Multidirectional carework across borders

Latina immigrant women negotiating motherhood and daughterhood

Bibliographic Data

ID19000790
AuthorsSarah Bruhn (0000-0002-7061-6180, Harvard Graduate School of Education Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts USA, corresponding author), Gabrielle Oliveira (0000-0001-7160-6593, Harvard Graduate School of Education Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts USA)
Year2021
Volume84
Issue3
Pages691-712
Publication date2021-12-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Marriage and the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2445 • E-ISSN: 1741-3737
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jomf.12814
OpenAlexW4200025534
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited52

Objective The authors examine how transnational caregiving for immigrant women encompasses a set of complex gendered relationships and roles as mothers and daughters across national borders. Background Scholars have explored transnational motherhood for women who migrate, often in search of employment, while their children remain in their nation of origin. Much of this research has focused on how migration transforms mother–child relationships. Intergenerational relationships between immigrant mothers and their own mothers, and the emotional and economic care that facilitates these ties, are often left out of the picture of transnational family life. Methods Through ethnographic work, the authors conducted in‐depth interviews with 63 mothers from Latin America who migrated to the greater Boston metropolitan area. Additionally, the authors draw from extensive participant observation with mothers at home, school, and sites throughout their communities. Results The authors theorize how Latina immigrant women are at the center of a web of multidirectional carework as they negotiate intergenerational responsibilities as mothers and daughters. The women in the present study orient their decisions, paid labor, and child‐rearing around sustaining transnational familial relationships across generations. As a result, they provide emotional and economic care in multiple directions, including maintaining relationships between children and grandchildren, even as they adapt to ruptures in receiving care from their own mothers. Conclusion The authors argue that despite the gendered labor this emotional and economic work entails, the immigrant mothers in the present study value their carework, which ultimately becomes a means for them to exert agency in the face of anti‐immigrant policies and discourses

Agency (philosophy) · Ethnography · Geography · Immigration · Latin Americans · Metropolitan area · Negotiation · Participant observation · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration