This paper explores the realm of gender dynamics through the lens of transnational labour migration from Serbia to Slovakia from an anthropological perspective and through ethnographic material gathered from fieldwork. I address the question of how transnational migration influences gender dynamics, primarily in couples who migrate to Slovakia together. Further, my objective is to examine migratory processes as an arena where ostensibly a larger battle for reproduction takes place, but where a more subtle (re)negotiation of gender dynamics also unfolds. I assess this contested field principally through the narratives of the migrants themselves, which are analysed in a broader socio-political context of Southeast and Central Europe. Analyses of these cases are in line with ethnographic fieldwork based on a qualitative methodology, principally in-depth interviews and participant observation with male and female migrant workers from Serbia, conducted predominantly in Slovakia over the course of a year. I examine gender dynamics through the lens of transnational migration – which emphasises the multi-local social networks of migrants connecting “guest” and “home” society – and from the perspectives of doing gender and gender performativity. This article assembles an ethnographically-driven account of how gender is done, performed, and renegotiated among couples seeking better lives within the EU. Specifically, I document, through my respondents’ own words, how gender regimes are transformed in the process of migration. As such, this paper speaks to a theme that has remained mostly unexplored in the context of south-central European anthropology.
