visible” minorities, e.g. people with darker skin colours or dark hair. A black woman may be considered an immigrant in the country she was actually born in, be it France, Germany or Greece. A 2011 study on prejudice and intolerance in Europe clearly links anti-immigration sentiments with racist attitudes. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to refer to stereotyping of migrants without including the ethnic and racial dimension.

The media plays a huge part in perpetuating these misconceptions. Articles about immigration issues are usually accompanied by images of “foreign-looking” people (here and here). Recently, the most widely-used trope for all migrant women everywhere has become the veiled woman. She has become the stand-in for foreigners in general, because she illustrates most obviously the supposed “otherness” of foreigners, not just visually, but also in terms of their traditions and religion, regardless of the fact that most migrant women don’t wear head-scarves; neither do all Arab or even Muslim women.

Women in niqab staring at nothing, as seen on rfi.fr (screenshot detail)

In fact, news articles about Muslims are even more stereotyped. Ever since the so-called “burqa ban” was written into law in Belgium and France (and most recently in the Netherlands), pictures of women wearing face veils could be found everywhere, even in articles completely unrelated to this law. This exaggerated usage of niqab wearing women (the term “burqa ban” is misleading, because the burqa, which also hides the eyes, is even less common in Europe) is damaging to the conception of Muslim women in many ways. First of all, the presentation of the veiled women in the images is often very similar: they look isolated and are rarely shown in communication with the rest of the world or doing every-day things, thus confirming the preconception that they will never fit into Western European society. The same people who will make these assumptions about the veiled women, will end up making these same assumptions about Muslim women in general, hence the persistence of their image as oppressed by men and brainwashed by Islam.

However, “non-visible” migrant women also face problematic stereotypes, often quite contrary to the passive, sexually repressed and devout image we have of Muslim women. Eastern European women, for example, are overly sexualized in their Western representation, and those who move to Western Europe are often assumed to be victims of human trafficking, mail-order brides, or domestic workers. These categories are obviously very debilitating for women who try to find housing or enter the workforce. While the way in which society views immigrants is discriminatory and highly limiting, this does not mean that they could not, in fact, represent the reality for some. What’s often missing from these considerations is that many women have no other choice. Without proper language skills, migrant women are immediately categorized as unskilled workers, regardless of their education levels, and thus forced into labor niches such as sex work and domestic work, which are highly vulnerable and exploitative.

First results for Google Image Search "Eastern European Women" (screenshot detail)

To counter the issue of misrepresentation, more and more women all over Europe, migrants and those in solidarity, work together to set the record straight. Women have always looked towards artistic and literary means to express their needs, hopes and desires, so it only makes sense that migrant women do the same and make themselves heard by creating poetry websites, magazines and associations. In 2007, migrants and natives from Italy came together in Naples to share their thoughts and ideas, and during the interview, documented in the Feminist Review, Wioleta Sardyko, a Polish migrant, made clear which stories of migrant women she wanted to have told:

“Every woman has her own history, with her emotions, her itinerary. A unique point of view is therefore impossible. What must not be denied is the strength of migrant women: those who leave everything and become a source of income for the family they have left in their country, but produce wealth for Italy too.”

It is time to stop regarding migrant women as a problem and a threat to the nation’s wealth and citizens’ rights, but to start viewing them as a source of inspiration.

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