What facilitates the socio-economic adaptation of migrant women? Insights from Romanian women settled in Western Europe

This paper explores the issue of Romanian women migrants in Western Europe and the drivers of their socioeconomic adaptation in their new countries. We set out to understand what processes facilitate the adaptation of migrant women to Western European societies. Basing our empirical analysis on data gathered through online surveys targeting Romanian women migrants (N = 775) who have settled in Western European countries, we seek to discover what influences the adaptation of Romanian woman migrants abroad, with a focus on three adaptation dimensions: cultural, structural and relational. In addition, the research addresses the dimensions of particular adaptation determinants and highlights their strength in relation to overall adaptation levels. The findings suggest that lower levels of structural adaptation on the part of women are a consequence of women’s less active engagement with core institutions in the destination country. The length of time spent in the destination country and the interlinkages between socio-economic adaptation determinants are also important agents of high adaptation. The paper contributes to current debates in the social sciences on the socio-economic adaptation of Eastern European migrants and of Romanian women migrants in particular.