University of Colorado at Boulder Global Gender Issues Essay

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Global Gender Issues: Final Essay Assignment

I WILL UPLOAD POWERPOINTS AND NOTES from the course

The third unit of Global Gender Issueslooks at transnational reproduction in two countries. The first book you will read for this unit, Wombs in Labor, studies transnational commercial surrogacy and the women who serve as surrogate mothers in India. The second, Pregnant on Arrival, examines the debates and legislation surrounding the transnational immigration of pregnant Nigerian women into Ireland. The essay assignment is intended to help you reflect on these controversial examples of transnational reproduction. The transnational aspects of Indian surrogacy and Irish immigration complicate conventional understandings of reproduction, motherhood, and family.

1.Explain how transnational processes, especially increased global connectivity and persistent global inequalities, complicate conventional understandings of reproduction, motherhood, and family.

2.Explain why the examples of surrogate mothers in India and Nigerian immigrant mothers in Ireland provide important insights into this process.

3.Analyze the formal and informal disciplinary strategies aimed at Indian surrogate and Nigerian immigrant mothers and how they complicate conventional understandings ..

.4.Analyze the ways that surrogate and immigrant mothers use and subvert traditional notions of reproduction, motherhood, and family to assert agency despite their marginalized social positions.

Additional instructions:

Be sure to acknowledge differences within and between the two countries/peoples to avoid stereotyping and/or essentializing them. Words like many, most, some, often, sometimes, etc. are particularly useful for this purpose.

Be sure to engage directly with the two major sources, Wombs in Labor: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India and Pregnant on Arrival: Making the “Illegal” Immigrant.

Be sure to include at least four different “primary” sources from the PowerPoint slides, a minimum of two for each case study (India and Ireland). Sources will vary in importance according to the option you choose and the way you chose to develop it. In general, the more time that we spent in class with a source, the more you should consider including it in your essay.

Citing Sources: You’ll need to cite your sources, but to keep things simple you can use the following code:

WL for Wombs in Labor and PA for Pregnant on Arrival.

The other sources should be cited by name in the text. In the case of the books, you should also include page numbers or some other location indicator, so a citation would look like this: (PA183). Technical Requirements:

Papers should be 7-8 pages in length (1,800 to 2,000 words), double-spaced, with standard margins and standard fonts. It’s okay if your paper runs a bit long but please keep it under 2,200 words.

Grading Criteria: a clearly stated, carefully developed thesis (point of view, central argument) appropriate examples (both general and specific) from the readings and films careful analysis (that connects the examples to the argument) good overall organization coherent, thematically-unified paragraphs well-constructed, grammatically accurate sentences

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Eithne Luibhéid Pregnant on Arrival: Making the Illegal Immigrant (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013) Lecture/Discussion 1 Republic of Ireland Population: 4.5 million (2011) 84.5% White Irish 9.1% Other White 1.9% Asian / Asian Irish 1.4% Black / Black Irish (16,300 Nigerians in 2006) 0.7% White Irish Traveller 84.2 % Catholic Brief History of the Irish Republic Ireland in the United Kingdom 1801 Ireland becomes part of the United Kingdom (under British rule) 1845-1849 Great Famine Irish population drops 30% from 8 million 1 million die, 1.5 million emigrate mostly to the U.S. NOTE: Irish population decline continues until the 1960s 1880 Irish demands for Home Rule begin 1916 Easter Rebellion against British rule 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence Independent Ireland 1922 Irish Free State established (without Northern Ireland) 1922-1923 Irish Civil War 1937 Irish Constitution 1947 Republic of Ireland 1972 Republic of Ireland joins EEC (later EU) Before the Irish became White: Racist images from 19th century mainstream US and British publications The Irish Immigrant Problem in the U.S. and U.K.—Men or Brutes? Pregnant on Arrival Colonial legacies: British racialization of Irish migrant women Irish women’s bodies were implicitly present in stereotyping through their role in the process of reproduction, especially their ‘excessive’ fertility … The rhetoric focuses on families and their threat to the English way of life both biologically and culturally. These include through ‘swamping’ and racial degeneration, the weakening of Protestantism, unfair demands for resources and lack of control over bodies, both their own and those of unruly, dirty, and over-numerous children. (33, quote from Bronwyn Walter, Outsiders Inside, p. 91) • Why did British racialization focus on Irish women’s reproduction, families, and children? • In what ways was Irish fertility seen to undermine “the English way of life?” • How does this attitude parallel contemporary Irish attitudes towards pregnant asylum seekers? • Why does Irish racism towards Africans reproduce British racism towards the Irish? Irish Women compared to English Women in the British Press Stereotypes of Irish Migrant Women’s Hyper-Fertility https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsWxk U0g9Z4 Monty Python on Irish Catholic immigrants in England (The Meaning of Life, 1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifgHHh w_6g8 Monty Python on British Protestants (The Meaning of Life) Pregnant on Arrival The Republic of Ireland as an ‘Imagined Community” After independence, social ideals became institutionalized, including in the 1937 constitution, which imagined a nation organized through patriarchal heterosexual marriage—one where women were regulated to the role of wives and child bearers within the privatized home … Moreover, the vision and version of Irishness that was enshrined in the constitution and reflected in social policy was not simply patriarchal and sexually normalizing; it also conceived ‘Irish’ people as settled, Catholic, ‘white,’ and bourgeois. Immigrant, Black, Jewish, and Traveller women were not generally the women whose childbearing was envisioned as perpetuating the nation. (345) • Why was new Irish nation “organized through patriarchal heterosexual marriage?” • How did patriarchal heteronormativity intersect with other categories such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and national origin? • How did these intersections affect attitudes towards the reproduction of Other women? Irish Constitution (1937): Catholic Family Values Articles 41 & 42: The State recognizes the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law. The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the family in its constitution and authority, as the necessary basis of social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State. … the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and [the Constitution] guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children. Reversing the Migration Flow Immigration into Ireland since the 1990s Pregnant on Arrival Terminology When discussing migrants who are variously characterized as illegal, irregular, unauthorized, undocumented, nonstatus, clandestine, sans papières, sin papeles, and so on, word choices are never neutral. Rather they reflect specific histories and political perspectives in a deeply polarized debate. Moreover, debates about terminology are inseparable from questions about how we conceptualize the subjects, objects, and processes of analysis. (vii) • How do terms reflect specific histories and political perspectives? • How do they shape the way “we conceptualize subjects, objects, and processes of analysis?” • Why does Luibhéid use the term “illegal migrant” despite these problems? Official Immigrant Categories Legal Immigrant Illegal Immigrant Authorized by host country Unauthorized by host country Refugee Asylum Seeker Authorized by host country Seeking authorization by host country Pregnant on Arrival Moral panics about illegal immigration In recent decades, illegal immigration has been described as threatening national sovereignty; undermining social, welfare, health, and labor market benefits; spawning crime; challenging social control, and, in worst case scenarios, enabling terrorism. As a result, efforts to control and prevent illegal immigration have risen to the top of the agenda in global north states, leading to extensive changes in both immigration and citizenship laws. … Yet claims about illegal immigration and efforts to prevent it generally overlook … the social construction of migrant illegality that shows that designations of illegality and legality are products of law, politics, and society. (6) • Why is illegal immigration perceived to be such a threat to global north countries? • How have they responded to that perceived threat? • Why do claims about illegal immigration overlook the social construction of migrant legality and illegality? Pregnant on Arrival Irish In-Migration The expansion of Irish migration controls [in the 1990s] occurred in a context of deepening Europeanization and neoliberalization, as well as a booming economy, which resulted in significantly rising rates of in-migration. Many migrants were recruited to fill labor niches; others were Irish emigrants who saw opportunities to return; still others were international students or people seeking asylum. Labor migrants were far more numerous than asylum seekers, but government officials conceived labor migrants as temporary and expected them to leave. Asylum seekers were another matter, however. Not only did they arrive in growing numbers but their cases often took years to resolve. Since they were not permitted to engage in paid labor … their presence entailed welfare costs … Thus, control over asylum seekers rather than labor migrants was initially identified as the most pressing migration issue … (192) • How did Europeanization and neoliberalization encourage migration into Ireland in the 1990s? • Why were government officials less concerned about labor migrants than asylum seekers? • How did the focus on asylum seekers affect the migration debate in Ireland? Recent migration statistics for Ireland Positive Spin: Profile of undocumented workers in Ireland (c. 20 to 26k) Comparative Note: Undocumented Irish workers in the U.S. number about 50k (c. 30k in New York City) 2014 Dublin Citizenship Ceremony for 4,000 New Citizens Refugees vs Asylum Seekers Refugee (UN definition from 1951 Refugee Convention) A refugee is defined as someone who: "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” NOTE: An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for but has yet to be granted refugee status. Pregnant on Arrival Asylum seeker vulnerability Asylum seekers are even more vulnerable to the loss of legal status [than other migrants] precisely because their status is inherently transitional. Being an ‘asylum seeker’ gives the migrant the right to remain in the territory—although under very restrictive conditions—only while the state reviews the migrant’s claim for protection from persecution. Once the review is complete and all appeals have been exhausted, some asylum seekers become redesignated as refugees … But the vast majority … become redesignated as deportable and illegal. (8) • How do asylum seekers enter the national territory of the ‘host’ country? • How does this affect their status as migrants? • How does their special status increase their vulnerability? • Why might asylum seekers be even more vulnerable than other ‘illegal’ migrants? AntiDeportation Activists http://antideport ationireland.blog spot.fi/ Pregnant on Arrival Asylum seekers and immigration control in Ireland … as the number of asylum seekers grew, from 39 in 1992 to 11,634 a decade later, there came claims that most were ‘really’ illegal immigrants, not ‘genuine’ asylum seekers, and the childbearing was enabling them to circumvent migration controls and settle down permanently. Asylum seeking—as opposed to labor migration—was therefore the area where immigration was initially diagnosed as most out of control, and as demonstrating the need for the government to redefine and expand its controls … Through the concerns about pregnant asylum seekers, specifically, heteronormativity would become central to the ways that migration into Ireland was problematized: new strategies for managing migration were developed, the construct of the ‘illegal immigrant’ was discursively produced, and norms of good citizenship were rearticulated. (13) • Why were pregnant asylum seekers singled out as a special problem? • Why was correcting their “abuse” of the asylum process of special interest to the Irish government? • What role does “heteronormativity” play in shaping government responses to “illegal” migration and the norms of good citizenship? Asylum Applications for Ireland (1992-2006) Pregnant on Arrival Irish difference In line with EU trends, Ireland sought to preempt the arrival of asylum seekers in the first place, and, when this failed, implemented procedures that resulted in an overwhelming majority of their claims becoming invalidated on bureaucratic and technical grounds. What made the Irish situation different … was that pregnancy and childbearing became an important means through which asylum seekers—and indeed all migrants—could redefine their legal status. This was possible because of two interrelated factors: first, until January 1, 2005, Ireland granted birthright citizenship to anyone born on Irish soil or seas. Second, in 1990, the Supreme Court had ruled in the Fajujonu case that nonnational parents of Irish citizen children were entitled to reside in Ireland unless the state could provide a compelling and exceptional reason to prevent them from doing so. (15-16) • Why did Ireland follow EU trends in discouraging asylum seekers? • How did Irish law up until 2005 provide a unique opportunity for asylum seekers? • Why was taking advantage of this opportunity seen as cheating by many Irish politicians and the general public? Birthright Citizenship Dark Blue: Unconditional; Medium Blue: Restricted; Light Blue: Abolished 1937 Irish Constitution, Article 2: it is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. Pregnant on Arrival The Lobe and Osayande Case (2003 Supreme Court Decision) In both cases … the women’s ‘advanced’ pregnancy prevented the garda [police] from speedily deporting families whose search for asylum had been denied on technical grounds. Once the Irish children were born, however, the families applied for leave to remain based on the birth of children—who were citizens only because the garda had delayed the families’ deportations. Accordingly, the families appeared to be calculating, ungrateful, and cynically deploying childbearing to thwart the state’s efforts to control immigration. (44) • What were the technical grounds for dismissing these two asylum cases? • Why did the garda (police) refrain from deporting the pregnant women despite the dismissal of their cases? • Why did the families in these two cases appear calculating, ungrateful, and cynical? • Why did the Irish Minister for Justice John O’Donoghue select these two cases to help overturn the Fajujonu case? Life after the L & O case Irish citizen George-Jordan Dimbo (11) lives in a hostel (right) with his non-citizen parents under threat of deportation http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/world/europe/25irel and.html Pregnant on Arrival Irish characters in migration narratives Irish narratives of illegal migration “deployed different combinations of social actors in a drama around heterosexual sex … The Irish figures included the ‘innocent’ Irish girl, imagined as white, young, and probably rural, who was being taken advantage of; pregnant, unmarried inner-city women or girls who accepted cash for lying about the father’s identity; Irish women who were sluts and disloyal to the nation because of their supposed desire for sex with Black men; and Irish men who had new opportunities for sexual adventure … These Irish figures were rendered ‘Irish’ in part through their contrast with various migrant figures.” (41) • How do these Irish figures reflect fears about interracial relationships?’ • How do they represent fears about female sexuality? • How do they reproduce racist European colonial ideas about “native” sexualities? Citizenship Through Marriage to an Irish Citizen right: Miss Ireland (2010) Emma Waldron with her Nigerian boyfriend Manners Oshafi http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic le-1368066/Miss-Ireland-Were-lovedont-care-racists-say-us.html “Becoming an Irish Citizen through marriage or civil partnership” http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/m oving_country/irish_citizenship/becomin g_an_irish_citizen_through_marriage.ht ml See: Rules Eithne Luibhéid Pregnant on Arrival: Making the Illegal Immigrant Lecture/Discussion 2 Irish Views on Immigration right: desirable labor migrants, Filipina nurses Dublin Chat OnLine TV (street interviews on immigration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =vFqu6Qz7yHc Independent (street interviews on immigration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =_WygqXTqXDs Immigrant Welfare “Cheaters” in Mainstream Media RTE Video on Welfare Cheaters (excerpted and posted to YouTube to highlight immigrant scammers with added dialogue boxes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= KDHE9K4O9gU Pregnant on Arrival Migrant Perspectives The interviewees [migrants] overwhelmingly challenged the stereotype of ‘pregnant asylum seeker who is really an illegal immigrant’ and instead speculated about the heterogeneous origins and varied migration experiences of women who had been reduced to that stereotype. They pointed out migrants were generally not illegal in the sense of lacking legal authorization for their presence but instead were vulnerable to being made illegal as a result of both Ireland’s confusing, exclusionary patchwork of immigration and asylum laws as well as the effects of exclusionary laws in other EU states. In that context, interviewees suggested, childbearing may have offered some migrants a means to negotiate multiple difficulties and jeopardies. (56) • Why did interviewees insist on recognizing the heterogeneous origins and varied migration experiences of women migrants? • What were some of those experiences? (e.g. migrants needing ‘complementary protection,’ trafficked migrants, medical tourism, etc.) • How did Irish and EU laws combine to produce illegal immigrants? • How did childbearing offer a ‘means to negotiate multiple difficulties and jeopardies?” Immigration Bureaucracy Asylum Process Explained http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/movin g_country/asylum_seekers_and_refugees/th e_asylum_process_in_ireland/ http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/movin g_country/asylum_seekers_and_refugees/se rvices_for_asylum_seekers_in_ireland/direct _provision.html http://www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie/informati on-and-referral-service/faqs-about-asylum * Human Trafficking in Ireland below right: Ruth Negga plays Taiwo, an African woman trafficked to Ireland, in film Trafficked https://vimeo.com/ondemand/trafficked see: trailer Irish Government’s “Blue Blindfold” AntiTrafficking Website http://www.blueblindfold.gov.ie/ See: What is it?/Case Studies Irish Anti-Trafficking Organization website http://www.aptireland.org/ See: Zena* Irish Times news story on Nigerian women trafficked into Dublin http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-andlaw/seven-victims-of-human-trafficking-foundin-dublin-1.1830346 Pregnant on Arrival Flexible Citizenship Strategies … reproductive rather than productive labor provided the means through which families, spread across national borders, could potentially build a base for long-term legal residence and various rights in Ireland. … some migrants told me that they had travelled for those reasons, or that they knew of other women who had done so. For example, one upper-middle-class Nigerian woman told me that she knew women who had come to Ireland specifically to ensure that their children would hold Irish/EU citizenship. In her view, their actions reflected ‘responsible’ motherhood. For her, being a responsible mother entailed creating flexible futures for one’s children …(69) • How do migrant strategies for family reunification mirror official immigration policies in places like Ireland and the United States? • Why might those countries resist these strategies? • Why do some migrants view flexible citizenship strategies like having children in Ireland before 2005 as ‘responsible’ motherhood? • Why would immigration authorities resist this interpretation? Young Nigerian mother posing with her family and new Irish citizenship papers http://www.independent.ie /irish-news/young-nigerianmother-holds-back-tears-asshe-touches-tricolour-afterbecoming-irish-citizen31133018.html Pregnant on Arrival Migrant Views on “Spongers” Migrants stressed that they sought secure legal status [including through childbearing] not so that they could ‘sponge off’ welfare or engage in crime but as a means for becoming productive, contributing members of Irish society while pursuing their own hopes and plans. Like the minister [of Justice], they expressed concern about ‘abuse’ of the migration system. From their point of view, though, individuals’ varied modes of entry or strategies for securing legal residency were not necessarily abusive. Indeed, like undocumented Irish migrants in the United States, migrants viewed creative modes of entry and legalization as expected, given the migration pressures that they faced and the tough, nontransparent, and exclusionary nature of the immigration system. (84) • Why do migrants stress their desire to become productive members of society? • Why do they share official concern about welfare abuse? • How do they justify ‘creative modes of entry and legalization?’ Africa & Ireland: Colonial Connections below: Biafra community in Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade upper right: Nigerian Soccer Team sponsored by Guinness (Nigeria is the third largest market for Guinness after the UK and Ireland) lower right: School children in Montserrat, West Indies celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Irish dancing. Eithne Luibhéid Pregnant on Arrival: Making the Illegal Immigrant Lecture/Discussion 3 Pregnant on Arrival Direct Provision (NOTE: Direct provision is a privatized welfare system for asylum seekers run by for-profit companies under government supervision) Unlike the regular welfare system, direct provision does not seek to produce entrepreneurial, self-governing subjects for the neo-liberal nation-state; rather, it seeks to deter asylum seekers from arriving, and to ensure that those who do arrive remain strictly controlled, contained, and effectively incapacitated. In this way, asylum seekers can more readily be made illegal and deportable after their claims are denied, as happens in the vast majority of cases. (87) • Why does the regular Irish welfare system seek to produce entreprenurial, self-governing subjects? • Why doesn’t it favor this approach for asylum seekers? • How does direct provision deter asylum seekers from arriving? • How does it make it easier to deport them when their claims are denied? Direct Provision Experiences Aljazeera Story on Plight of Asylum Seekers http://www.aljaz eera.com/news/e urope/2014/04/ir eland-under-fireover-refugeetreatment20144251750205 26225.html * Pregnant on Arrival Disciplinary strategies for asylum seekers Asylum seekers in direct provision have no choice about where they are sent, with whom they live, and in most cases who shares their room or how many people share their room. Indeed, they have no control over the very food they eat, which consistently rate as boring, poor, and unhealthy. They receive little or no information from staff about their rights, or asylum procedures, or available supports in the area. Their powerlessness is constantly underlined: staff may enter their rooms without permission, or may punish or humiliate them for perceived infractions. They rarely get to explain their side of events. In some centers they are required to sign out if they leave and punished if they fail to do so. … Migrant’s powerlessness is reinforced by their poverty. Barred from working, they subsist on 19.10 euros per week … (94) • How do the disciplinary strategies described above serve to deter and discourage asylum seekers? • How does the Irish government justify the direct provision system? • What are the likely effects of direct provision on most asylum seekers, especially those with children? • Why is this treatment especially problematic for asylum seekers (as a category)? Detention and Deportation Irish news story on plight of asylum seekers in Direct Provision* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8-6ZSylCZA Interviews with Nigerians subjected to failed 2010 deportation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38f4jCt9jbw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQx6MwFdozw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StRaj0_NWns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpBXD69vqQU Pregnant on Arrival Racialization of asylum seekers Direct provision institutionalizes the treatment of asylum seekers as a separate and distinct class that has fewer rights than other classes; and it ensures that the everyday lives and experiences of asylum seekers are very different … and—in an era when welfare use racializes, requiring asylum seekers to be supported at taxpayer expense while denying them the opportunity to work—most certainly racializes the asylum seekers. … [moreover] migration laws racialize asylum seekers by creating geopolitical exclusions and inclusions that become mapped onto constructs of race as visible physical difference. … Not surprisingly, asylum seekers report that they experience high levels of racism and discrimination, not only when compared with to Irish citizens but also relative to other migrants. (97-8) • How does direct provision work to ‘racialize’ asylum seekers? • What role do ‘geopolitical exclusions’ play in that process? • How does this play out in the everyday lives and experiences of asylum seekers? Racialization of Asylum Seekers Pregnant on Arrival Race & Gender Issues … pervasive racism, which operates through gendered, sexual, and economic logics, perpetuates this system of disempowerment. DVAS (Domestic Violence Advocacy Service] says that when women have raised concerns about harassment or domestic violence with social workers, gardaí, nurses, and others, their concerns are often dismissed using racialized logic. This logic presumes that ‘gender inequality and domestic violence are an inherent part of African and Asian cultures,’ … (and it is culturally inappropriate to intervene in ‘their’ culture). There is also belief that ‘certain groups of ethnic minority women—particularly those that wear head scarves or hijabs, are inherently submissive and passive, and culturally not used to mixing with men, and are therefore over-sensitive when it comes to natural male behaviour … [Thus, woman was told by a garda that] a man touching you might be a crime in your country but it certainly isn’t here.’ (103) • How does racism intersect with gender in the way that Irish authorities deal with harassment and discrimination? • How do racialized logics differ in relation to different racial/ethnic groups? • How are these racialized logics amplified for asylum seekers in the direct provision system? Muslims in Ireland African Immigrants as Violent Criminals Anti-Immigrant Blog (Warning: This website is white supremacist and anti-Semitic) http://incogman.net /2012/07/violentafrican-immigrantsattacking-whites-inireland/ Pregnant on Arrival Gender and sexuality Engendering processes invariably normalize certain forms of sexuality while marking other sexualities as ‘deviant’ and undesirable. Attention not only to asylum-seeking women who are forced to navigate racialized sexual harassment but also to LGBTQ asylum seekers specifically offers a lens for understanding how direct provision normalizes a particular version of heterosexuality. (104) • What is the particular version of heterosexuality ‘normalized’ by direct provision? • What effect does this normalization have on LGBTQ asylum seekers? • Why might discrimination against LGBTQ asylum seekers be considered especially problematic? • How does this discrimination jibe with contemporary Irish attitudes towards same-sex marriage (which was legalized by popular vote in 2015)? LGBTQ Migrants into Ireland Irish LGBT Asylum Seekers NGO http://belongto.org/belong-launches-blueprint-protecting-risk-lgbtasylum-seekers-refugees/ See video: “Seeking Sanctuary” (about an African LGBTQ asylum seeker) Pregnant on Arrival Asylum seeker agency and resistance … the system’s effects are never uniform, predictable, or totalizing. Migrants in direct provision have built ties with one another; sometimes engaged in paid labor in the underground economy; and taken advantage of the [volunteer] opportunities offered by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), church groups, and community groups … Migrants in direct provision have also periodically engaged in hunger striking, a tactic that reflects the state’s reduction of them to bare lives that are permitted only bodily existence. (108) • How do the migrant strategies noted above demonstrate agency? • What are the restrictions on that agency? • Why are hunger strikes an effective form of resistance? Irish asylum seeker activism left: Asylum seekers residents at the Montague Hotel in Portlaoise protesting about the length of time and the conditions in which they live under the direct provision system. Pregnant on Arrival Cooperation as agency (Christabel) Within the confines of direct provision and welfare, [Christabel] not only grasped the modalities of being that were proposed but … by learning and engaging in the practices that the Irish government prescribed for asylum seekers and long-term residents, she sought to resignify herself away from an image of sponger, user, and dependent, and toward the image of a responsible, trustworthy, active member of society. Her efforts clearly show that direct provision practices are not only technologies for organizing and distributing material resources … but also technologies for refashioning the self. (112) • How did Christabel ‘resignify’ herself by learning and engaging in approved practices? • How did she demonstrate this to government officials (and to her interviewer)? • How does this strategy reinforce negative attitudes towards most asylum seekers? Volunteer Work for Migrants http://www.slideshare.net/AgaVolunteer/give-project-presentationvolunteering-in-ireland-for-migrants Pregnant on Arrival Nation-Building and Female Sexuality in Catholic Ireland [After independence] the overwhelming push to define Ireland as ‘notEngland’ lead to a search for distinguishing markers of identity, of which women’s reproductive sexuality became key. The 1937 constitution constructed women and mothers and child-bearers located within the private home. Women’s dedication to reproducing the next generation of Irish people became elevated as a symbol of Ireland’s moral and cultural distinctiveness over the former colonial master, Britain. This symbolism intertwined with the direct regulation of women’s sexuality, not only by channeling it into childbearing within marriage but also banning abortion and the sale of contraceptives. (127) • Why did Irish leaders seek ‘distinguishing markers of identity’ for their newly independent country? • Why was women’s reproductive sexuality key to Irish identity? • Why did control of women’s sexuality include banning abortion and the sale of contraceptives? Irish Catholic Sex Education 1980s 2015 Daily Edge Article (critical): http://www.dailyedge.ie/sex-ad-video-catholic-irish-2523908-Dec2015/ (see video) Youtube link to sex ed video https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2848394835&feature=iv&src_vid=PUMTOTa7J00&v=cxgX WHo9jvI Pregnant on Arrival Irish Law and the “Abortion Trail” X Case (1992): “a fourteen-year-old Irish girl, pregnant through rape, whose parents brought her to Britain for an abortion.” (p. 130) • What was the Attorney General’s initial ruling in this case? Why? • Why did the Supreme Court reconsider? • What was the outcome? Pregnant on Arrival C Case (1997): “a thirteen-year-old Traveller, who, like X, sought an abortion after she had been raped and made pregnant.” (133) • What was the District Court’s initial ruling in this case? • Why did the High Court uphold the ruling? • How did this case resemble the X case? How was it different? C Case revisited http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/health/ccase-mum-i-grieve-formy-lost-baby-every-day-29241584.html Overview of Abortion Issues in Ireland http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-and-abortion-the-facts-424165Apr2012/ Travellers in Ireland below: Traveller children in 1958 photo right: Traveller children at the Appleby Horse Fair Travellers in Ireland Three members of the Rathkeale Rovers Gang convicted of selling stolen rhino horns for Chinese market in 2012 http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/rathkeale-rovers-irish-traveller-gang-rhino-horn-chinese-artefact-theft Pregnant on Arrival Right to Life for Immigrant Babies Baby O Case (2002): “Ms. O’s solicitors sought to prevent her deportation by invoking the state’s commitment to ‘defend and vindicate the right to life of the unborn.” (p. 135) • How did Ms. O’s solicitors present their argument on behalf of the unborn child? Why? • How did the state, High Court, and Supreme Court respond to that argument? • What was the outcome of the case? • How does this case related to the X and C cases noted previously? Eithne Luibhéid Pregnant on Arrival: Making the Illegal Immigrant Lecture/Discussion 4 Important Rulings on Birthright Citizenship (and Abortion Travel) 1990 Fajujonu Case (Supreme Court decision) grants residency to parents of Irish citizen children (1992) X case (Supreme Court decision) allows minor rape victim to travel to UK for an abortion because she is suicidal (1997) C case (Supreme Court decision) allows minor rape victim from Traveller family to travel to UK for an abortion because she is suicidal 2002 Baby O case (Supreme Court decision) denies citizenship rights to unborn child and custodial rights to parents 2003 Lobe & Osayande Case (Supreme Court decision) refuses parents of Irish citizen whose children were born while their cases were pending the right to remain in Ireland 2004 Citizenship Referendum (popular vote) ends unconditional birthright citizenship for children born in Ireland to non-citizen parents 2005 IBC/05 ruling (administrative scheme) decides residency of asylum seeker parents with citizen children on case by case basis 2011 Zambrano case (European Court of Justice ruling) allows residency for non-citizen parents of EU citizens (including in Ireland) of citizen children Pregnant on Arrival Citizenship Referendum In March 2004, the minister for justice announced that voters would be asked to amend the constitution by removing the automatic entitlement to citizenship for any child born in Ireland, north or south. Newborn children who did not have at least one parent who was an Irish citizen, who was entitled to Irish citizenship, or who had resided legally in Ireland for three of the last four years would no longer acquire citizenship at birth. … Migrants were targeted because ‘there has been no significant diminution in the numbers of non-nationals arriving heavily pregnant. (149) • Who’s right to Irish citizenship was recognized in the citizenship referendum? • Why did the referendum include an offer of citizenship to some migrant children and not others? • Which migrants were mostly likely to have citizenship denied to their children? Why? 2004 Citizenship Referendum (Vote Yes) 2004 Citizenship Referendum (Vote No) Center image: Minister of Justice Michael McDowell with paper airplane captioned “Constitution of Ireland” and African baby Pregnant on Arrival Migrant Families in Limbo (IBC/05 scheme) On January 15, 2005 … the Department of Justice announced a new scheme whereby migrant parents of Irish children who were born before January 1, 2005, could apply for residency. … Eligibility depended on several conditions, the most important of which were ‘not to become involved in criminal activity; to make every effort to become economically viable; to take steps that would lead to employment; and to accept that the status did not ‘confer any entitlement or legitimate expectation of family reunification. (177) • What was the purpose behind the Irish government’s eligibility requirements? • Why was meeting these requirements especially difficult for asylum seekers (as opposed to other migrants)? • Why was the governments’ insistence that migrants accept that residency status did not confer any entitlement or legitimate expectation of family reunification a special hardship, especially for asylum seekers? Asylum Seekers in Limbo http://www.irishtimes.com/news/lives-in-limbo* Families in Limbo (2013) right: family in direct provision below: children in direct provision Pregnant on Arrival Protecting Future Generations The controversies over pregnant migrants … foreground the fact that states seek to govern reproduction in ways that, over time, maintain differentiations between citizens and noncitizens that correlates with inequitable access to resources and opportunities. Indeed, the Irish government claimed that migrant women’s childbearing threatened the state’s ability to produce a desirable future for ‘properly’ Irish citizens in part because the births offered a means to steadily erase the distinction, thereby opening the door to expanding claims on resources that are normally reserved for citizens. By withholding automatic citizenship from migrants’ children … the referendum promised to restabilize the citizen/migrant distinction and its associated inequalities. (150) • Why do states seek to govern reproduction in ways that distinguish between citizens and noncitizens, especially with regard to resources? • Why did the Irish government create a competing futures narrative about pregnant migrants undermining the future of ‘legitimate’ Irish people? • How did the referendum offer an opportunity to restabilize the citizen/migrant distinction? • What are the implications of this strategy for Irish immigration policies? For migrants in general? For asylum seekers in particular? Our World Irish Aid Awards http://ourworldirishaidawards.ie/ Pregnant on Arrival Mixed Messages: Citizenship for Descendants of Irish Migrants The referendum did not just produce and institutionalize a distinction between the children of productive, hardworking, long-term labor migration versus the children of other migrants … [it] also institutionalized distinctions by allowing children and grandchildren born abroad to Irish citizens to continue to acquire citizenship through descent, even when they had never set foot in Ireland. These children and grandchildren, however, were eligible for citizenship only if they could trace their descent through heteronormative rather than queer forms of family. • Why did the referendum continue to encourage the children and grandchildren of migrant Irish citizens to claim Irish citizenship? • Why did it restrict descent citizenship to the offspring of heteronormative forms of family” • What seems hypocritical about this ‘exception’ for descendants? • What are the reasons for this apparent hypocrisy? Irish Citizenship Through Descent http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_citizenship/irish_citizenship_through_birth_or_descent.html Celebrity Irish-Americans below: Muhammed Ali visits Ennis, Ireland birthplace of his great-grandfather (2009) below right: Tom Cruise receives certificate of Irish heritage U.S. Presidents with Irish Ancestors Note: Post-WW II presidents with Scotch-Irish Heritage Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush below right: Barack Obama with Irish ancestor Fulmoth Kearney Pregnant on Arrival Race matters The minister for justice and the government consistently insisted that the referendum was not racist; on the contrary, they argued that it would prevent racism by ensuring that only those who properly followed immigration and asylum rules were rewarded. These claims conveniently ignore that the state regularly changes the rules, often without migrants being informed; underplays the pervasiveness and functioning of racism; and blames migrants for racism in Ireland. A related government strategy entailed portraying the referendum as a simple, commonsense measure that did not require intensive deliberation and debate. (170) • Why did government officials think the referendum would prevent racism? • How did this argument ignore the pervasiveness and functioning of racism? • How did it blame migrants? • How did the government (successfully) persuade most voters that the referendum was a ‘simple, commonsense measure?’ ‘ Institutional Racism in Direct Provision Pregnant on Arrival Sham marriages For the government … marriages that are viewed as having been entered into primarily or completely for purposes of gaining legal migration status (called ‘sham marriages’) cause great concern. Officials suggest that these marriages are not entered into in the right spirit or with the right intentions—which underlines that marriages are normatively expected to entail particular kinds of feelings, intentions, and aspirations that are expected to have been used to create racial, cultural, and geopolitical distinctions. But in this instance, they have become a basis to produce and circulate constructions of migrant illegality … (182-3) • Why are government officials so concerned about ‘sham’ marriages? • How does this official concern impact normative expectations for marriage? • How have normative expectations of ‘proper’ marriage been used to create racial, cultural, and geopolitical distinctions? • How is it used to construct migrant illegality? Policing Sham Marriage Article on a “sham marriage” criminal gang operation in Ireland that paired south Asian men (many of them Muslim) with Eastern European and Portuguese women with EU citizenship. Some of the women may have been trafficked. http://www.thejournal.ie/sham-marriage-arrests-2465833-Nov2015/ http://www.thejournal.ie/sham-marriages-3020346-Oct2016/ Police (Garda) Report on Operation Vantage https://www.garda.ie/en/About-Us/Our-Departments/Office-of-Corporate-Communications/PressReleases/2015/November/Operation-Vantage-Investigation-into-Sham-Marriages-and-ImmigrationIssues.html “New legislation - the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 - enacted on the 18th August 2015 provides new powers to a Registrar of Marriages to consider whether a marriage is one of convenience, i.e. a marriage where at least one of the parties to the marriage is at the time of entry into the marriage is a foreign national, and enters into the marriage solely for the purpose of securing an immigration advantage for at least one of the parties to the marriage. As a result of this legislation 55 formal objections to pending marriages have been made through Operation Vantage and 22 people have been arrested and charged for offences under Section 69(3) of the Civil Registration Act 2004 – provision of false information to the Registrar – and Section 29 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 – custody or control of a false instrument.” Pregnant on Arrival Same-Sex Relations and Immigration Control The centrality of heterosexual marriage as a model for migration control has deeply affected those in same-sex relationships. Historically, same-sex relationships were not recognized as a basis for legal migration. … This situation dovetailed with a history of casting lesbianism or gayness as ‘unIrish,’ including in ways that generated significant migration from Ireland by lesbian and gay citizens. Yet lesbian and gay citizens’ status began to change, as reflected by the decriminalization of homosexuality (1993), the passage of the Employment Equality Act (1998) and Equal Status Act (2000), the establishment of the Equality Authority (2000), and, most recently, the passage of the Civil Partnership Act (2010)[and the passage of a national referendum allowing same-sex marriage (2015)]. (185) • Why were lesbians and gays historically seen as “un-Irish?” • Why did Irish attitudes towards lesbians and gays change so quickly? • How do the intersections of race/ethnicity, class, and national orientation influence Irish attitudes towards lesbians and gays? • How can we reconcile these progressive attitudes towards lesbians and gays with increasing concerns about illegal migrants and asylum seekers? Same-Sex Marriage and Immigration Immigration Situation for Same-Sex Partners in Civil Unions in Ireland http://www.inis.gov.ie/en /INIS/Pages/Civil%20Part nership All You Need is Love Reproductive Rights 2018 NYT article: “Ireland votes to End Abortion Ban in Rebuke to Catholic Conservatism” https://www.nytimes.c om/2018/05/26/world /europe/irelandabortion-yes.html Right: A mural in Dublin of Savita Halappanavar, who died in 2012 of complications from a miscarriage after a hospital rejected a request for an abortion. Pregnant on Arrival Citizenship and Durable Inequalities The inequalities associated with citizenship statuses are rooted in histories of colonialism, global capitalism, and the nation-state system … Citizenship status in global northern states have crucial ‘wealth-preserving’ functions that perpetuate these inequalities. Moreover, since citizenship status designates who is subject to the violence of immigration control and who is not, it further perpetuates these inequalities. Yet the ways that states naturalize the link between being born and the acquisition of citizenship status has insulated these inequalities from critical scrutiny … immigration controls entail not just spatial dimensions (protecting the borders) but also a temporal dimensions (protecting the future) … (173) • How does global north citizenship status perpetuate historical inequalities? • How does immigration control further perpetuate these inequalities? • How does it “naturalize’ them? • What are the implications of immigration controls’ spatial and temporal dimensions? Amrita Pande Wombs in Labor: Transnational Surrogacy in India Lecture/Discussion 1 India 7th largest country by area 2nd most populous country: 1.271 billion (2015) 50% population below age 25 80% Hindu, 13.5% Muslim 33% less than $1.25 a day 80% literacy rate sex ratio 1000 men to 933 women India after 1500 Mughal Empire (1524-1737) Muslim rulers Northern and Central India Maratha Empire (1674-1818) Hindu rulers Central and Southern India British East India Company (1757-1857) 1857 Indian Rebellion British Raj (Empire) (1858-1947) Independent India (1947 to present) Partition of India and Pakistan (1947) Secession of Bangladesh (1971) Right: Gandhi, Nehru, Indira Gandhi Hindu Nationalism: Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party) below left: Prime Minister Narendra Modi (since 2014) below left: Pop singer Smita’s BJP album cover video for title track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmkrP34fJv0 Wombs in Labor Surrogacy in the Media (in India and outside) Pick up the right issue of the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, New York Times, Marie Claire, or even better, switch to the right television channel, and you will get an update on surrogacy in India. An Oprah Winfrey segment on surrogacy clinics in India spread the news so effectively that it increased some clinics’ international clientele exponentially. Invariably these media reports on surrogacy start with a description of the crowded streets, the filth, and the pigs going through the trash outside the clinic, and then move on to the swollen stomachs of these enterprising-though-illiterate Indian women and to their life stories filled with drunken husbands and desperate poverty. The reporters note the not insignificant cost difference of surrogacy … Indian women in these journalistic accounts are almost uniformly portrayed as grateful recipients of the opportunity to serve as surrogates and earn more money that they would earn in more than ten years. The cameras give us a close-up of a shy smile on the face of the surrogate, a wider smile on the doctor’s face, and a final shot of the beaming California mother holding her chubby newborn. (4-5) • Why are the media so fascinated with transnational surrogacy? • How do their portrayals reinforce Western stereotypes about India? About Indian women? • How do they frame the story of transnational surrogacy? • What is left out of that framing? Surrogacy Surrogacy Laws around the World Dark Blue: Both gainful and altruistic forms are legal; Medium Blue: No legal regulation; Light Blue: Only altruistic is legal; Light Purple: Allowed between relatives up to second degree of consanguinity; Red: Banned; Gray: Unregulated/uncertain situation Surrogacy as a Transnational Business https://www.surrogacyindiadelhi.com/ See: Surrogacy>Surrogacy Process http://surrogacycentreindia.com/ * See: Blogs and Testimonials http://ivf-surrogate.com/ * (This is the clinic where Pande did her research; upper right: Dr. Patel, lower right: Akanksha Hospital) Surrogacy as a Transnational Business Oprah Winfrey segment on “Wombs for Rent” (right) http://www.oprah.com/world/wombsfor-rent BBC article on surrogacy (sympathetic) http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine24275373 Family Blog about Surrogacy Experience http://ourjourneytosurrogacyinindia.bl ogspot.com/ Surrogacy on the Web Youtube news video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKLTldbV8PA (NBC story on Indian surrogacy)* Youtube surrogacy promotion videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqZb3mT5Tqs (Indian surrogacy promotion short) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4UkTp7_lM (Dr. Patel defends surrogacy)* Youtube exposés of surrogacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUN2_sy3wtA (Innocent Casualties of Surrogacy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__72FpOaJPg (Australian documentary on surrogacy in Thailand) Russian Documentary on Surrogacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSXZSdMmRdg Be sure to watch the entire video (if you miss it in class). Pay special attention to: 1) Perspective of prospective mothers 2) Perspective of surrogates and their families 3) Perspective of medical practitioners 4) Issues of stigma and stigma management 5) Disciplinary strategies of surrogacy clinics and hostels
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Running head: GLOBAL GENDER ISSUES: FINAL ESSAY

Global Gender Issues: Final Essay

Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

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GLOBAL GENDER ISSUES: FINAL ESSAY

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Global Gender Issues: Final Essay

Various factors have influenced motherhood, family, and reproduction in this concern.
This can be explained in broader categories. They are as described below.
Immigration has had a conventional understanding of reproduction, motherhood, and
family in various ways. Most of the Nigerian and Indian immigrant women in Ireland were
stereotyped, especially basing on their roles in reproduction through excessive fertility
(Luibheid, 2013). Through this, most of them were criticized based on their way of life, both
from a biological and cultural perspective. Irish women had some different sorts of rhetoric,
including racial degeneration, their religious groups, unfair demands for resources, and lack
of control over their bodies (Luibheid, 2013). This means that such factors controlled how
most of the Irish women reproduced. Also, this impacts how others viewed them. They were
believed to have numerous children.
These immigrant mothers moving to Ireland had to comply with the societal roles of
Irish women. Most of the women in Ireland were all concerned with the role of being wives,
giving birth, and staying at home (Luibheid, 2013). It implies that most of the women were
slaves of their own homes. The constitution of the Republic of Ireland was not concerned
about sexual normalizing. The religion of Catholic also guided how the women interacted and
lived in the families. Through this religion of Catholic, the family under the religion is a very
important unit group of society, and where the laws developed are superior (Luibheid, 2013).
The women lived under such rules that were set by Catholics, hence having some impacts on
the family. The family is protected and given priority (Luibheid, 2013). However, the
expansion and political invasion have determined the way the values of Irish women, where
most immigrants were recruited, resulted in the mixing of people from different cultural
concerns.

GLOBAL GENDER ISSUES: FINAL ESSAY

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This is the second concept that has been used through the media, which defines the
roles of media in spreading the news. The news is spread regarding various factors affecting
women (Pande, n.d). The media report provides different types of information, mainly
revealing a negative picture of pregnant women in India (Pande, n.d). The surrogacy in the
media also reveals that most of the women in India are illiterate and that their...


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