Exploring the valued participation of female refugees from Muslim countries within a Dutch emancipation and integration policy context.

Abstract

Due to shifting goals in Dutch emancipation and integration policies, these two have become inextricably linked, focussing on the emancipation of refugee women from Muslim countries. Emancipation means abandoning presumed traditional gender role patterns in exchange for egalitarian gender role patterns, allowing these women to participate in Dutch society, which equates to participating in paid employment and becoming financially independent. Due to these assumptions about refugee women from Muslim countries and a unilateral focus on labour market participation, what is valued by women themselves regarding participation is often ignored. This case study uses a Capability Approach to gain insight into what female refugees from Muslim countries value in terms of participation in the Netherlands, how this relates to what policies expect from them and how differences between the two can be explained. Secondary analysis of interview data from refugee women who fled from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Somalia is used to investigate their valued participation. Results show that the valued participation of female refugees in the Netherlands is multi-facetted with a strong focus on contributing to the lives of others. Women define societal participation beyond having paid work, the ultimate Dutch policy goal. Differences between policy standards and valued participation of refugee women can explained by looking at factors that underlie valued participation, including egalitarian gender norms and the ability to give back. While both female refugees and emancipation policy focus on the importance of egalitarian gender roles, refugee women take a broader view and find it important that women have the freedom to choose options other than paid work. This stands in contrast to what Dutch emancipation policy requires from women from Muslim backgrounds.