Brazilian women immigrants in Switzerland: identity construction in the context of migration.

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of and insight from the uniqueness of brazilian women's migration within the larger contexte of Swiss migration. The starting point is an analysis of conversations held with women on the subject of their migration experiences and of their social and familiar relationships. For this, open-ended, non directive interviews were carried out with Brazilian women who have immigrated in Switzerland, as well as potential emigrants in Brazil.This comparative process is continued by interviewing Brazilian women who have immmigrated to Netherlands. A comparison between the interviews held in Switzerland, in Brazil, in the Netherlands will reveal the specificity of migration in Switzerland and/or the specificity of the migrant population. This investigation will produce results which, it is hoped, will contribute to the study of feminine migration as situated within the scope of global migration; it will supply a detailed analysis of a particular situation: Brazilian women who have immigrated to Switzerland or the Netherlands; and it will introduce an analytical model applicable to other, similar situations

Ph.D thesis by Giuditta Mainardi

Project Staff

• Prof. Dr. Han Entzinger,Co-supervisor, ERCOMER

Partners

• Prof.Dr. Riccardo Lucchini, Supervisor, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
• Giuditta Mainardi, PH.D student

• University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland,
• Fonds National de Recherche Scientifique, Switzerland,
• Ercomer, University of Utrecht, Netherlands (for the accommodation in the Netherlands)