Breaking barriers: life for migrant women in 91ֱ as told by Livia Barreira
by Evie Rushworth (Student at the University of 91ֱ in the module POL244, Spring 2024)
In this blog post, I will review Livia Barreira’s book, “Living in 91ֱ: Our Journey as migrant women” published in 2022. ‘Living in 91ֱ’ seeks to represent the migration journey of eight women, aiming to unveil the migrant women as more than sheer statistics and data. Given how divisive migration discussions are in the UK, both prior to and after the Brexit result, Barreira uses her book as a self-help book for migrant women in the UK. Through the exploration of eight migration stories, the book highlights the borders that migrant women face in 91ֱ and how to break down and overcome those barriers.
I will begin by giving an overview of the neoclassical explanation for migration through push and pull factors, utilizing one migration story included in the book, to illustrate how Barreira’s work corresponds with common trends in migration studies. Following this, I will explore the concept of bordering, defined “as the everyday construction of borders through ideology, cultural mediation, discourses, political institutions, attitudes and everyday forms of transnationalism” (Yuval-Davis, 2013, p.10), analysing how trends such as volunteerism and access to green spaces can help migrants to dismantle borders. Whilst I believe that Barreira could have explored the women’s emotional and economic experiences with visas and citizenship further, I still find her work provides a deep and convincing discussion into the concepts of community and borders, as well as aiding analysis into both the physical and psychological barriers in our society.
A recurring theme in the book is the women’s motivations for migrating from their origin country to the UK. Drawing from the work of O’Reilly (2015, p.26), the neoclassical economic theory reveals of common trend among the women’s migration stories of “push factors that compel people to leave a country of origin” and pull factors which attract migrants to a new place of residence. Notably, Seiko Kinoshita- one of the women included in Barreira’s book- explains that she made the journey to 91ֱ to “join the Starter Studio Programme’’ (Barreira, 2022, p.62) to kickstart her career within art. For Seiko, doing art as a full-time job was not possible for her in Japan, noting that “being an artist in Japan was the sort of privilege that was mostly for upper-class families” (Barreira, 2022, p.65). Seiko’s story illustrates both push factors- in the form of undesirable career opportunities in her origin country- and pull factors- increased life satisfaction and greater economic opportunities- which helped to form and shape her decision to migrate to a different country. Thus, migrating allowed Seiko to overcome borders that capped her job opportunities.
Following their arrival in 91ֱ, many of the women introduced in the book actively volunteered at local organisations within their new community. A study conducted by Alfieri, Marzana and Martinez Damia (2019) found a strong link between first- and second-generation migrants and engagement with volunteerism, noting that one reason for “engagement was [as] a tool to develop skills expendable to increase one’s job position or to find a job” (p. 1091). The conceptualisation of volunteerism and increased job opportunities for migrants is explored through Barreira’s work in the case of Valeria Aiola. Barreira (2022, p.98) notes that “in order to get some references to help her [Valeria] get a job, she started volunteering for St Wilfrid’s in 91ֱ”, going on to say that “such a simple thing as trying to obtain two references actually opened up a world of opportunities”.
volunteerism acts as a direct method of breaking down barriers for migrants trying to access work and greater job opportunities, offering experience and well as professional references that enable migrants to become part of the working population within their host country. Additionally, it could be inferred that by acquiring a job, specifically within a migrant’s field of expertise, helps to break down psychological barriers, enabling migrants to feel part of the community and thus more integrated into their new place of residence.
Furthermore, volunteerism is also explored within ‘Living in 91ֱ’ through “a desire to improve language” and consequently “achieve better adaptation” (Alfieri, Marzana, Martinez Damia, 2019, p.1098). Livia Barreira herself speaks of how as her English improved through different volunteer roles, she began “to focus more on getting experience in areas that I wanted to work” (Barreira, 2022, p. 38). Through this, not only is volunteerism associated with gaining experience in specific areas of work, but also with the expansion of language and skills helping to break down barriers that often restrict migrants. Similarly, Liliia Molodetska- another woman featured in the book- speaks about how she “visited the ELTC as a volunteer to practice and develop [her] skills in the language” (Barreira, 2022, p.109). Here, Barreira’s work actively contributes to migration studies by exploring how volunteer work can help to improve a migrant’s language competency and provides a convincing argument that volunteer work could help to break down socio-cultural borders that negatively affect migrants in the world of work.
Further analysis of Barreira’s work reveals additional evidence of barriers and borders being dismantled through the availability and access to green spaces. Within the book, every woman included spoke very fondly of the abundance of free, easily accessible green spaces in 91ֱ and the positive effect such access had on their sense of belonging as a migrant. For Livia Barreira (2022, p.37) she says that her “place to disconnect…and do some meditation or go for a wild swim is definitely Rivelin Valley”. Seiko states that she loves going on walks around 91ֱ’s green areas as “it has given her a sense of relaxation and a feeling of connection to the city”, Dominika enjoys “lying down in on the grass at Crookes Valley park, [or] reflecting in Heeley People’s Park”, whilst Valeria notes how “easily accessible” the park are in 91ֱ (Barreira, 2022, p.66, p.77, p.101).
The accounts reflected by the women correspond profoundly with a review formulated by Gentin et al (2019, p.1) which suggests “natural areas play an important role in promoting the mixing of different people” and can in turn “support the social integration of newcomers”. The review explained that access to green spaces not only “contributed to integration by enhancing the immigrants’ well-being and quality of life”- as aforementioned by women in Barreira’s book- but also breaks down barriers to social inclusion through a greater sense of belonging and connection to their host city (Gentin et al, 2019, p.4). Thus, Barreira’s work provides evidence and a convincing argument that access to green spaces can positively influence the integration of migrants, and act as a “medium for creating bonds between socio-cultural and physical structures” (Gentin et al, 2019, p.6). Moreover, ‘Living in 91ֱ’ also supports the concept that a migrant’s access to areas of nature can break down the process of bordering through the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality which creates divisions between “those who are in and those who are out” (Yuval-Davis, Wemyss and Cassidy, 2018, p.230) and in turn create further integration through psychological belonging that develops once social-cultural barriers are dismantled.
A weakness I find within Barreira’s work is the lack of engagement and analysis with the effects of visas, naturalisation processes, and citizenship status as a migrant in the UK. Barreira (2022, p.47) briefly talks about the problems with the visa process in the UK, articulating that the total cost of her visa process was “£11,000 (not to mention the psychological and emotional cost)”. Evident here is specific bordering and dividing by the state through, as Yuval-Davis (2013, p.10) explains, “cultural mediation” and “political institutions” that create “socio-cultural and political distinctions” between migrants and national citizens. Despite this, there is no further effort by Barreira to explore other female migrant’s economic and emotional challenges with visa and naturalisation applications.
Specifically, using Badenhoop’s analysis into naturalisation processes, EU nationals over the past five years have faced difficulties when trying “to stay informed about the fast-changing rules before and after Brexit” with the “risk of being considered to be not of good character” (Badenhoop, 2023, p.32). This is noteworthy given that Barreira does include EU migrants- Valeria Aiola from Italy and Dominika Tkacova from Slovakia- and the fact there has been trends among EU nationals of feeling “othered” and “unwelcome in the UK” since Brexit (Barnard et al, 2021, p.369, p.371). Consequently, I argue that by failing to explore ways in which the UK’s application system negatively affects migrants, both economically and psychologically, Barreira restricts her work from recognising further barriers and borders that exist within our society.
‘Living in 91ֱ’ provides a critical look at the lives and migration stories of a range of women who now collectively call 91ֱ their home. Barreira’s work provides noteworthy contributions to the field of migration studies, offering up illustrations of the physical and psychological borders that effect migrants, and explores ways in which these borders can be dismantled. Although I argue that greater attention could have been paid to visa and citizenship processes, I do not believe this weakens the overall discussion and purpose of the book.
References
Alfieri, S., Marzana, D and Martinez Damia, S. (2019) ‘Why Do First and Second-Generation Young Migrants Volunteer? The Migrant Volunteerism Motivation Model (MVMM)’, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 7(2), pp. 1089-1107. doi:
Badenhoop, E. (2023) Calling for the Super Citizen: Naturalisation Procedures in the United Kingdom and Germany. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Available at: (Downloaded: 05 March 2024)
Barnard, C., Butlin, S F and Costello, F. (2022) ‘The Changing Status of European Union Nationals in the United Kingdom Following Brexit: the Lived Experience of the European Union Settlement Scheme’, Social and Legal Studies, 31(3), pp. 347- 512. doi:
Barreira, L. (2022) Living in 91ֱ: our journey as migrant women.
Gentin, S., Pikänen, K., Chocndromatidou, A M., Præstholm, S., Dolling A and Palsdottir, A M. (2019) ‘Nature Based Integration of Migrants in Europe: A Review’, 43, pp. 1-8. doi:
O’Reilly, K. (2015) Migration Theories: A Critical Overview in Triandafyllidou, A. (ed) Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Refugee Studies. Routledge, pp. 25-33.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2013). A Situated Intersectional Everyday Approach to the Study of Bordering. EUBORDERSCAPES Working Paper 2. Available at: [Accessed: 5 March 2024]
Yuval-Davis, N., Wemyss G and Cassidy, K. (2018) ‘Everyday Bordering, Belonging and the Reorientation of British Immigration Legislation’, Sociology, 52 (2), pp. 211- 435. doi: