The voices, views and challenges of migrant women and leadership in Ireland: using a feminist community education as a tool for participation

Background of Research\nIrish society is experiencing people from different socio-cultural groups currently, since the\nturn of the 21st century. As many Irish people emigrated throughout the centuries but the\narrival of large numbers of immigrants from other Europeans and African countries and a\nsmall number of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland is phenomenon.\nEach year, up to 40,000 immigrants came into Ireland according to Immigrant Council of\nIreland ( ICI;2003). In the last quarter of 2005,there was an indication of currently 253,000\nforeign nationalities from age 15 and above in the country according to Central Statistical\nOffice ( CSO;2005) and the trend is said to continue with the prediction that there will be\nimmigrant foreign born nationals in the population by the year 2030 ( Irish Times 2008).\nRationale for this Study: An Opening Statement\nThere is a growing need to support migrant women to participate into Irish communities and\nsociety. For many, the agony of direct provision is quite a difficult one coupled with the\nissues that ranges from racism, oppression, exploitation, isolation, despondency, depression\nand to a large extent dependency. The phrase ‘direct provision’ is a system where those who\nseek asylum are accommodated and fed in hostels ,or, private/ self-catered for while their\napplication is being processed.\nOut of the need for security and safety, people find themselves so far away from their familiar\nenvironment. Apart from barriers from proper integration, there is also lack of knowledge to\ngetting information about various system of operations in Ireland like, housing, health\nservices , access to education and all other aspects of Irish society. Migrant women in\nparticular are central among other things to the provision and use of many aspect of feminist\ncommunity education and participation.\nMany have seen community education as an opportunity to make up for the poor education\nattainment in previous years. Unfortunately, this form of education has seen a low political\nprofile compared to other aspects of education yet it is the main grassroots to community\ndevelopment, cohesion and integration ( Connolly,1997). Educational participation through\ncommunity is like an extension of church activities, women associations ,literary groups, as\nwell as university extensions through lifelong learning. The motivation for acquisition of\ncommunity education and participation may include social interaction, contacts, engaging in\nknowledge and skills, personal and general development and a way of assessing one’ own\npotential( Slowey,1987).\nFor migrant women in particular, this may also provide an opportunity to move out of the\ncomfort zone that is pure domestic function to transition to independence through the workforce.\nWhile the outcome of most women community education is to empower and connect\nthe disadvantaged and marginalised group like migrant women in order to integrate them\nwith the wider society, yet their low participation is a subject to be looked into in this\nresearch.

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