Zenia Hellgren
Biographic Data
| ID | 90072 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zenia Hellgren |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zenia |
| FAMILY NAME | Hellgren |
| SIGNATURE | HELLGREN Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universitat Pompeu Fabra |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1557-3779 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 129 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Gendered Experiences of Racial Capitalism
A growing body of research characterizes contemporary global neoliberal hegemony through the lens of racial capitalism—a framework that traces the connections between colonial exploitation, slavery, and the foundations of economic growth, linking these histories to the expanding migrant precariat across Western societies today. Largely unexplored is how gender influences job conditions, alternatives, and forms of collective organization among mig…
Narratives and Practices of Migrant and Minority Incorporation in European Societies
Introduction
This special issue aims to contribute to the debate on race, racialisation and racism in Spain from a perspective that combines theoretical analysis and empirical studies. We take a systemic understanding of racial relations as our point of departure and focus on the Spanish context. Our objective is twofold: First, we want to challenge a persistent “colour-blindness” and a widely spread silence about race in European societies (Lentin, 2018; Son…
Everyday Antigypsyism and Structural Discrimination
In this article, we focus on antigypsyism to inquire how structural racism operates and is reproduced through everyday interaction, being normalised both by Roma and non-Roma people. We link the notion of structural racism to another central concept in migration and diversity studies that is often treated separately, namely the contested idea of “integration.” Social exclusion is, in our framework, largely understood as a consequence of structura…
Struggle, Exit, “Resilience”—or How Precarious Workers Cope with Late Neoliberalism. Individual and Collective Agency of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain
This article inquires the individual and collective agency of female migrant domestic workers in Spain. I use fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2023 to examine the interplay between the migrant workers’ individual coping strategies, the claims-making strategies of the domestic workers’ trade union Sindihogar, and the structures they operate within and attempt to challenge. Drawing on contemporary research about precarious workers’ movements, I…
“But later you regret it". Roma youth navigating aspirational dilemmas
This article reflects on the Spanish Roma people’s aspiration dilemmas about their school-to-work transition (STWT). Study of the STWT of Roma young people casts light on the social and economic inequalities in Spanish society. Academic and occupational aspiration dilemmas reveal aspects of the interplay between structural-historical, societal, institutional and community-level factors that condition Roma people’s “capacity to aspire”, which Appa…
Discrimination meets interculturalism in theory, policy and practice
Discrimination of immigrants and racialized minorities as the Roma is increasing in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Different policy approaches to diversity management tackle this issue differently, both in terms of recognizing ethnic discrimination as a key obstacle to integration and in terms of defining the ideal forms of conviviality in superdiverse societies. In this special issue, we focus on interculturalism as a policy approach to dive…
Introduction to the Special Issue
European history is to a significant extent also a history about racialization and racism. Since the colonizers of past centuries defined boundaries between “civilized” and “savages” by applying value standards in which the notions of race, ethnicity, culture, and religion were interwoven and imposed on human beings perceived as fundamentally different from themselves, racialization became deeply inherent in how (white) Europeans viewed the world…
Racialization and Aporophobia
In this article, we address a gap in the scholarship on (super)diversity, discrimination and racism by placing the experiences of non-western migrants and Roma people in the same conceptual framework of stigmatization based on racialization and aporophobia. Including a (formally non-recognized) national minority, the Spanish Roma, in such an analysis implies moving from a framework of superdiversity applied to immigrants to a broader one, which a…
Harnessing the potential of Moroccans living abroad through diaspora policies? Assessing the factors of success and failure of a new structure of opportunities for transnational entrepreneurs
In the framework of the emerging field of research on transnational migrant entrepreneurship at the crossroads of business and migration studies, the main purpose of this article is to assess the change of the Moroccan policy paradigm concerning their diaspora engagement policy, which has shifted from a guest-workers policy narrative (remittances based approach) to a transnational policy narrative (skills-mobilisation based approach) during the l…
Financial Crisis and Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain
This article explores the impact of the Great Recession on migrant domestic workers in Spain. We argue that the domestic service sector’s relative resistance to job destruction has transformed it to some extent into a refuge activity for unemployed women from other sectors, both migrants and native Spanish workers. This leads to intensified competition over jobs and increasing stratification among domestic workers, with serious consequences both …
Class, race - and place
Based on eighty-one in-depth interviews with immigrants and stakeholders performed in Stockholm and Barcelona, this article examines whether the relationship to place can mitigate the negative effects of rejection that racialized immigrants and minorities perceive from the ethnic majority society. The immigrant respondents' perceptions and lived experiences of exclusion and discrimination lend support to the argument that it is necessary to link …
Migrants, markets and domestic work
This article compares Spain and Sweden, dissimilar in their welfare/care, migration and employment regimes; however, both have experienced expansions of private markets for personal household services where migrants are over-represented. Using Sen’s capabilities framework as a point of departure, we explore the extent to which regime differences shaping the dynamics of personal household service markets are reflected in the capabilities and well-…
Transnationalism and Financial Crisis
The importance of transnational migration projects for international development has been increasingly recognized over the past decades. Migrants who move from the Global South or East to work in low-wage sectors such as construction, agriculture or domestic services in wealthier countries may contribute both to growth in the receiving countries and socio-economic development in their countries of origin. Parallel to scholarship on migration and …
Markets, Regimes, and the Role of Stakeholders
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - Volume 22, Number 2, Summer 2015
Negotiating the Boundaries of Social Membership
In this article, I address the role organisations and networks play in mobilising for the rights of undocumented migrants and in setting agendas for their inclusion and social membership. I compare two societies with different frameworks of welfare and migration regimes. The empirical material used in this article consists of 44 interviews with actors involved in the processes I define as negotiating social membership in Stockholm and Barcelona: …
Gender Politics in the Expanding European Union
In May 2004, after bringing their legislation into accordance with EU regulations, ten more countries joined the European Union. The contributors to this volume assess the impact of this historical development on gender relations in the new and old EU member states. Instead of focusing on either western or eastern Europe, this book investigates the similarities and differences in diverse parts of Europe. Although initially limited, gender equalit…
Cultural dialogues in the good society
Value conflicts involving gender equality are interwoven into current multicultural tensions in many European societies. They are at the core of these tensions in Sweden, in which gender equality and principles of individual human rights constitute the state profile and political identity. In this article, we focus on three cases of honor killings that became flash points for public debates on `culture and cultures' among political parties, immig…
Class, race - and place
Based on eighty-one in-depth interviews with immigrants and stakeholders performed in Stockholm and Barcelona, this article examines whether the relationship to place can mitigate the negative effects of rejection that racialized immigrants and minorities perceive from the ethnic majority society. The immigrant respondents' perceptions and lived experiences of exclusion and discrimination lend support to the argument that it is necessary to link …
Markets, Regimes, and the Role of Stakeholders
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - Volume 22, Number 2, Summer 2015
Cultural dialogues in the good society
Value conflicts involving gender equality are interwoven into current multicultural tensions in many European societies. They are at the core of these tensions in Sweden, in which gender equality and principles of individual human rights constitute the state profile and political identity. In this article, we focus on three cases of honor killings that became flash points for public debates on `culture and cultures' among political parties, immig…
Introduction to the Special Issue
European history is to a significant extent also a history about racialization and racism. Since the colonizers of past centuries defined boundaries between “civilized” and “savages” by applying value standards in which the notions of race, ethnicity, culture, and religion were interwoven and imposed on human beings perceived as fundamentally different from themselves, racialization became deeply inherent in how (white) Europeans viewed the world…
Racialization and Aporophobia
In this article, we address a gap in the scholarship on (super)diversity, discrimination and racism by placing the experiences of non-western migrants and Roma people in the same conceptual framework of stigmatization based on racialization and aporophobia. Including a (formally non-recognized) national minority, the Spanish Roma, in such an analysis implies moving from a framework of superdiversity applied to immigrants to a broader one, which a…
Negotiating the Boundaries of Social Membership
In this article, I address the role organisations and networks play in mobilising for the rights of undocumented migrants and in setting agendas for their inclusion and social membership. I compare two societies with different frameworks of welfare and migration regimes. The empirical material used in this article consists of 44 interviews with actors involved in the processes I define as negotiating social membership in Stockholm and Barcelona: …
Transnationalism and Financial Crisis
The importance of transnational migration projects for international development has been increasingly recognized over the past decades. Migrants who move from the Global South or East to work in low-wage sectors such as construction, agriculture or domestic services in wealthier countries may contribute both to growth in the receiving countries and socio-economic development in their countries of origin. Parallel to scholarship on migration and …
Harnessing the potential of Moroccans living abroad through diaspora policies? Assessing the factors of success and failure of a new structure of opportunities for transnational entrepreneurs
In the framework of the emerging field of research on transnational migrant entrepreneurship at the crossroads of business and migration studies, the main purpose of this article is to assess the change of the Moroccan policy paradigm concerning their diaspora engagement policy, which has shifted from a guest-workers policy narrative (remittances based approach) to a transnational policy narrative (skills-mobilisation based approach) during the l…
Migrants, markets and domestic work
This article compares Spain and Sweden, dissimilar in their welfare/care, migration and employment regimes; however, both have experienced expansions of private markets for personal household services where migrants are over-represented. Using Sen’s capabilities framework as a point of departure, we explore the extent to which regime differences shaping the dynamics of personal household service markets are reflected in the capabilities and well-…
Financial Crisis and Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain
This article explores the impact of the Great Recession on migrant domestic workers in Spain. We argue that the domestic service sector’s relative resistance to job destruction has transformed it to some extent into a refuge activity for unemployed women from other sectors, both migrants and native Spanish workers. This leads to intensified competition over jobs and increasing stratification among domestic workers, with serious consequences both …
Discrimination meets interculturalism in theory, policy and practice
Discrimination of immigrants and racialized minorities as the Roma is increasing in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Different policy approaches to diversity management tackle this issue differently, both in terms of recognizing ethnic discrimination as a key obstacle to integration and in terms of defining the ideal forms of conviviality in superdiverse societies. In this special issue, we focus on interculturalism as a policy approach to dive…
Gender Politics in the Expanding European Union
In May 2004, after bringing their legislation into accordance with EU regulations, ten more countries joined the European Union. The contributors to this volume assess the impact of this historical development on gender relations in the new and old EU member states. Instead of focusing on either western or eastern Europe, this book investigates the similarities and differences in diverse parts of Europe. Although initially limited, gender equalit…
Cultural dialogues in the good society
Value conflicts involving gender equality are interwoven into current multicultural tensions in many European societies. They are at the core of these tensions in Sweden, in which gender equality and principles of individual human rights constitute the state profile and political identity. In this article, we focus on three cases of honor killings that became flash points for public debates on `culture and cultures' among political parties, immig…
Negotiating the Boundaries of Social Membership
In this article, I address the role organisations and networks play in mobilising for the rights of undocumented migrants and in setting agendas for their inclusion and social membership. I compare two societies with different frameworks of welfare and migration regimes. The empirical material used in this article consists of 44 interviews with actors involved in the processes I define as negotiating social membership in Stockholm and Barcelona: …
Markets, Regimes, and the Role of Stakeholders
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - Volume 22, Number 2, Summer 2015
Transnationalism and Financial Crisis
The importance of transnational migration projects for international development has been increasingly recognized over the past decades. Migrants who move from the Global South or East to work in low-wage sectors such as construction, agriculture or domestic services in wealthier countries may contribute both to growth in the receiving countries and socio-economic development in their countries of origin. Parallel to scholarship on migration and …
Migrants, markets and domestic work
This article compares Spain and Sweden, dissimilar in their welfare/care, migration and employment regimes; however, both have experienced expansions of private markets for personal household services where migrants are over-represented. Using Sen’s capabilities framework as a point of departure, we explore the extent to which regime differences shaping the dynamics of personal household service markets are reflected in the capabilities and well-…
Financial Crisis and Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain
This article explores the impact of the Great Recession on migrant domestic workers in Spain. We argue that the domestic service sector’s relative resistance to job destruction has transformed it to some extent into a refuge activity for unemployed women from other sectors, both migrants and native Spanish workers. This leads to intensified competition over jobs and increasing stratification among domestic workers, with serious consequences both …
Class, race - and place
Based on eighty-one in-depth interviews with immigrants and stakeholders performed in Stockholm and Barcelona, this article examines whether the relationship to place can mitigate the negative effects of rejection that racialized immigrants and minorities perceive from the ethnic majority society. The immigrant respondents' perceptions and lived experiences of exclusion and discrimination lend support to the argument that it is necessary to link …
Harnessing the potential of Moroccans living abroad through diaspora policies? Assessing the factors of success and failure of a new structure of opportunities for transnational entrepreneurs
In the framework of the emerging field of research on transnational migrant entrepreneurship at the crossroads of business and migration studies, the main purpose of this article is to assess the change of the Moroccan policy paradigm concerning their diaspora engagement policy, which has shifted from a guest-workers policy narrative (remittances based approach) to a transnational policy narrative (skills-mobilisation based approach) during the l…
Racialization and Aporophobia
In this article, we address a gap in the scholarship on (super)diversity, discrimination and racism by placing the experiences of non-western migrants and Roma people in the same conceptual framework of stigmatization based on racialization and aporophobia. Including a (formally non-recognized) national minority, the Spanish Roma, in such an analysis implies moving from a framework of superdiversity applied to immigrants to a broader one, which a…
“But later you regret it". Roma youth navigating aspirational dilemmas
This article reflects on the Spanish Roma people’s aspiration dilemmas about their school-to-work transition (STWT). Study of the STWT of Roma young people casts light on the social and economic inequalities in Spanish society. Academic and occupational aspiration dilemmas reveal aspects of the interplay between structural-historical, societal, institutional and community-level factors that condition Roma people’s “capacity to aspire”, which Appa…
Discrimination meets interculturalism in theory, policy and practice
Discrimination of immigrants and racialized minorities as the Roma is increasing in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Different policy approaches to diversity management tackle this issue differently, both in terms of recognizing ethnic discrimination as a key obstacle to integration and in terms of defining the ideal forms of conviviality in superdiverse societies. In this special issue, we focus on interculturalism as a policy approach to dive…
Introduction to the Special Issue
European history is to a significant extent also a history about racialization and racism. Since the colonizers of past centuries defined boundaries between “civilized” and “savages” by applying value standards in which the notions of race, ethnicity, culture, and religion were interwoven and imposed on human beings perceived as fundamentally different from themselves, racialization became deeply inherent in how (white) Europeans viewed the world…
Struggle, Exit, “Resilience”—or How Precarious Workers Cope with Late Neoliberalism. Individual and Collective Agency of Female Migrant Domestic Workers in Spain
This article inquires the individual and collective agency of female migrant domestic workers in Spain. I use fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2023 to examine the interplay between the migrant workers’ individual coping strategies, the claims-making strategies of the domestic workers’ trade union Sindihogar, and the structures they operate within and attempt to challenge. Drawing on contemporary research about precarious workers’ movements, I…
Narratives and Practices of Migrant and Minority Incorporation in European Societies
Introduction
This special issue aims to contribute to the debate on race, racialisation and racism in Spain from a perspective that combines theoretical analysis and empirical studies. We take a systemic understanding of racial relations as our point of departure and focus on the Spanish context. Our objective is twofold: First, we want to challenge a persistent “colour-blindness” and a widely spread silence about race in European societies (Lentin, 2018; Son…
Everyday Antigypsyism and Structural Discrimination
In this article, we focus on antigypsyism to inquire how structural racism operates and is reproduced through everyday interaction, being normalised both by Roma and non-Roma people. We link the notion of structural racism to another central concept in migration and diversity studies that is often treated separately, namely the contested idea of “integration.” Social exclusion is, in our framework, largely understood as a consequence of structura…
Gendered Experiences of Racial Capitalism
A growing body of research characterizes contemporary global neoliberal hegemony through the lens of racial capitalism—a framework that traces the connections between colonial exploitation, slavery, and the foundations of economic growth, linking these histories to the expanding migrant precariat across Western societies today. Largely unexplored is how gender influences job conditions, alternatives, and forms of collective organization among mig…
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Economics (8 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (8 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (7 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (7 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (7 works) · Economic growth (6 works) · Ethnic group (6 works)