Gendering Migration Masculinity, Femininity and Ethnicity in Post-War Britain

Gendering Migration demonstrates the significance of studying migration through the lens of gender and ethnicity and the contribution this perspective makes to migration histories. Through a consideration of the impact of migration on men and masculine identities as well as women and feminine identities, it extends our understanding of questions of gender and migration, focusing on the history of migration to Britain after the Second World War. The volume draws on oral narratives as well as documentary and archival research to demonstrate the important role played by gender and ethnicity, both in ideas and images of migrants and in migrants' own experiences. The contributors consider a range of migrant and refugee groups who came to Britain in the twentieth century: Caribbean, East-African Asian, German, Greek, Irish, Kurdish, Pakistani, Polish and Spanish. The fresh interpretations offered here make this an important new book for scholars and students of migration, ethnicity, gender and modern British history.

Contents: Preface; Introduction, Louise Ryan and Wendy Webster; 'The black peril': race, masculinity and migration during the First World War, Richard Smith; Britain and the refugees of Europe, 1939-50, Wendy Webster; Bilateral relations: British soldiers and German women, Inge Weber-Newth; Male and female Polishness in post-war Leicester: gender and its intersections in a refugee community, Kathy Burrell; Gender, race and the ideal labour force, Dolly Smith Wilson; Notions of 'home' and belonging among Greeks in the UK, Venetia Evergeti; Becoming nurses: Irish women, migration and identity through the life course, Louise Ryan; Spaniards in the UK - a successful female post-industrial migration, Tony Morgan; Gender and generation in Pakistani migration: a critical study of masculinity, Ali Nobil Ahmad; 'No job for a grown man': transformations in labour and masculinity among Kurdish migrants in London, Sarah J. Keeler; Masculinity and migration: life stories of East African Asian men, Joanna Herbert; Index.

Louise Ryan is Deputy Head of the Social Policy Research Centre and Senior Research Fellow at Middlesex University, UK. Wendy Webster is Professor of Contemporary British History at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.