Liberté, Egalité, Islamité: Coping strategies of female immigrants from the Maghreb in France

SynopsisImmigration and social integration are gendered issues. In this article, we concentrate on women's immigration from the Maghreb to France, and explore what we term “Maghrebi Feminism”. We discuss the specific historical context of three waves of Maghrebi migration to France after WWII, analyze the women's positioning within French/European Islamization trends, and elaborate the different experiences of male and female migrants in France. The Maghrebi female migrants' dilemmas are then presented as the outcome of these circumstances. In the second part, we review the political and welfare issues that Maghrebi female migrants face. Through their struggles regarding education, occupation, health services and political representation, we conclude that Maghrebi female migrants are social agents who gain more and fare better than their male counterparts when migrating to France, but pay a crucial price to traditional family and community life. Methodologically, we employ quantitative tools of analysis as developed within micro political research.