Article

Myra's Predicament: Motherhood Dilemmas for Migrant Care Workers

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Abstract

In this article, I examine the struggle of East European female migrants to reconcile their deeply held values about good mothering practices with the imperative of leaving their families to work abroad. Over the last 20 years, the concept of intensive motherhood has gained significant traction as an ideal and a norm, not only in Western care worker receiving countries, but also in post-socialist Eastern European migrant sending countries. This is surprising given that, during state socialism, the co-breadwinner model in combination with state support from cradle to grave was favored over the “bourgeois” male breadwinner and housewife model. With the case study of a Ukrainian shuttle migrant to Poland, I demonstrate that the emerging motherhood ideal has become a growing problem for circular migrants who leave their home, children, spouses and elderly parents behind. These workers are caught in dilemmas as the necessity of leaving their children behind to generate an income for their families is incompatible with an ideal of good motherhood that emphasizes the primacy of the mother–child bond, requires physical closeness, and condemns long absences from home.

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... • Rural working mothers who were intra-provincial migrants and had a smaller number of children were more likely to bring their children to the cities than rural working mothers who were inter-provincial migrants. of emigration and remittance (Bojarczuk & Muhlau, 2018). For example, a large number of women have moved from the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe to work in the western and southern regions of Europe (Lutz, 2015). Many South Asian women work overseas as domestic helpers in a distinct, gender-specific pattern of labour mobility, and a large percentage of these women are mothers (Lam & Yeoh, 2018). ...
... Many South Asian women work overseas as domestic helpers in a distinct, gender-specific pattern of labour mobility, and a large percentage of these women are mothers (Lam & Yeoh, 2018). Many of these women cannot move together with their children and must practice motherhood at a distance (Boccagni, 2012), balancing the necessity of leaving their children behind to generate income for their families with the ideal of motherhood that emphasises closeness and condemns long absences from home (Guo & Shen, 2014;Lutz, 2015;Zhao & Hannum, 2019). ...
Article
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Background In China, an increasing number of rural mothers participate in urban labour markets, but little is known about their decisions regarding childcare while living in these cities. Why do some rural mothers migrate to the cities with their children, whereas others leave their children behind in the countryside? Methods This study analysed 1852 samples from the 2016 China Migrant Dynamic Survey of rural migrant mothers collected in the Pearl River Delta (PRD). These mothers were registered with agricultural hukou outside of the PRD and had at least one child under 18 years of age. Results The results indicated that 57.8% of these mothers migrated together with their children. Rural migrant mothers who were self‐employed, had a higher level of household income on a log10 scale and had a longer duration of migration were more willing to adopt closely performing motherhood than rural migrant mothers who were not self‐employed. Additionally, rural working mothers who were intra‐provincial migrants and had a smaller number of children were more likely to bring their children to the cities than rural working mothers who were inter‐provincial migrants. Conclusions This study works to strengthen the understanding of rural migrant working mothers' childcare strategies, provide insights for future policy studies and contribute to evidence‐based recommendations for policymakers regarding internal rural‐to‐urban migration, migrant women and the wellbeing of the families of migrants.
... Both figures suggest that a care drain might be of limited relevance in the studied crossborder flow. By care drain we refer to the lack of care caused by the absence of female migrants from their own households (which is often discussed in connection with female-dominated migration flows from Poland, Romania or Ukraine to care-related jobs in German-speaking countries -see Lutz, 2015Lutz, , 2017aPiperno, 2012;Lutz & Palenga-Möllenbeck, 2012;Sekulová, 2013). With regard to the care drain another interesting figure is the share of qualified nurses among caregivers. ...
... Research typically focuses on the exploitative work conditions in private households. Also, care shortfalls in the source countries and complicated maintenance of family relationships are expected to be caused by the absence of a mother or wife Lutz, 2015Lutz, , 2017Piperno, 2012;Lutz & Palenga-Möllenbeck, 2012;Sekulová, 2013;Zontini, 2010 To demonstrate the relevance of economic factors when studying care migration within a labour migration framework, we note several instances in which a carer's labour market position in Slovakia is important for their situation in Austria. Local unemployment levels and personal employment situation explain part of the variation in income from providing care in Austria. ...
... Both figures suggest that a care drain might be of limited relevance in the studied crossborder flow. By care drain we refer to the lack of care caused by the absence of female migrants from their own households (which is often discussed in connection with female-dominated migration flows from Poland, Romania or Ukraine to care-related jobs in German-speaking countries -see Lutz, 2015Lutz, , 2017aPiperno, 2012;Lutz & Palenga-Möllenbeck, 2012;Sekulová, 2013). With regard to the care drain another interesting figure is the share of qualified nurses among caregivers. ...
... Research typically focuses on the exploitative work conditions in private households. Also, care shortfalls in the source countries and complicated maintenance of family relationships are expected to be caused by the absence of a mother or wife Lutz, 2015Lutz, , 2017Piperno, 2012;Lutz & Palenga-Möllenbeck, 2012;Sekulová, 2013;Zontini, 2010). While these insights are all valid, they capture only part of the situation under study. ...
Book
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This volume addresses the main underlying causes of care migration and aims to draw attention to the increasing inequalities in provision and access to care on a European scale. The book focuses on care migra- tion from and to central and eastern European countries and contains chapters on migration to and from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Ukraine. It aims to highlight the socio-historic, political, demographic and economic fac- tors and institutions that drive and organise care migration. Where do migrant caregiver come from; what is their social background and labour market situation? Under what conditions do they work and what is the role of recruitment agencies in defining these conditions? How compet- itive is the transnational care labour market? By discussing these ques- tions and the different care migration trends between European coun- tries, the book shows that the constantly increasing marketisation of care in recent decades has resulted in growing inequalities, not only within and between households, but on the transnational level.
... It is important to highlight the role of maternal grandmothers, however, who became an essential resource in assisting the mothers who remained, especially in families with young children. Largely in line with the socialist heritage of the extended family and the gendered ideology of care (Lutz, 2015), migrant fathers essentially counted on practical support from grandmothers. For Adam, for instance, who went to work in Sweden a couple of months before the birth of his second daughter, delegating his fatherly involvement to his wife's mother was crucial but also natural: My wife's mother [now in her 70s] used to help a lot. ...
... "Global chains of care" play one of the key roles in globalization processes and policies. "Migrant women have come to replace working middle-class women in private households because their caring practices are seen as "mother-like," while they themselves are yearning to be an intensive mother for their children left behind" (Lutz, 2015). ...
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Chapter
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Eileen Boris, associate professor of history at Howard University, is spending the 1993/94 year as co-holder of the Bicentennial Chair in American Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is the author of the forthcoming Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States. 1. For the most recent use of maternalism to structure an argument about women reformers in the Progressive Era, see Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992); see also, Sonya Michel and Seth Koven, "Womanly Duties: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of the Welfare State in France, Great Britain and the United States, 1880-1920," American Historical Review, 95 (October 1990): 1076-1108; for examples of alternative perspectives, Sybil Lipshultz, "Social Feminism and Legal Discourse, 1908-1923," Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 2 (Fall 1989): 131-160; Diane Kirkby, Alice Henry: The Power of Pen and Voice, The Life of an Australian-American Labor Reformer (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 2. For a powerful critique of the consequences of maternalist thought, see Mary Frances Berry, The Politics of Parenthood: Child Care, Women's Rights, and the Myth of the Good Mother (New York: Viking, 1993). 2. One exception is Skocpol and Ritter, "Gender and the Origins of Modern Social Policies in Britain and the United States," Studies in American Political Development 5 (Spring 1991): 36-83, but they argue that the failure of class legislation, as seen in the Lochner decision of 1905, left only policies for women available for state policy. Ann Shola Orloff, "Gender in Early U.S. Social Policy," Journal of Policy History 3 (Fall 1991):249-281; Linda Gordon, ed., Women, the State, and Welfare (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). 3. For classic statements, see essays in Zillah Eisenstein, ed., Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979); and Karen V. Hansen and Ilene J. Philipson, Women, Class, and the Feminist Imagination: A Socialist-Feminist Reader (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990). For a critique of duality, see Joan Kelly, "The Double Vision of Feminist Theory," in Women, History and Theory: The Essays of Joan Kelly (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984). 4. Eileen Boris, "Regulating Industrial Homework: The Triumph of 'Sacred Motherhood'" Journal of American History 71 (March 1985): 745-763; Eileen Boris, Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States (New York: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 1994). 5. Kathryn Kish Sklar, Florence Kelley and Women's Political Culture: "Doing the Nation's Work" (New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming 1994); for social democrat, see Wendy Sarvasy, "Beyond the Difference Versus Equality Policy Debate: Post-Suffrage Feminism, Citizenship, and the Quest for a Feminist Welfare State," Signs 17 (Winter 1992): 329-362; for another interpretation of women like Kelley, see Nancy Cott, "What's in a Name? The Limits of 'Social Feminism'; or, Expanding the Vocabulary of Women's History," Journal of American History, 76 (December 1989): 809-829. 6. Rose Schneiderman, "Women in Industry Under The National Recovery Administration," c. 1935, Papers of the Women's Trade Union League, Reel 114, frames 463, 468, Library of Congress; "Lace Manufacturing Industry," July 28, 1933, 112, NRA Hearing Transcript, 244-01, RG9, National Archives; "Brief prepared by Women's Bureau for Miss Schneiderman's Use at Hearing," 5, Homework Committee Records, RG9, Box 8384; Lucy Mason, "Hearing on Regulations for Home Work System for the Code of Fair Competition for the Knitted Outerwear Industry," Oct. 8, 1934, 227, NRA Hearing Transcript, 243-1-02; Frieda Miller comments in Proceedings, Conference of State Industrial Homework Law Administrators, 1937, 20, Women's Bureau Survey Materials, 1930-50, Folder, "Homework," RG86, National Archives. 7. "Rough Notes for the Dramatization of 'Women Workers and What They Do,'" RG86, Box 11, folder "Texas State Survey: 1932." 8. Survey material relating to Women's Bureau Bulletin n. 126, Mary Loretta Sullivan and Bertha Blair, "Women in Texas Industries: Hours, Wages, Working Conditions, and Home Work," (Washington: GPO, 1936): survey n. 62, 76, 88, 93, 4, RG86; New York State...
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Neben einer immer älter werdenden Gesellschaft und der Herausbildung neuer Familienformen in den letzten Jahrzehnten können wir auch eine Erhöhung der Arbeitsmarktbeteiligung der Frauen in der Europäischen Union beobachten. Auf Grund dieser Änderungen haben sich politische Maßnahmen, die die Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf fördern sollen, vom „hässlichen Entlein“ zum „schönen Schwan“ entwickelt, d.h. eine in der Vergangenheit relativ uninteressante Politik gewinnt nun erheblich an Bedeutung. Die Ziele, Regelungen und Gegebenheiten in den einzelnen Ländern sind jedoch sehr unterschiedlich. Um die negativen Auswirkungen einer alternden Gesellschaft einzuschränen, wurden hohe Beschäftigungs- und Aktivierungsquoten ein wichtiges Ziel in der Strategie der Europäischen Union, und die Überwindung der Hindernisse für den Eintritt und die Rückkehr auf den Arbeitsmarkt entwickelte sich zu einer Art signum temporis. Öffentliche Maßnahmen sind meist auf die Chancen und Möglichkeiten von Einzelpersonen auf den Arbeitsmärkten ausgerichtet. Mütter und Frauen im Allgemeinen sind ein sehr gutes Beispiel für Personen, die aktiviert werden könnten.
Article
The biggest challenge for sex equality in the 21st Century is to dismantle inequality between women and men’s family care responsibilities. American law has largely accomplished formal equality in parenting by doing away with explicit gender classifications, along with many of the assumptions that fostered them. In a dramatic change from the mid-20th Century, law relating to family, work, civic participation and their various intersections is now virtually all sex-neutral. As the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Nevada Department of Social Services v. Hibbs demonstrates, both Congress and the Court have accepted the feminist critique of sex roles and stereotyping as engines of discrimination and inequality. But the resultant legal reforms address only formal inequality; the challenge of lived inequality remains. Changes in legal norms must be embraced throughout the culture before their promise will be made real. The most influential and resistant obstacle to actualizing gender equality is the continuing cultural practice of romanticizing the mother as the best possible caretaker. As the Court has recognized, we cannot simply accept existing gendered family patterns as results of freely made individual choices. Persistently gendered family care becomes self-fulfilling, and solidifies the very inequalities—economic, political and social—that the law strives to dislodge. Given that mothers’ unequal burden in the home is a fulcrum of broader sex discrimination, it is particularly disturbing that one of the most persistent strains in contemporary culture is a celebration of mothers’ domesticity and their role as the default parent, and that women’s rights organizations are buying in. The “new maternalism,” as we call it, is evident along the political spectrum and across popular culture, from Sarah Palin’s Mama Grizzlies to the internet advocacy group Moms Rising, and from movies, television and advertising to countless “mommy blogs.” This phenomenon amounts to a distinctive, post-feminist understanding of motherhood that studiously avoids engaging with the gendered division of parenting and refuses to make any demands on men. By appealing to mothers, and not fathers, new maternalism risks reinforcing mothers’ second shift and the countless inequalities that flow from it. The sophisticated policy advocates who participate in the promotion of new maternalism have made a strategic choice to tap a culturally potent, contemporary form of gender identity politics. But they jeopardize their own advocacy goals when parenting and care work are cast in exclusively female terms, as a new—but fundamentally retro and feminine—maternalism. Our analysis of the culture of new maternalism and its legal consequences comes from a deep appreciation of the enormous value and satisfactions of parenting; new maternalism has such appeal precisely because it correctly embraces what is meaningful about family care. Its error, we contend, lies in the tacit exclusion of men, whether willing or reluctant, from engaged parenting’s benefits and responsibilities. We conclude that equality outside the home requires equality inside it, which is why we come out against the new maternalism.
Article
This article compares family policies in Poland and the Czech Republic in order to explain why the two countries have different policies. Previous studies are right to claim that post-communist family policies are basically going in a refamilialist direction that gives mothers a greater incentive to return to the home, but they tend to neglect the important differences that exist between countries. Although previous studies were correct to emphasize the role of the anti-feminist communist legacy in explaining this trend toward re-famialilization, it is a country's economic-institutional legacy that goes the farthest in explaining the differences in policies.
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