As of 2017, the French Republic held the highest birthrate amongst the entirety of the EU––19% of such births being to the immigrant mothers who make up 12% of the childbearing population (denoting the country’s birthrate as being above renewal levels.) A significant portion of the highest-risk individuals within this population are Magrhebi, having the highest fertility rate in part to familial reunification––but also due to the significant likelihood of sexual violence upon arrival in France. With the majority of immigrant mothers in France being affected by a 20% employment gap due to the burden of motherhood as opposed to those who are native-born, economic factors place them further at risk if it weren’t for the 3.5% GDP rate offered to all *”officially” French women currently threatened by the rise of the French far right.
With SA and forced sex affecting around 40.4% of all asylum seekers (Lancet) upon arrival in Europe, 75.7% percent of female immigrants who’ve landed in France (68.5% of such being rape cases), and the rarity of medical resources (The French office for protection of stateless persons only accepting to offer protections to around 26.4% of African Asylum seekers) for a population that is nine times more likely to experience sexual violence upon arrival in their host country of France, it is important to consider the ramifications of so many layers of oppression upon the immigrant mother, as well as modern solutions taken by organizations such as La Maison des Femmes in providing solace to a predominant urban population, and the potentiality of their applications of integrated care elsewhere.
The Life of Mothers in Saint Denis; Portraits of the Working Immigrant
Currently the 9th most expensive city to live in France, the city of Saint Denis (La Seine-Saint-Denis) , the site of the premiere institution of La Maison des Femmes, sports a population that is around 32% migrant (Ministere de la interior: Direction generale des etrangers en France), predominantly from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, with 18% of all total migrants being Algerienne women (Le Departement Seine-Saint-Denis.) Given the fact that migrant women, especially immigrant (Maghrebi) mothers within France, are already placed at risk for further sexual violence and workplace discrimination, many are left without the means to afford health or childcare in an area that is extremely isolated due to its location beyond the walls of Paris, which is often considered the “ideal” statue of France.
“Ma Femme est sur le point de Craquer. Elle ne peut pas travailler. C’est tres compliquee a la moment”- Malika Chemmah, Le Monde
Factoring in language barriers and the higher potentiality of earlier motherhood due to the lack of proper sex-ed and prominence of sexual trafficking and abuse that’s magnified upon arriving in France, many women, if they are able to acquire the documentation to work within suburbs like Saint-Denis, are offered salaries significantly lower than the national average––restricted almost solely to the public sector and part time (Institut Montaigne/ INSEE). This increased risk of poverty not only results in housing insecurity that can affect immigrant families still establishing themselves within the Ile-de-France region (particularly young mothers), but also contributes to further susceptibility of sex-based exploitation and violence as many women accept exploitation as a means of acquiring “stable housing” (Freedman, Université Paris 8, Vincennes-St. Denis/CRESPPA). Often, when such becomes the case, the asylum system’s inevitable barriers for those with language restrictions and cultural discrepancies prevent these women from accessing support services to allow such abuse to be reported, so much so that Le Monde emphasizes that within these communities rape is considered an “inevitable part of migration.”
As for mothers and instances of pregnancy resultant from lack of education and resources, gynecological and prenatal care amongst a population highly impacted by HIV is not a commonly reciprocal process amongst both parties involved in conception within Saint-Denis––nor within the Montreuil maternity ward are there regulations for reimbursement for biological testing of potential paternal infection (Penot, PARTAGE Study Group). Thus, within the most impoverished and diverse department, the majority of women, whom of which are giving birth within less than 12 months since arrival in France lack positive contact with a supportive and present partner, economic prosperity to support a family, higher maternal mortality rates, and resources to care for children often affected by HIV- lest it be for the presence of efforts/institutions like that of La Maison des Femmes.
Les Maisons des Femmes: A Manifesto and Model
“Moi aussi, j’ai fait un rêve…
J’ai rêvé que les femmes, qui sont tout à la moitié du ciel, l’avenir de l’homme et le sel de la terre si l’on en croit les poètes, étaient devenues des êtres humains, libres, égales et fraternelles. J’ai rêvé qu’elles quittaient leurs habits de sorcière. J’ai rêvé qu’elles n’étaient plus de simples matrices productrices de chair à canon, des variables d’ajustement, des faire-valoir ou des souffre-douleurs. J’ai rêvé que leurs cheveux, leurs bras, leurs jambes n’étaient plus des incitations aux violences. J’ai rêvé que leurs maris, leurs frères, leurs mères n’avaient plus droit de vie et de mort sur elles. J’ai rêvé que leur sexe à la naissance ne les condamnait plus à une mort immédiate.
J’ai rêvé que leur hymen n’était plus la partie la plus importante de leur anatomie. J’ai rêvé que leur clitoris n’était pas un pénis à extirper. J’ai rêvé qu’elles avaient droit au plaisir, à la séduction, à l’autonomie, au pouvoir. Les femmes ne doivent plus être la plus grande minorité opprimée vivant sur terre! Parce que les femmes sont vos compagnes messieurs et aussi des mères en devenir. Parce que leurs enfants sont les citoyens de demain et qu’elles sont leurs toutes premières éducatrices, Parce que le monde sera ce qu’ils en feront et que nous sommes responsables des conditions dans lesquelles elles les mettent au monde et les aident à grandir”
– Dr. Ghada Hatem, founder of the 1st Maison des Femmes (Seine- Saint-Denis)
To counter the interwoven factors that create the socio-economic disparities within Seine- Saint- Denis that also plague the immigrant women of many Parisian suburbs (“banlieue défavorisée”), Dr. Ghada Hatem founded the model of La Maison des Femmes in 2016 as a means of addressing a combined need for education, lingual integration, legal representation, psychological assistance, and childcare, as immigrants navigate the French medical structures; that although are socialized, are still incredibly inequitable, especially in restoring justice for victims of sexual violence. Accepting about 60-90 women daily through their doors in Saint-Denis alone, La Maison des Femmes is capable of assisting approximately 17,000 women out of the 93,000 French women affected by sexual violence annually––the majority of such being the region’s prominent immigrant population (La Maison des Femmes primary website (Seine-Saint-Denis. )
Within Ile-de-France, there presently stands various integrated medical facilities associated with Hatem’s original model in Montrouge, Asnieres-sur- Seine, Nanterre, Sarcelles, inter-city Paris, and Montereuil (independent budgeting being the major factor preventing this from becoming more common.) Each site is modeled with the integrated strategies of the original in Saint-Denis, with 80 multidisciplinary staff members devoted to developing collaborative strategies that provide hospital services for both the mind and body (therapy (for both mothers and children), clitoral reconstructive surgery, prenatal care, STD testing), judiciary and administrative assistance, housing and translation, and community building activities necessary to combat the effects of failures of the french medical structure in addressing sexual violence amongst a population it often also fails to aid in integration via the asylum/ immigration process.
Bibliography
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