Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe - Multiple Choices

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Migration through Gender, Age and Class Perspectives
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too nal .. ve to make their living without it, and on the other
hand the Cypriot family, specifically the Cypriot woman is
declared to be in need of protection. In the first case the
“artistes” are threatened; in the second they are the threat.
This contradictory representation of “artistes” seems to be
based on the nationalist idea that the control of female sexuality
is the precondition of the protection of the nation. Jan
Jindy Pettman (1996: 192) writes, “Sex is often seen as the
vulnerable link in maintaining raced and nationalized
boundaries. So it becomes especially important for nationalist
men to control their own group of women's sexual behaviour
and domestic lives. Sex, gender and women's bodies
become part of the material for the construction of group
boundaries.”
The control of female sexuality, however, does not
only include the sexual behaviour of the national woman,
but also that of the migrant woman; thus in Cyprus the
attention is particularly directed towards migrant women in
the sex industry. While the sexuality of the national woman
is constrained to the realm of marriage, the sexuality of
migrant sex workers is not allowed to leave the realm of
government-controlled nightclubs and bars-neither in terms
of getting married nor in terms of self-employment. Hence,
sexuality geared to the reproduction of the nation can be
clearly separated from mere sexuality which does not aim
at reproduction. Transgressions on the part of the national
women as well as on the part of the migrant women defy
patriarchal control and endanger the reproduction of the
nation. Therefore, they are morally discredited. According
to polls around half of all Cypriots disapprove of women
having sex before engagement or marriage (Cyprus Weekly,
March 24, 2000).
Conversely, migrant sex workers are accused of
immoral behaviour when they seek marriage. Since their
sexuality cannot be put into service for the reproduction
of the nation, it is not transferable into the framework of
marriage, the legitimate realm of national reproduction.
It is taken for granted that a marriage between an Eastern
European “artiste” and a Cypriot male always means that
either an existing Cypriot family is destroyed or a Cypriot
male is removed from the marriage market of Cypriot society.
The latter consideration is also connected to the fact that
marriage constitutes an important means of property transfer,
mainly by way of the dowry that the bride's father finances,
but also through wedding gifts that redistribute wealth
within a community in a reciprocal fashion, a pattern that
is broken when a penniless foreigner without local family
ties marries a local man (Argyrou, 1996; Sant Cassia, 1982;
Loizos, 1975).
Thus the restriction of the “artistes' ” freedom of
movement that is enforced by their employers and tolerated
by the authorities is justified as “protection” of the Greek-
Cypriot family. These restrictions, however, can also be
understood as measures to fix conventional gender relations
in times of change. The explanation frequently
stressed in interviews and polls (e.g. Cyprus Weekly, March
24, 2000) that the presence of foreign women in Cyprus is
responsible for the increasing divorce rate seems to serve
the avoidance of further occupation with the changes
of gender roles in contemporary Greek-Cypriot society.
Or as Julie Scott (1995: 400) puts it with respect to Eastern
European women in the North, “Although Russian and
Romanian women in Northern Cyprus are seen as a source
of disorder and danger, they actually have a more complex
role in helping to define community boundaries at a time
of change in gender roles and expectations.”
As a result of their precarious work and residence
status Eastern European sex workers are ideal for the
construction and reconstruction of what is conventionally
considered to be male and female. Their status as
“artistes”, which obscures their actual occupation as sex
workers, effectively prevents them from suing for their
rights, thus keeping them in a passive role that seems
to necessitate the “protection” by employers and police.
At the same time they are regarded as a threat to the nation
and also in that role they help to construct male protectors.
In that case it is their task to defend the nation. Due to
Cypriot history, which is told as a history of invasions and
occupations, the nation in Cyprus is represented frequently
as a woman – either a mother or a virgin (Peristiany, 1966:
182; Bryant, 2004: 514) – who is permanently threatened by
the danger of rape (Anthias, 1989). Therefore, it is regarded
as an obligation of male citizens to defend the nation
regardless of their own inviolacy.
The dominant representation of the migrant
women as potential wives of local men and thus as a threat
for existing Cypriot families that endangers the reproduction
of the nation also supports the nationalist view, which is
based on the construction of vulnerable women and a
vulnerable nation on the one hand and male protectors on
the other hand. In this case it is, however, the national
woman who has to be protected from being abandoned by
her husband. Thus, the Cypriot family which is substantial
for the nationalist discourse can be constructed as actually
intact and only endangered because of the influx of foreign
women. Eastern European “artistes”, as both sex workers
and potential wives, seem to have become central to the
gendered nationalist discourse in Greek-Cypriot society.
Their role in that discourse, however, is essentially based
on their precarious work and residence permit. Hence,
improvements of their living and working conditions are
obviously not in the interest of the national project.
Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe: Unpacking the Diversity