The gendered impact of migrant integration policies in three regions of Belgium

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This research project aims to understand the gendered and intersectional implications of migrant integration policies and practices. More specifically, the project aims to investigate how civic integration measures, such as migrant integration courses, impact on women in comparison to men. It will look at the experiences of different non-EU migrants in three regions in Belgium: Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders. As Belgium is a federal country, there are separate migrant integration policies in each region. Migrant integration courses are offered in Brussels by both the Flemish and francophone communities, which non-EU migrants are not currently obliged to follow, although this is set to change in 2017. This research will fill important gaps in the gender and migration literature in two main ways.Firstly it will contribute to a gendered and intersectional approach to the study of migrant integration policy and practices. Secondly, it will be ground-breaking by investigating migrants' perspectives on the integration process, a bottom-up approach that is currently lacking in the literature. It will make use of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, the 'What's the Problem Presented to be' (WPR) and an Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) Framework to analyse policy discourse on migrant integration, using intersectional feminist theory and a constructivist approach. The analysis will follow a deductive approach to test a hypothesis that Belgian integration policies mainly place the burden on migrant women, in comparison with men, to 'adapt' and 'change'. By carrying out in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus-groups with different migrants, it then will aim to take a theory-building approach to the gendered impact of the integration trajectories in the multi-regional context in Belgium. It is a critical point in time to conduct this project. In 2016 Wallonia introduced a compulsory integration course for non-EU migrants, which has already been the case in Flanders since 2004. Brussels is also set to introduce compulsory integration courses in the course of 2017. The gendered and intersectional impact of integration policies is currently an under-researched area in general, and has never been researched in the Belgian context. Surprisingly, the voices of migrants themselves are absent in both academic and policy debate. This study aims to contribute to filling both of these gaps. Research QuestionHow does the political framing of gender norms and relations in integration policies affect non-EU men and women migrants across Belgian regions?Sub questions1) How are gender norms and gender relations conceptualised in the integration policies and policy debates in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels?2) How is the integration process, including the representation of gender norms and relations, experienced by men and women migrants across the different regions and does it privilege or disadvantage certain groups of migrants?3) How does the framing (problematising) of gender norms and gender relations in integration policies reflect in migrant conceptions of 'integration' and their formation of (transnational and transcultural) identities?