ABSTRACT
In this chapter I look at the sexualization of women’s identities in the context of migration, and the instrumental role such sexualization plays in keeping them subordinate as women and as migrants in the host society. By sexualized identities I refer to those constructions which place (hetero) sexual appeal and sexuality as the central and defi ning part of women migrants’ identities. I chose the case of the Lithuanian migrant women in London, as it will help to reveal the instrumentality of sexualized constructions of migrant women. What role does the sexualization of women migrants play in the context of recent political processes in Europe, when the post-Soviet Other became offi cially a part of the European identity? Are they still perceived as Others in “old Europe”? Or can they immediately embrace their newly acquired “Europeanness”? I bring this context here to refer to the instrumental nature of both sexualized constructions of migrants and counterstories of Lithuanian migrant women in London.
