A New Zone of Anomaly: What does Migration Mean to high-skilled Turkish Migrant Women in post-Brexit Britain

Conference: 2026 IMISCOE Spring Conference

Dates: 16/03/2026

Publication Date: 01/09/2027

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the experiences of skilled Turkish migrant women in post-Brexit Britain and how these experiences are tied to the UK's recent migrant policies. Acknowledging the significant impact of new nationalist rhetoric on migration policies and practices across many Western societies, it has become vital to explore the meaning of migration for skilled women migrants. Thus, I draw on in-depth qualitative interviews from two different case studies, conducted in 2018 and 2024, with 18 highly skilled Turkish women migrants in the UK, to contribute to understanding how skilled migrant women navigate their gender and ethnicity while interacting with UK migration policies. I utilise the theoretical framework of Harriet Martineau's (1838) “morals and manners” because her work on the relationship between everyday life, idea of liberty and the anomalies created can be applied with adjustments to contemporary issues tied with migration to analyse how contradictions between the State’s social values (morals) and actual practices (manners) can generate different obstacles for migrant women. Though some of these struggles can be applicable to many migrant women, my studies address how the participants find alternative ways to either accept or challenge these state-generated obstacles. Most importantly, Martineau’s theoretical framework sheds light on the UK’s confine rhetoric about protecting human rights and promoting diversity, and reveals the gap between policy intentions and social realities. This paper informs migration studies and policymakers working on migration, gender and ethnicity-related issues by highlighting migrant women’s agency and contemporary migration policy impacts, particularly during the post-Brexit period.

Source: Manual