From absolute invisibility to extreme visibility: Emancipation trajectory of migrant women in the Netherlands

After years of invisibility, the position of migrant women from Islamic countries now forms the core of the Dutch discourse on integration and emancipation. This article presents the downside of this visibility by showing that it is situated within a growing culturalist discourse. In addition to being culturalist, this discourse focuses on the shortcomings of migrants and is flavoured with a touch of new realism in its argument that it is a right to break the taboos of migrants. More visibility for migrant women will not help their empowerment if the basic assumptions of the dominant discourse are not challenged. Through presenting a case study, this article shows how this visibility can even strengthen the border between the Dutch as emancipated self and Islamic migrants as the unemancipated other. In so doing it reinforces boundaries instead of alliances, isolation instead of empowerment, and suppression instead of emancipation. © 2010 Feminist Review.