Kvinner som migranter: Chilenske flyktninger i eksil

The subject of the thesis is the Chilean women who settled in Oslo after the military coup d'etat in Chile in 1973. The introductory chapters give a survey of the society and the gender relations that the women left, and discuss which Chileans came to Norway. In Chapters 3 and 4, the general situation of the women in Oslo is described. Finally, the experiences the women have with migration is discussed in a broader immigration perspective. The basic unit in the thesis is the women, not the family or the household. It purveys a women's perspective where the women's relationship to men and participation in households are essential to the analysis of their histories as migrants, social life world in Oslo and future possibilities there or in Chile. The empirical basis of the thesis was built before the political events in Chile from Spring 1983 made the hopes of retum of the exiled Chileans more real than before. The women keep their suitcases ready, but they make no definite plans for returning. Their ad hoc lifestyles and short, time-horizon prevent them from living a meaningful life both at present in Oslo and in the future in Chile. This results in a powerlessness which is most prominent in the women who did not decide to leave Chile themselves, or could understand the migration as a consequence of their earlier actions.