Abstract

This thesis explores the migration experiences of a group of professional Egyptian migrant women living in Germany. By employing a qualitative approach, primarily through semi-structured interviews, and guided by migration literature, this research attempts to move away from the oversimplistic approach that migration is an ‘either or’ reality. Mainstream migration scholarship, specifically that focusing on migrant women, tends to focus on depicting migration within an emancipation-struggle binary, presenting migrant women either as victims or as heroines. This work, antithetically, describes how migrant women experiences can be complex, highlighting, both instances of strength and struggle. Grounded in the words of the participants, this thesis presents their migration motivations, the challenges they face as migrants in Germany, and the positive impact that their migration journeys have on them. Along the way, this thesis emphasizes how gender and social norms act as a significant motivating factor of migration for professional Egyptian migrant women and how that is tightly interconnected with other economic, personal, and political motivations. Towards the end, this work also aims at depicting the transnational identities that these migrant women develop through migration and how these identities are dynamic, temporal, and changing in nature. Finally, this thesis highlights some of these migrant women’s future dreams and aspirations, emphasizing their ‘on-holdness’ and their delays due to migration management bureaucracies.

School

School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

Department

Center for Migration and Refugee Studies

Degree Name

MA in Migration & Refugee Studies

Graduation Date

Winter 2-15-2026

Submission Date

9-21-2025

First Advisor

Gerda Heck

Second Advisor

Maysa Ayoub

Committee Member 1

Ibrahim Awad

Committee Member 2

Martina Rieker

Extent

115 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Approval has been obtained for this item

Disclosure of AI Use

No use of AI

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