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This article was downloaded by: [177.83.194.29]On: 15 May 2014, At: 16:08Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
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Flexible and Strategic Masculinities:
The Working Lives and Gendered
Identities of Male Migrants in LondonDr. Adina Batnitzky , Prof. Linda McDowell & Dr Sarah Dyer
Published online: 12 Aug 2009.
To cite this article:Dr. Adina Batnitzky , Prof. Linda McDowell & Dr Sarah Dyer (2009) Flexible andStrategic Masculinities: The Working Lives and Gendered Identities of Male Migrants in London,
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35:8, 1275-1293, DOI: 10.1080/13691830903123088
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691830903123088
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Flexible and Strategic Masculinities:The Working Lives and GenderedIdentities of Male Migrants in London
Adina Batnitzky, Linda McDowell and Sarah Dyer
It is well established that the workplace provides an important site for the production
of gender identities. However, it is less-well understood how this identity construction
might operate in the context of migrant workers, who bring with them particular notions
of gender from their countries of origin that interact with local gender practices.
Through an in-depth case study of a London hotel and hospital, masculinity and
economic status were observed to be intricately related in the ways in which male
migrants described their work performances in terms of either womens work or lower-
class work. Men originating from middle- and upper-class economic positions were
observed to be flexible with their economic identity and take on work considered lower-class in their country of origin in order to contest their gender identities in the UK. In
contrast, men who migrated for economic gain and had family obligations to send
remittances were observed to be strategically flexible with their gender identities and
often performed what they considered to be womens work in order to be able to fulfil
economic expectations. We suggest that a migrants willingness and/or desire to enact
flexible and strategic masculinities is tied to the perceived trade-offs of his/her
employment in the UK.
Keywords: Masculinity; Migration; Labour; Gender; Class
Adina Batnitzky is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Texas at Austin, Correspondence to:
Dr. A. Batnitzky, Dept of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, GRG 224, 1 University
Station A3100, Austin, TX 78712, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. Linda McDowell is Professor
in the School of Geography at the University of Oxford. Correspondence to: Prof. L. McDowell, School of
Geography, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK. Email: linda.mcdowell@
ouce.ox.ac.uk. Sarah Dyer is Hallsworth Research Fellow in Geography at the University of Manchester.
Correspondence to: Dr S. Dyer, Dept of Geography, School of Environment and Development, University ofManchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
ISSN 1369-183X print/ISSN 1469-9451 online/09/081275-19 # 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13691830903123088
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Vol. 35, No. 8, September 2009, pp. 12751293
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Introduction
It is now widely understood that the gender identities of employees are actively
constructed in the workplace (Collinson and Hearn 1996; Guerrier and Adib 2004;
Kerfoot and Korczynski 2005; Novarra 1980). Drawing on earlier work such asPringles study of secretaries (1989), gender is now widely conceptualised as fluid and
mutable in analyses of differential performances in numerous occupations (Acker
1990; Schoenberger 1994). Studies have demonstrated how conventional attributes of
hegemonic gender identity and a dominant version of heterosexuality are performed
and confirmed in daily and institutional practices in workplaces in ways that benefit
certain bodies (Halford 2003; Leidner 1991; McDowell 1997). However, it is less
understood how this identity construction might operate in the context of migrant
workers, who bring with them particular notions of gender from their countries of
origin that interact with local gender practices in the receiving country.
Underlying both the structural and the cultural explanations for how a gender-
segregated UK labour force is maintained is the observation that jobs themselves
embody idealised aspects of masculinity and femininity (Crompton 1999; McDowell
1997). Organisations draw upon particular performances of masculine and feminine
identities which impact on individual constructions of identity (Halford 2003). The
workplace provides an important site for the production of gender identities as it is
there that dominance and subordination are themes of overarching importance
(West and Zimmerman 1987).
An important feature of organisational life involves the management of particular
gender identities and their corresponding bodies (Casey 1995; Du Gay 1996; Sennett
1998). This often takes the form of the management of certain forms of
masculinity*particularly in traditionally male-dominated industries such as banking
and car manufacturing (Collinson and Hearn 1996; Messerschmidt 1996; Roper
1992)*as well as mens attempts to map conventional characteristics of masculinity
onto a range of less-obviously male jobs such as insurance selling (Leidner 1991)
and on to feminine jobs such as secretarial work (Pringle 1989).
Service-sector jobs are typically considered to be feminine because they often
draw on skills related to deference and servility, as well as empathy with others needs.
Thus, for men undertaking this type of work, the result is often a form of dissonance,as it challenges their sense of themselves as masculine (McDowell 2003; Pettinger
2005). Scholars interested in the feminisation of customer-service work have most
often turned to studies of flight attendants and call centres as sites where we can
understand the relationship between embodied labour and gender (Callaghan and
Thompson 2002; Durbin 2002; Korczynski 2003; Tyler and Taylor 1998; Williams
2003). The literature on men doing womens work has primarily concentrated on
male nurses, air stewards and tour representatives, but rarely have these studies
included migrant men (Cross and Bagilhole 2002; Floge and Merrill 1986; Guerrier
and Adib 2004; Lupton 2000, 2006; Mills 1998; Segal 1962; Williams 1995).
1276 A. Batnitzky, L. McDowell & S. Dyer
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There has been a rapid growth in the service sector in the UK that has resulted in
the creation of low-paid, part-time, non-unionised and precarious forms of work
(Castells 2000; Green 2006; McDowell 2003). In fact, recent economic growth in the
UK has been largely attributed to a strong service sector (BBC 2006). Yet, this has also
been coupled with high rates of unemployment in the UK, particularly for men.Recent figures document that men are more likely to experience long-term
unemployment than women (EOC 2006). British-born men in the UK have not
entered the service sector at the same rate as women, despite their higher rates of
unemployment. This has not been the case in other European countries such as Italy
and Spain, two countries also experiencing high rates of male unemployment.
According to Meadows (1996), unemployed Italian and Spanish men are willing to
take jobs traditionally held by women, compared with the unwillingness of British
men to do womens work. In Britain, it seems that, rather than large numbers
of British-born men moving into service-sector vacancies, the sector is nowcharacterised by high numbers of male and female migrant workers, occupying the
lower levels of the occupational hierarchy in terms of wage, status and authority.
Migrant workers are employed in increasing numbers in the UK hospitality and
health sectors. For example, over 60 per cent of the total employees in London hotels are
migrants and more than 50 per cent of new nurse registrants in 2001 in the UK were
foreign-trained (Rosset al. 2005; Salt and Millar 2006). However, social scientists have
yet to fully conceptualise what this might mean for migrants gender identities and
work performances. In particular, the interactions between migration and masculinity
have been neglected (Charsley 2005; Gamburd 2000; Osella and Osella 2000), although
it has been recognised that migrant men may be disadvantaged in the growing service-
sector economy in the UK because of issues with skills transfer from their countries of
origin (Raghuram 2004). However, the (lack of) recognition of skills and credentials
affects women migrants too. What has not been widely explored is the extent to which
migration and the resulting position in the labour force challenges or reinforces
migrant mens sense of themselves as masculine. Migration might, on the one hand,
challenge masculine identities as migrant men move into feminised slots in the
workplace. On the other hand, it might permit them to escape dominant or traditional
notions of masculinity inculcated in their countries of origin.
The context of temporary migration offers a particular transitional situation inwhich the opportunity exists for the renegotiation of certain gender identities
through employment or what we refer to as flexible and strategic masculinities.
Temporary migration, in particular, might allow for some aspects of gendered
identities to be put on hold for the duration of stay in the country of destination.
We examine this process among male migrants employed in the service sector in a
West London hotel and hospital.
Our aim is to explore the ways in which migrant men conceptualise the
relationship between their dominant gender identities and their current workplace-
based identities, and to assess how changes in economic status interact with the
renegotiation of gender identities and expectations. In the next section, we suggest a
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framework through which to understand the relationship between gender identities,
migration and employment. We suggest that migrant men draw reference points
located elsewhere to reduce the dissonance between their gender and their work
performances; the physical distance between migrant mens current workplace and
their place of birth creates a unique space for the renegotiation and production offlexible and strategic masculinities that allow them to make sense of their temporary
location in low-wage, low-status work in the UK.
Gender Identities, Migration and Employment
Migration creates specific dilemmas and contradictory situations that disturb
established notions about gender, social class and race (Hugo 2000). Conceptualising
migration as a social process that transforms gender relationships is crucial in any
understanding of the labour-force experiences of migrant men and women. This is
particularly important in understanding the workplace location and identities of
men and women who originate from countries with significantly different gender
relations to the UK, where migration results in a transformation of their economic
circumstances and often downward class mobility. Yet, the mechanisms through which
migration transforms, challenges or reaffirms gender relationships, identities,
expectations and practices are not well established. Migration may act as a provider
of agency for men and women, which empowers them to become more autonomous
and independent, or it may disempower them. Migrants may feel stranded or
disoriented; alternatively they may draw on myths and memories of home and its
traditional ideals, and develop material networks of co-nationals to provide securityand reinforce established identities. The notion that migration and adaptation to new
countries with different social and economic conditions inevitably transforms migrants
so they ressemble people in the host country has been clearly challenged by the
extensive literature on transnationalism (Alba and Nee 2003; Glick Schiller
et al. 1995; Portes et al. 2002; Vertovec and Cohen 1999). Contemporary migrants
both adapt to their new circumstances and preserve aspects of culture and social
organisation from their places of origin. We suggest that the context of temporary
migration provides a particularly clear example of this process.
The connections between temporary migration and gender identities*
though stillan under-theorised area*have been explored in greater detail for female than for
male migration. According to Hugo (2000), migration might be both a cause and
consequence of female empowerment through its material outcome*often in the
form of employment*and its normative consequences, characterised by changes in
the norms and values associated with appropriate roles for men and women. Pedraza
(1991) suggests that these changes are contingent on the motivation underlying shifts
in womens employment activities. She argues that female labour-force participation
often reinforces womens primary identities as mothers and wives because their
employment is most often based on need rather than choice in the immigrant
context. This often results in immigrant women assuming what Hochschild (1997)
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refers to as the double shift, in which women have the double burden of work both
outside and inside the home. Hugo, however, asserts that employment, regardless of
the motivation, provides women with a new status that challenges their traditional
roles (2000). In this sense, participating in activities outside the domestic sphere is
portrayed as empowering in itself and its effects may spill over to other aspects ofhousehold life.
Important effects of migration, as a result of increased female labour-force
participation in the country of destination, were observed by Grasmuck and Pessar
(1991) among women from the Dominican Republic, such as them gaining
additional power to make important household decisions. This adjustment in
traditional family relations transformed patriarchal roles in the household: the
womens self-esteem was heightened; their capacity to participate as equals in
household decision-making was enhanced; and they secured more income with
which to actualise their roles. In this sense, migration operated as a facilitator ofempowerment by changing the accessible spaces available to women. We seek to
understand these processes in terms of male migration, examining how migration
might facilitate mens renegotiation of gender identities, expectations and practices.
We suggest that migration may have positive benefits for some men, permitting them
to evade patriarchal controls established in the country of origin as well as to
renegotiate the patterns of male dominance among migrant men that are implied in
the literature outlined above on migrant womens gender identities.
In one of the few studies to focus on men, Lomsky-Feder and Rapoport (2003)
explored how Russian Jewish male immigrants interpret local masculinity in the
context of the Israeli army. They suggest that situations in which masculinity is
uprooted from its indigenous cultural context and placed in contact with other
models of masculinity provide important insights into the issue ofbeing a manand
the construction of manhood(Lomsky-Feder and Rapoport 2003: 114). Their study
is one of the few to examine gender identities in the context of transitional
situations such as migration. Asian-American men have also been the focus of several
studies on masculinity. Chua and Fujinos (1999) study of Asian-American men
found that, in contrast to white American men, Asian-American males did not
conceptualise their masculinity in opposition to femininity. However, other studies of
men doing womens work have shown that such men are often assumed to behomosexual and so positioned as inferior or as a perverse masculinity (Kang 1997,
2003; Manalansan 2003, 2006; Morgan 1992; Williams 1993).
Challenges to established notions of masculinity are perhaps particularly heightened
in the context of migration. It has been suggested that the migration process accelerates
an individuals progress along a culturally idealized trajectory towards mature
manhood (Osella and Osella 2000: 118). In part, this has been attributed to the
significant relationship between masculinity and the accumulation of wealth that
typically occurs through migration (Osella and Osella 2000; George 2000). In their
study of Indian migrants to the Gulf, Osella and Osella demonstrate howdisplays of
substantial cash wealth emerge as important displays of masculine power and agency
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 1279
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(2000: 119). They describe how the migration process maintains the prestige of male
migrants bysplitting the moment and site of wealth accumulation from its moment of
consumption, enabling and encouraging a focus upon the result, cash earned(2000:
121). Even for men who experience downward social and occupational mobility on
migration, differences in wage levels between home and the receiving country maypermit them to bolster their sense of male identity by displays of conspicuous
consumption.
In this paper we examine the experience of migrant men in the UK, questioning
the relationship between migration, labour-force participation and gender iden-
tities, expectations and practices. In particular, we are interested in whether (and
how) migration allows men to renegotiate their gendered identities, practices and
family expectations. We suggest that the concept of flexible and strategic
masculinities is a way to understand the gendered and class-based performances
of these particular migrant men in the UK. We draw from Chua and Fujinos(1999) use of flexible masculinity as a way to signify a move away from a male-
dominant form of masculinity. However, we take this concept further and suggest
that a flexible masculinity also implies an element of strategy in the context of
migration. Migrant men are able to put aspects of their gender identities on hold
for the duration of their stay in the country of destination, strategically selecting
and emphasising aspects that will benefit them in the labour market. These flexible
and strategic masculinities might take the form of the complicit masculinity,
defined by Connell and Messerschmidt as men who received the benefit of
patriarchy without enacting a strong version of masculine dominance (2005: 836).
Alternatively, these masculinities might reflect degrees of divergence from the
hegemonic masculine practices in the country of origin. In both cases, gendered
performances in the workplace interact with class position, articulating loosely with
the practical constitution of masculinities as ways of living in everyday local
circumstances (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005: 840).
It is clear that migrants typically make social and personal sacrifices in the process
of migration, in order to achieve both immediate economic benefits (above all, the
ability to send remittances) and to build future human capital (e.g. learning English,
educational opportunities for children) in a form of trade-off (Shumway and Hall
1996; Tienda and Wilson 1992). This notion of a trade-off or compromise providesan analytical tool for understanding how migrants construct flexible and strategic
gender identities that might seem to contradict beliefs and norms expressed about
masculinity and its attributes. As Gilmore (1991) observed, many societies ask men to
continually prove themselves through a series of tests of manhood. He describes
thesetestsas requiring men to bepublicly on view and having the courage to expose
oneself to risk(1991: 36). Migrant men often have to accept a testthat might seem
to contradict their sense of themselves as men.
To explore these contradictions, we adopt Piores (1979) concept of a dual frame
of reference. Piore suggested that migrants look to their countries of origin and of
destination as part of their process of identity formation. Drawing on his original
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formulation, other scholars such as Waldinger (1986) and Waters (1999) have
employed this conceptual framework to examine immigrant identities and under-
standings of migrantsworking lives in a host country. Following Kerfoot and Knights
(1993, 1994, 1995), we argue that individual gender identities are constructed
through the local organisational discourses of masculinity and femininity, as well asthrough other resources such as social class, family, gender and generation
(Demetriou 2001; Halford 2003) in the country of origin.
Data and Methods
This paper is based on qualitative research conducted as part of a study of the large
NHS West Central Hospital or WCH in West London*a public organisation*and a
non-unionised major branch of an international hotel chain*Bellman International
or BI*
with very high occupancy, selected as the private organisation. These twoorganisations were chosen to enable us to explore the changing working lives of
skilled and unskilled migrant workers from recent and past migrant and settler
communities in West London. The paper draws from a sub-sample of 120 in-depth
interviews, lasting approximately 60 minutes each, with migrant men and women
at all levels of employment at BI and WCH. The recruitment of participants was
undertaken directly with employees or through the assistance of mid-level manage-
ment. Interviews usually took place in a neutralspace, for example in nearby cafes.
A basic interview schedule was followed, but respondents were free to raise any topic
that they felt was relevant. Issues concerning gender identity, expectations and
practices were operationalised in practice through the responses to questions about
family obligations and expectations; gender differences between the countries of
origin and of destination; and attitudes towards the household division of labour. All
interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed.
Table 1 illustrates the migrant composition of the sample. Among the 60 hotel
interviews, 23 countries were represented; the 60 hospital interviewees originated
from 30 countries. This paper, based on 30 in-depth interviews with migrant men
Table 1. Percentage of nationals in total hotel and hospital sample
Nationality Hotel Hospital
Western European 17.2 8.6Eastern European (A8)* 24.1 3.4Eastern European (non-A8) 8.6 0.0Indian/South Asian 29.3 27.6African 8.6 19.0Filipino 0.0 8.6Caribbean 0.0 13.8North American 0.0 10.3Other 12.1 8.6
Note: *A8 countries refer to the eight former Communist states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary,Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia) which became full EU members in May 2004.
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working in the fields of nursing, cleaning or food preparation, includes men from 12
countries. All respondents migrated to the UK on a temporary basis and explicitly
expressed plans to either return to their country of origin, migrate elsewhere or
remain in the UK on a temporary-visa basis. We selected this sub-set of jobs because
they have historically been occupied predominantly by women in the UK and are thusstill considered as feminine. The names of the respondents have been changed for
purposes of confidentiality.
Main Findings
Masculinity and economic status were observed to be intricately related in the ways in
which the male migrants described their work performances at both BI and WCH.
The motivation for migration and the economic position held in the country of
origin influenced the ways in which respondents talked about their workplaceidentities in the UK. Both class and gender dissonance were common, depending on
whether interviewees constructed their current jobs and their workplace performance
as eitherwomens workor lower-class work. For instance, migrant men originating
from middle- and upper-class economic positions with no financial obligations to
their families in the sending country were observed to be flexible with their
economic identity, able to accept and perform work that would be considered lower-
class back home, but which allowed them to challenge accepted gendered identities
in positive ways. In contrast, lower-class migrant men who migrated for economic
gain and/or who fulfilled family obligations to send remittances were observed to be
strategicallyflexible with their gender identities, performing what they considered to
be womens work in order to meet their economic obligations.
Evading the Social Controls of Patriarchy and Economic Class: The Performance
of Flexible Masculinities
For many of the middle- and upper-class men we interviewed, migration facilitated
their ability to renegotiate their gender identities in the UK. Men, like women, can be
empowered through the migration process, perhaps through the absence or loosening
of traditional patriarchal social controls. Henryk, for example, a 21-year-old Polishman working in the kitchen at BI, describes his primary motivation for migration to
the UK as getting away from the social control exercised by his father, especially over
his sons career choice. His father said to him Henryk, you must go to business
school because after, you take over my company. Instead, Henryk wanted to attend
catering school*seen as a feminised choice by his father*and so he decided the only
alternative was to migrate to the UK. He recounts that his desire to work as a chef
started at a young age: When I was a young boy, I want to be kitchen chef so when
I finish my first school, I started kitchen school but my father change it. Henryk
claims that only through migration was he able to construct his preferred version of
masculinity, rather than conform to his fathers version, a class-based masculine
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obligation that involved the inheritance of the family business. He has no plans to
return to Poland and hopes eventually to pursue a career as both a chef and an artist
in Australia.
Mohamed illustrates similar themes. A 29-year-old male catering manager at
WCH, he was born in Algeria and migrated to France during his teenage years. Hehad never worked before arriving in the UK eight years ago because Id been enjoying
life, clubbing, moneys there, I was confronted to that reality of working and my first
job wasnt that enjoyable, I start with Burger King. He describes himself as from an
upper-class family which owns houses throughout France. He attributes his
motivation for migration to the UK to this hunger I had to feed myself with
something new, not with money, but with life. Although he recognised that he could
just as easily have worked at Burger King in France, he explains that the social
controls of his family, and particularly of his father, would not have allowed him to
do so. He told us that he moved to the UK both to delay marriage and to be able toleave university and work in a job that would allow him to use his hands. In this way,
migration to the UK facilitated, though perhaps for a temporary period only, the
performance of a flexible masculinity that was different from the idealised version he
would be expected to perform if he remained in France. His father required
Mohamed to conform to the middle-class ideal of rational and cerebral masculinity
dominant in French professional life and become a banker. Although Mohamed
intends to return to France, his migration experience highlights how complex notions
of ideal masculinity and familial class expectation result in a conflict for individuals
as well as within their families.
Jay, a 24-year-old Indian restaurant supervisor at BI, is also a migrant from a
middle-class family who has reconstructed his sense of masculinity through
participation in low-wage, menial work. He describes the contrasts between his
middle-class lifestyle in India and his current life in the UK.
My social life has come to a standstill. I used to do my body building but everythinghas come down, it actually has affected my social life and my private life you know,its kind of pretty okay, Ive had my good time, these are times that I need toactually work so I dont mind. I worked as a room attendant for a month . . .It wasfun, just to know how, I mean it is a lot of hard work and just to clean the whole
room is a lot of hard work, it was nice.
In exchange for participating in what would be considered lower-class workin India,
through migration Jay is able to accelerate his progress along theculturally idealized
trajectory towards mature manhood, earning what seemed to him high wages for
inferior work (Osella and Osella 2000). He recounts:The idea that at a young age we
could make this kind of money was a new thing for me. So that was the key reason
that pulled me to London.
These three migrant men combine a classed and gendered identity in new and
different ways in the UK which, paradoxically, both challenge and reinforce dominant
views of hegemonic masculinity. It is clear that their migration experiences are a
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complex intersection of class and gender location both there and here, following
Ackers recognition thatWhat looks like class from one conceptual point of view may
look like gender and/or race from another point of view(2000: 211).Migrants often
become particularly aware of the relational and contextual nature of gender as they
attempt to fulfill expectations of identity and behaviour that may differ sharply in theseveral places they live(Donatoet al. 2006: 6). In the context of our study, we argue
that what it means to be a male migrant is based on signifiers tied to class status in
the country of origin. We suggest that changes to economic identity might permit
changes in gender identity for migrant men.
The case of Ali, a 30-year-old Indian man who pushes the catering cart at WCH,
illustrates a less-successful re-negotiation of class and gender identity, as his
employment challenges his idealised notions of middle-class masculine responsi-
bilities. Ali migrated to the UK as part of an arranged marriage. His wife, although of
Indian origin, is a UK-educated British citizen. According to Ali, she tried living in
India but found it too difficult, so they moved to Britain. He shared the story of his
first job which, he said, would be considered lower-class work in India.
First when I came here, I tried to get a job. First I got the job in a chicken shop . . .in India we are a very rich family, my father has a lot of money and my brothersthey are doing very well in business and just enjoying life. When I came here andwent for job, the manager, he said Okay, take a mop go outside, clean all tables and
just take the rubbish bags, and I was shocked. We are, in our country, if youre richyouve got a lot of people to work for you . . .but here you have to do everythingyourself. We are different culture, different things, I was very surprised.
Paralleling the splitting process described by Osella and Osella (2000), Ali
concealed the details of his job from his father in India and initially attempted to do
the same with his wife. She worked in a professional occupation before the birth of
their child and, at the time of the interview, was upgrading her skills though a
computer training course. Her economic success challenges Alis version of masculine
responsibility to provide for the family and required a negotiation between husband
and wife in which Ali decided to concede to his wifes decisions, despite her
willingness to compromise.
She [his wife] knows whats going on. She come to me and she sayWhat happened,why you so upset, anything wrong? I said No; she said No, I know why youreupset, . . .you didnt do anything like that, thats the reason isnt it? I said Yeah.I dont like that, she said,what you think you want to go back (India) with us? Its
your choice, whatever you want, this is hard. I said No. Im gonna do becauseI know youre fond of it here.
Charsleys (2005) study of Pakistani men describes how marriage migration might
limit a migrant mans ability to fulfil his masculine roles. Like the Pakistani men
Charsley describes, Ali felt it was his duty both as a son and a husband to do whatever
it takes to support his family, even if the work challenges his class identity. As Ali
explains clearly:
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. . . so I start working and I said to my father . . .he ask me What you doing?,I said, Dont ask me what Im doing here, and he say Its life . . . I was doingeverything for you but now you got your family and you are responsible person, sodo your responsibility like me, I do for you so if you want make me happy then do
your responsibility nicely, Ill be happy.
Masculinity and Remittances: The Performance of Strategic Masculinities in
Exchange for Economic Gain
In this section we further explore the gendered connections between low-wage work
and migrant mens sense of identity. Whereas Ali emphasised the negative con-
sequences of downward social mobility, other men whom we interviewed focused on
the positive and negative gendered consequences of doing what they recognised is
constructed as womens work in the UK. Drawing on Castells (2000) concept ofgeneric labour, we argue that some migrant men are prepared to perform any type of
job, even if it is consideredwomens work, in order to facilitate their initial migration
to the UK, economically survive there and/or send remittances to their country of
origin. This flexibility results in the performance of a strategic masculinity that differs
from the versions of masculinity that are more usual in the country of origin.
The narrative of Hafid, a French-university-educated Moroccan man aged 40 who
is working as a supervisor in the domestic department at WCH, illustrates the
strategic trade-off that becomes possible through the performance of a flexible gender
identity in exchange for the ability to fulfil his family obligation to send remittances.
Hafid initially worked as a domestic in the same department and has worked his wayup the promotion ladder. He recalls that, when he worked as a cleaner at the hospital,
the satisfactory performance of his work tasks was in direct conflict with his concept
of masculinity. He recounts that in Morocco the women in his family would not have
allowed him to clean:
They wont allow it and especially in the kitchen, they will say the kitchen is meantfor women, if you go in the kitchen and try to cook or try to wash plates, they willtell you Can you come out of my space? because its their own space.
Yet, like some of the other men whose gender identities in the UK are not congruentwith those in their countries of origin, Hafid now holds a more egalitarian attitude
towards the gender division of household labour. As he jokes,First of all I have to say
that Im not in Morocco at the moment!.
According to Hafid, before migrating he knew that cleaning would be the type of
work he could find easily in the UK. Even before I come to this country, in Morocco,
they said Listen, if you go to Europe, like a domestic or sweeping the roads or
whatever, you will find a job quickly [respondent snaps his fingers] because the
English people they dont want to do this type of job. Despite possessing post-school
credentials, he was able to rationalise his work as a cleaner by asserting We need
money to survive so it didnt matter what type of job. Like the other migrant men we
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spoke with, working as a cleaner was not part of Hafids planned career trajectory;
instead, he wanted to be a teacher. However, in the UK Hafid is willing to perform
what would be considered womens work in Morocco in order to be able to send
remittances home and so fulfil an aspect of his masculine identity that is constructed
through notions of familial obligations. In addition, because he regards his work inthe UK as temporary, he compromises his gender identity in the short term.
Hafiz, a 40-year-old man born in Afghanistan and currently working as a domestic
at West Central Hospital, provided a similar narrative. He, too, described how he is
willing to do any job in the UK, even those considered womens workin Afghanistan
because:
I have a lot of problem . . .my wife, shes working very nicely . . . shes workingthere also doing cleaning, domestic and she take a salary and I take a salary, butreally madam, I can tell you the money . . .we cant save because all the money is
going for rental and for clothing, for the food and for the credit card, we pay that,all the money.
He explains that he has no choice but to work in two jobs at the same time because of
his duty to provide for his wife, herself a migrant, although from the Philippines.
Because I must do it because I love my wife, because she also works really hard, so we
want to finish our financial problem to make our life easy, this is my mission . Hafiz
explains that he does not feel fulfilled as a man because he cannot have a child due to
his poor financial situation. Nevertheless, he says that he is very happywith his job
as a cleaner, stating enthusiastically, I like this job, I love this job!. He is also aware
that his lack of education leaves him with few alternatives in the UK labour market.
I didnt go for study, if I take some education or something, so I can also, I can havesomething about the office work, but the problem because we didnt go for schoolwhat can I do, this is my job I can do it . . .I dont know anything so must I do iscleaning because I dont have a choice to go some other job.
Marvin, a 26-year-old male occupational therapist (OT) from the Philippines,
strategically chose to enter a traditionally female-dominated department in the health
sector in order to fulfil his masculine obligation to financially support his family.
He noted that, although being an OT is not considered a good job in the Philippines,it is a reasonably-high-status occupation in the UK. Nevertheless, Marvin recounts an
ongoing process of resistance, negotiation and accommodation between gendered
discourses from the Philippines that construct both nursing and health-related
semi-professions such as OT as gender-inappropriate careers for men, and his
attempts to construct a stable gender identity. A co-national colleague, Karen (age 28)
similarly confirmed Marvins belief that being an OT in the Philippines is not
considered a good job for a man:
For example, if youre a man they would think like engineer, architecture,
accountancy, something like that would be the very, very good job for a man.When you say occupational therapist, What is occupational therapist?, so not
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many people I have to say are aware of what we actually do, so I wouldn t say formen they would say that its a really good job, so no.
Being a minority at work, surrounded by women, is a challenge to Marvins daily
performance of masculinity.
I can say that OTs actually a womans world but this is just how this system isworking here, its kind of strange, well, I can adjust and I have adjusted so I haveadjusted, and then at first I was really like a bit shy, especially the experience withme in the dressing room because here in this building, male and female have thesame dressing room so its strange when youre changing.
To assert his gender difference, and masculine superiority, Marvin chose to wear a
different uniform from his women colleagues. Even here, however, his uncertain
masculine identity is challenged, this time because of his size rather than his gender.
Marvin is slightly built compared to British men and the uniform he was initially
given was too big for him. He hesitates to use the word small in his description of
his size, but he notes:
I was medium and I think Im still medium, Ive got the medium size but the length
is quite long because they have it based on the British size which is very tall, and soits like really huge for me, up to here, and then the sleeves are up to here, so I dontwant to be wearing that one . . .Id rather not wear it.
Instead he wears the green tunic and trousers which he feels place him at a
disadvantage in his department. By not wearing the proper uniform, patients mightassume he is just a technician or an assistant.
Yet, Marvin is able to fulfil one aspect of his masculine identity as a good sonby
sending money to his family in the Philippines:
Yeah, I do send money back home, its kind of hard to say but its like part of my
obligation . . .its my time to help them (parents) since my father is not workingany more, he has retired, although hes receiving his pension but I still wanted togive him.
Marvin chose to enter OT because it is a shortage sector in the UK. Thus, despite itbeing considered womens work in his country of origin, his decision was based on a
rational trade-off, illustrating Simpsons (2005) category of seekers or men who
actively choosefemaleoccupations. As Marvin commented,back home, they (men)
wanted to go abroad, so one of the reasons why they studied allied health professions
and nursing, the reason why is because they want to go abroad . Thus he chose OT,
despite really wanting to become an accountant; however, accountancy would not
have facilitated his migration to the UK and his ability to support his family.
A similar story of strategically entering nursing despite it being considered
womens work in their countries of origin was told by Reza and Vassilis, two male
nurses at WCH from Iran and Greece respectively. Vassilis, aged 36, notes that
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nursingis considered to be a female profession, I still see advertisements for female
nurses and Im just thinking whether those advertisements, they mean both sexes,
they didnt mean only female nurses. Yet he also claims that, in contrast to Greece,
Yes, I feel respected as a nurse in this country. Vassilis also acknowledges that For
some reason I think that some patients they still consider that male members of staffmight be doctors or they might be more senior or something like that, because they
still feel that nursing is a female profession. He is able to draw some of his status and
validation of his masculinity from assumptions such as these.
Reza, aged 32, acknowledges that, in Iran, nursing is not regarded as an appropriate
profession for a man. Comparing the UK and Iran, he says:
Actually here [UK] I think its much more open than back home because backhome nursing for men is not a very good job . . .you dont have a specific tag here,
just all theyre calling nurse, and its not very different for someone who is qualified,
who will study four years in nursing than someone just coming in after six monthsstarting as a nurse, but here I think theres much more pressure than back home.
Yet, he is able to construct his professional identity in light of the ways in which
some of his patients perceive him. I think the patient prefers to see (a woman) but
not all of them; for example, I had two patients today here, they came with a catheter
problem and it was a blocked catheter, and they were very happy with a man. Thus it
is clear that he is able to construct an occupational niche in nursing that is congruent
with his sense of masculinity.
For Hafid, Marvin, Vassilis and Reza, their current occupations were not their
first choice. Thus, the fact that they were not able to pursue their first career
choice was part of the reason why they had to or were able to adopt a flexible and
strategic version of masculinity in the UK. Reza, for example was unable to train
as a doctor. As he recounts, . . . in Iran, its very difficult, you should have a top
degree in secondary school to be able to study medicine and it s a very difficult
test . . . my nursing subject, that wasnt my top list. Based on Luptons concept of
a process of realignment (2000), we argue that these men reconstruct and interpret
their occupations in ways that are congruent with their sense of masculinity, part
of which is located in the fulfilment of economic obligations in their country of
origin.
Conclusion
This paper challenges understandings of identity as invariable or as a means through
which individuals are able to act consistently across places. Instead the narratives of
the migrant men in our case study demonstrate that identity is not an essential
attribute (Gibson-Graham 1996). Rather, gender identities are (re)negotiated in the
context of migration, often resulting in the production of flexible and strategic
masculinities distinct from those performed in the country of origin. This paper
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illustrates the complex process of negotiation and resistance that occurs as migrant
men construct, perform and (re)evaluate their particular gender identities, through
reflection on, reaction to or affirmation of gender identities in their countries of
origin in contrast to dominant gender systems in destination countries.
Gender is, of course, not independent of class and so different notions ofmasculinity among migrant men are also related to their past and previous economic
positions. For the men in our sample who had family obligations to send remittances,
migration allowed them to meet economic imperatives that were part of their
construction of an acceptable gender identity, while at the same time challenging
some of their previous assumptions about appropriate work for men. In this way, our
work supports other findings which have suggested thatWhat helps make migration
particularly relevant to masculinity is an enhanced relationship with money, a
detachable form of masculine potency and means of exerting agency at a distance
(Osella and Osella 2000: 128). We add to this observation that migration might alsobe relevant to masculinity in its ability to facilitate the renegotiation of gender
identities even when money is not directly involved. This was exemplified by the
narratives of middle- and upper-class men who migrated to the UK in order to evade
patriarchal social controls through, for example, an arranged marriage or entry into a
particular career. We have shown how multiple forms of masculinity are performed in
the daily working lives of migrant men, and how their labour-market experiences
provided them with an opportunity to display what Guerrier and Adib (2004: 336)
call a different masculinity.
These findings do not account for all the experiences of the migrant men in our case
study, but rather serve as a springboard from which we can begin to better conceptualise
the heterogeneity of migrant mens labour experiences in the UK and the ways in which
migration might create new spaces of social change. New questions emerge from our
findings that need further investigation. How, for instance, does the presence of
co-nationals in the workplace influence the ways in which individuals construct their
gender identity? In both organisations, we observedenclavesof particular national-
ities at different levels of employment. For example, Polish women generally worked as
maids, Indian-born men worked as waiters, whereas migrants from Western Europe
were more likely to enter professional and management positions in the hotel. At WCH,
we observed Caribbean-born women working as both nurses and domestics, Indian-born men employed as doctors, and Indian-born women filling administrative
positions. Does working and migrating with co-nationals perhaps create a third point
of reference to class and gender in the identity formation process among migrant
workers?
Questions such as these call upon social scientists to more rigorously theorise
concepts of transnational gender identities and their appropriate empirical measure-
ments. How migration operates to produce social change and what the practical
and symbolic effects of migration are as people move across different structures
and institutions of social control require additional attention from researchers.
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An examination of the cultural and symbolic effects of migration, as well as the
politico-economic consequences, is necessary in order to capture the full impact of
migration as a source of social change. It is precisely these types of social
transformation, often in the form of changing gender identities, expectations and
practices, which social scientists are only now beginning to consider in the context ofmigration.
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