Concluding remarks

• Pages: 53-54

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Concluding remarks

Women who migrate or are de scendants of migra nts

constitute adiverse grou p in terms of culture, religion,

as well as citizenship an d residence status in the E U.

Some came to the EU to work be cause of labour short-

ages in the healthc are or service sectors, som e as highly

skilled employees and others as family members. About

athird, on average, are highly edu cated, but their quali-

f‌ications are not always recogn ised in the EU. In addition,

some women arrived o n their own or with their h us-

bands and/or children seeking international protection.

The EU-MIDISII survey resul ts show that these women

face arange of fu ndamental right s challenges. Th is

points to the need fo r migrant integration effor ts in the

EU to specif‌ically add ress and tackle these challenges ,

including persisting gender differences among migrants

and descendants of m igrants. All wom en are affected

by inequalities i n the twelve areas identif‌ied in the B ei-

jing Platform for Ac tion, but women with an immig rant

background face additional challenges. For this reason,

the European Commissio n in their 2016 EU act ion plan

on the integration of th ird country national s refers to

the special attenti on that Member States sho uld pay

to gender aspect s and the situation of migrant wome n

when designing and implementing integration policies

and relevant funding initiatives. The data provided in

this report can hel p more Member States iden tify the

needs of specif‌ic grou ps of immigrant women s o that

they can target their p olicy responses more effec tively.

“Awareness of the gender dimensio n” is akey aspect

of the EU’s Common Basic Prin ciples on Roma Inclusion

and should also ap ply to immigrant i ntegration. This

cross-cutting principle should be applied to integration

policies across all a reas of life, as well as in the f‌ight

against racism, wh ich is aformida ble barrier to socia l

inclusion for imm igrant women and men.

At atime whe n immigration an d the integration of

migrants and as ylum seekers remains at th e top of

the political agenda throughout the EU, the survey

results challenge p opular perceptions fu elled by an

anti-migrant political discourse– showing,namely, that

most immigrant s, both women and men, are not social ly

segregated, having friends across the diverse ethnic

spectrum of our societies. They point to the need for

gender sensitive str ategies and measures to inc rease

the societal par ticipation of immigrant s in order to fos-

ter amore inclusive society. The resul ts also show that

the majority of mi grant women and men h ave posi-

tive views on gender eq uality issues: consid ering that

both husband and wife should contribute to household

income, that having ajob is th e best way for awoman

to be an independe nt person, and that men shoul d take

as much responsibil ity as women for the ho me and

children. At the same t ime, the survey result s show

that almost one thi rd of Muslim women with an immi-

grant origin who wear a headscarf o r niqab in public

say they experien ced harassment. This v iolates their

fundamental r ights, includi ng the right guaran teed by

Article 10 of the EUChar ter of Fundamental Rig hts to

manifest one’s religion o r belief, in worship, teaching,

practice and obse rvance; as well as Article21, prohibi t-

ing discriminat ion on ground of religion or belief.

Learning the nationa l language is critic ally import ant

for f‌irst generatio n immigrants. The results show th at,

while the majori ty of immigrant wom en overall speak

and write the nationa l language well, some face barri ers

in accessing language cou rses when they need them for

various reasons– such as ‘not knowing w here to go’ or

because of the lack of chi ldcare provisions.

The lack of such provisions also discourages, in some

countries, women with i mmigrant origi n who have to

care for small children , elderly or sick relatives f rom