More than resilience
Adaptive pragmatism and the everyday navigation of the integration landscape in Belgium
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24226264 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sinem Yılmaz (0000-0001-7401-3056, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-13 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Community (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1369183x.2026.2655875 |
| OpenAlex | W7154109320 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 36 |
Migrant integration policies in Europe, particularly in Belgium’s complex federal system, often impose fragmented and demanding expectations on newcomers. While dominant narratives emphasise resilience or vulnerability, there is limited understanding of how migrants navigate chronic institutional incoherence and emotional strain during early settlement. The main objective of this paper is to introduce adaptive pragmatism as a conceptual lens to understand how migrant women navigate uncertain legal, social, and emotional terrains in Belgium. It examines how women sustain agency through iterative, gendered, and relational strategies. Data were generated from five focus group discussions with 28 recently arrived migrant women in Brussels and Flanders. The analysis revealed how participants continuously readjusted aspirations, managed recognition gaps, and engaged in patchwork forms of mobility amid bureaucratic opacity and shifting language demands. Their agency was shaped by care obligations, moral tensions, and long-term uncertainty. By foregrounding these dynamics, adaptive pragmatism offers a richer vocabulary for theorising migrant agency as a form of ongoing moral reasoning under constraint.
agency · Belgium · Brussels · care obligations · early settlement · Federalism · Flanders · immigrant integration · language demands · migrant women · Moral reasoning · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Migration and Exile Studies · Migration, Refugees, and Integration
‘Agency in mobility’
Migration Systems, Pioneer Migrants and the Role of Agency
Servants of globalization
Gendered Migrations and Global Social Reproduction
Us and Them
Beyond vulnerability
A theory of migration
Against ‘immigrant integration’
Highly Educated Women
Understanding the Labour Market Participation of Skilled Immigrant Women in Switzerland
Home and away
Immigrant Integration Policies of the Belgian Regions
Gender, Religion, and Ethnicity
I changed my strategy and looked for jobs on Gumtree’
Re-routing migration geographies
Following Migrant Trajectories
Civic integration in Western Europe
Gendered Geographies of Power
Becoming Less Illegal
Reframing migrant mothers as citizens
Situating transnational families' care-giving arrangements
Beyond the Border
Out of Time
Some Reflections on Structure and Agency in Migration Theory
The Times of Migration
Time and Temporary Migration
Resilience and identities
Ubiquitous waiting
Multiple (il)legal pathways
Conceptualising the Agency of Migrant Women Workers
Migrant Capitals
What Is Agency
Creating Citizen-Workers through Civic Integration
| Highly cited | No |
|---|