International Migration, 'Domestic Struggles' and Status Aspiration among Nurses in South Africa

The achievement of upward mobility through participation in international labour markets has become possible for nurses in the context of a 'new' democratic South Africa, but this contrasts sharply with the predicament of many in the post-apartheid context, for whom economic vulnerability and unemployment are the prevailing norm. Such a stark contrast has tended to complicate the domestic relations experienced by nurses who, as working professionals, often have significantly greater financial resources and career flexibility than their husbands. Looking at the possibilities and constraints that are created for nurses in their social relationships particularly with their husbands, I draw on Belinda Bozzoli's concept of 'domestic struggles' in order to emphasise the multiplicity and changeability of gendered relations, instead of assuming a single patriarchal status quo.1 Fixed representations of gender roles nonetheless play an important part in nurses' own commentary on migration. While many nurses speak enthusiastically of the possibilities of seeking work overseas, others draw upon familiar representations of female domestic duty to condemn migrants for neglecting their family in pursuit of financial gain. I argue that this criticism is rooted in a fear of the threat that migration presents to existing nursing hierarchies, as a new and powerful tool for status acquisition in the post-apartheid context

Criticism · Democracy · Development economics · Duty · Economic growth · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Status quo · Unemployment · Gender Studies · Global Health and Surgery · Global Health Workforce Issues · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Covid-19 and its Effects on the Lives and Livelihoods of Congolese Female Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the City of Cape Town

  Open Access•Ngwi Nnam Thecla Mulu•AFRICAN HUMAN MOBILITY REVIEW•2021

  Incluir item

• The Current Status of Working Conditions in Public Hospitals at a Selected Province, South Africa

  Open Access•Zodwa Margaret Manyisa•Journal of Human Ecology•2016

  Incluir item

• Paperwork and the contradictions of accountability in a South African hospital

  Open Access•Elizabeth Hull•Journal of the Royal Anthropologica…•2012

  Incluir item