MEANINGS OF SOCIAL INCLUSION FOR MIGRANT WOMEN: AN EXPLORATION IN GROUP MIGRANT WOMEN

Migrant women are at risk of social exclusion because of the intersection of gender and racial discrimination (Bello, 2020). Additionally, they haven’t access to technology resources (Dlamini, 2021) that can, instead, favour social inclusion processes (Alegría et al., 2017). In migration studies, there is a lack of attention toward migrant women meanings of feeling included and their experiences about relationships between gender and social inclusion in offline and online contexts. Through an intersectional perspective, fifteen focalized open interviews (Arcidiacono, 2016) were conducted with migrant women from different countries to explore their meaning of inclusiveness processes. We explored: 1) their own experience of inclusion; 2) the impact of the gender dimension; 3) the impact of technologies. Participants, aged 21- 47 years (M: 33.66), were recruited by snowball sampling among local associations and informal knowledge networks. Interviews were analysed through grounded theory methodology (Strauss, 2008) and initial findings highlight the influence of the culture in the local receiving context and the representation of foreigners in general and specifically concerning their origin. Services’ culture and bureaucratic acts connote the interviewees' sense of marginality. The infantilization of migrants is a symbolic barrier that reiterates the power dynamics between natives and non-natives. From a gender perspective, the continued sexualization and tendency to relegate migrant women exclusively to care and domestic works are emphasized. Among the resources of technology, possible linguistic and informational help and the possibility of consulting special forums where people exchange useful experiences are emphasized.