Abstract
This chapter is concerned with the ideological construct of ‘good motherhood’, which seems to be a heavy burden for working migrant mothers from the post-socialist states. As circular migrants, they leave their home (temporarily) and seek employment abroad as caregivers in order to provide for their children and families. Their outward-bound mobility proves to be inconsistent with post-transition discourses on motherhood, and they are caught in dilemmas. Based on interviews with Polish and Ukrainian care migrants, I will analyze the meaning of ‘good motherhood’ for these women and demonstrate how a globalizing discourse on ‘good motherhood’ ideology impedes decent mothering practices.
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Notes
- 1.
There were about one million reactions from all over the globe within the first month.
- 2.
Data on domestic and care work- -> migration is very poor. The International Labour Organization’s conservative estimate suggests a total of at least 53 million people worldwide employed in private households, of which 83 % are women (ILO 2013: 19). The estimation for Europe is 3,6 million whereby workers from Eastern Europe- -> constitute the majority of employees in Southern and Western Europe- -> (ibid.). However, as between 35 and 70 % of the employment in the receiving countries is reported to be undocumented, and the sending countries prefer to characterize transnational- -> workers as temporarily absent citizens which are not reported as migrants, realistic data are still sparse.
- 3.
We conducted 22 narrative biographical interviews with Ukrainian and Polish migrant women and 41 in-depth interviews with their family members in the home countries.
- 4.
A German care service would charge €6,000 to €8,000 per month for this work.
- 5.
Meaning that deceives the child.
- 6.
On the interplay of gender- ->, sexuality- -> and race in the context of migration processes, see Chap. 19, in this volume.
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Lutz, H. (2016). ‘Good Motherhood’ – A Dilemma for Migrant Women from Eastern Europe. In: Amelina, A., Horvath, K., Meeus, B. (eds) An Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23666-7_16
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