The CUNY Graduate Center presented an opportunity to share research projects, theses and dissertation topics in its first “Lightning Talks Challenge,” which was judged by the department chair and senior professors. Here’s my talk titled “Migrant Mothers and the Global Care Chain.”
INTRODUCTION: There’s a harsh choice made by millions of women all over the world – they leave their children behind and migrate to countries where they can find work to support their families. They make this choice because they can’t find jobs at home that pay them a living wage. Most are poor or working-class women from developing countries whose husbands or partners are unemployed or underemployed, forcing them to step up as breadwinners. Often they’re not in relationships with men they can rely on as partners and fathers.
CENTRAL ISSUE: What kind of work do these women find in such places as the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, and Hong Kong? They are both pushed and pulled into the care industry. They end up working as nannies and housekeepers with middle-class or rich families. Nannies feed a “global care chain,” that sociologist Arlie Hochschild calls “the importation of care and love from poor countries to rich ones.” Hochschild cites a corresponding “care drain” in the global south where these women are traditionally responsible for the young, the old and the sick. The broader historical context, of course, is vast economic inequities exacerbated by globalization, gendered labor markets, colonialism and neocolonialism, multinational corporate power, as well as racism and sexism.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: My research and mission is informed by personal experience on two levels – first, my sister and I were left behind in Jamaica when she was 3 and I was 5; I didn’t see my mother again until I was 28. And second – I came to America on a student visa but ended up as a nanny for a rich Jewish family in Fort Lee, N.J., who sponsored my immigration petition. It took seven years to finally get my “green card.”
IMPACT ON CHILDREN: Research overwhelmingly shows that children left behind by migrant mothers are vulnerable to many risks – even when left with relatives. They suffer emotional trauma along with adverse psychosocial effects. While the pain of separation is felt on both sides, children bear the brunt of it because they feel abandoned. For mothers, the sacrifice may be worth it to pull their families out of poverty and educate their children. But as one Latino child in a University of Texas study noted, you may have nice clothes and sneakers, but “you can never get the love of a mother from someone else.”
SCOPE OF ISSUE: Globalization is one of several factors contributing to the increasing feminization of migration. More than half (51.9%) of the people migrating to developed countries in 2015 were women. The U.N. estimates that 72.9 million women moved to developed countries. It’s impossible to know how many were mothers or how many left children behind with relatives, but these women are predominantly of child-bearing age.
REMITTANCES: Money sent home by international migrants from their earnings amounted to $431.6 billion in 2015, according to the World Bank. Remittances are crucial to the GDP of developing countries, and disincentivize economic growth and job creation in the global south.
PROJECT GOALS: My mission is deeper research into migrant mothers around the globe, advocacy for the children left behind, including a blog and website to share real-life stories and to build a supportive community. Of course, the greater goal is exposure so policy makers and politicians can implement possible remedies. The role of the historian or ethnographer is to document the impact of these global trends on real families in hopes of mobilizing effective action.
CONCLUSION: Very little attention is paid to the downside of globalization and economic inequity – all the children separated from and not nurtured by their own mothers on a daily basis. These same mothers are nurturing the children of rich women who often pursue high-level careers. You could say that by spending less time with their own children, both sets of mothers get to make more money. But as long as global economic inequality and predatory capitalism – with roots in centuries of slavery – are allowed to continue, mothers will face harsh choices in order to better their lives and the lives of their families.