Formal activism of female migrants and refugees in Poland. A case study of Wandering Woman Foundation

Abstract

Over the last few decades Gdańsk has been a destination for immigrants and a home to people from all around the world who chose it as a place to pursue their dreams and aspirations. However, in a migratory environment a sense of identity as a migrant or a refugee woman may become a guiding identity and even obscure other forms of identity; as such, it can lead to the development of activist strategies that are primarily based on foreignness. The existence of formal migrant organisations is one of the factors that show how advanced the process of migrant self-organisation is. The types of organisations, in turn, provide information on how immigrant communities organise themselves and what needs they respond to, also these which are gender based. The strength, coherence and field of activity of migrant organisations may substantially influence the level of integration of migrants, their sense of identification, as well as the degree of their participation in the host society. Therefore, it is important to consider the motives behind the creation of female migrant’s self-organisations and the range of values and identities that their activities refer to. In this article, the research on the Wandering Women Foundation helps me to understand how and why migrant women’s self-organisation emerge in Poland.