Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the parallel experiences of two sisters, this paper will approach the construction of a "home" as a moment to display family solidarity but also struggling contestations of belonging.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we will try to understand what strategies women use to gain emotional and social recognition across the migration borders. Drawing on the experiences of two sisters - one who remained in the family household in Morocco, and one who migrated, against the fathers wish, to a country on the periphery of Europe, Portugal - we will try to understand the transformations in the gender roles and relations established both with the family who "stayed behind" as with the family that "moved on". In the process, issues as decisions on motherhood are put forward. We will draw on the work of female ethnographers as Homa Hoodfar and Ruba Salih to try to find how these Muslim women - migrant and non-migrant - strategically display family solidarity and also contestations of belonging across borders in the process of constructing a home.