Transnational mothering and forced migration: Understanding the experiences of Zimbabwean mothers in the UK

A growing body of scholarship has documented the experiences of different groups of migrants involved in the maintenance and development of transnational families worldwide showing that proximity is not a prerequisite of family life and that families can successfully be done from a distance. While m...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European journal of women's studies 2012-11, Vol.19 (4), p.428-443
Main Authors: Madziva, Roda, Zontini, Elisabetta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Europe
Families & family life
Family
Family Life
Forced migration
Gender
Labor Migration
Migrant Workers
Migrants
Migration
Motherhood
Mothers
Parenthood
Transnationalism
United Kingdom
Womens studies
Zimbabwe
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A growing body of scholarship has documented the experiences of different groups of migrants involved in the maintenance and development of transnational families worldwide showing that proximity is not a prerequisite of family life and that families can successfully be done from a distance. While most work deals with the experiences of labour migrants less attention has been paid to forced migrants. Still little is known about families that fail to operate transnationally and are broken by the migration experience. For instance, when can we say that this type of family cannot be sustained? This article, drawing on the transnational motherhood literature and on Zontini (2010) previous study on Filipino labour migrants in Southern Europe, highlights the factors that shape transnational parenting. The authors then use this framework to explore the experiences of a group of Zimbabwean asylum seeking mothers in the UK. In doing so, the authors point out some of the specificities of this particular group; highlighting the differentiated impact of transnationalism and contributing to refining the literature on transnational parenthood.
ISSN:1350-5068
1461-7420
DOI:10.1177/1350506812466609