Global care crisis

Mother and child’s-eye view

Lise Isaksen*, Uma Devi** and Arlie Hochschild***

 

Abstract

Female migrant workers send money they earn in affluent homes of the North to their poor and middle class families in the South. As money flows south, caring labor flows north, creating a “care drain” in the South. Yet, we often hear the emotional story of care recipients of the North and the economic story of care givers from the South. Drawing on recent scholarship on the children of migrant workers in Costa Rica, the Philippines and Kerala, India, we explore the many ways in which such children receive care, and the emotional tasks they often face: to manage doubt as to why one’s mother left, sadness at her absence, envy of children with non-migrant mothers, and ambivalence about material gifts. Many — in both the South and North — suppress the children’s experience, normalize it, or discuss it as a private matter of a mother’s morality. But the care drain is, among other things, a tragic hidden injury that results from our social failure to find better ways to fairly distribute the wealth of the globe.

Key-words global care, migrant mothers, children, caregivers.

 

Resumo

Crise global do cuidar: a perspectiva da mãe e da criança

As trabalhadoras migrantes enviam dinheiro que ganham em casas ricas no Norte para as suas famílias pobres e de classe média no Sul. Enquanto o dinheiro caminha para o Sul, o trabalho do cuidar caminha para o Norte, criando um “défice de cuidados” no Sul. No entanto, ouvimos com frequência a história emotiva de quem recebe cuidados no Norte e a história económica dos prestadores de cuidados no Sul. Recorrendo a estudos recentes sobre filhos de trabalhadores migrantes na Costa Rica, nas Filipinas e em Kerala, na Índia, exploramos o processo através do qual estas crianças são cuidadas e as provas emocionais que têm de superar com muita frequência: gerir a incompreensão da ausência da mãe, a tristeza por essa ausência, a inveja das crianças com mães não migrantes e a ambivalência relativamente aos presentes materiais. Muitos — tanto no Sul como no Norte — ocultam a experiência dessas crianças, consideram-na normal ou discutem-na como matéria privada da moralidade da mãe. Mas o défice do cuidar, entre outros factores, é um prejuízo trágico e oculto que resulta da nossa incapacidade social para encontrar melhores formas de distribuição da riqueza do globo.

Palavras-chave globalização e cuidados pessoais, mães migrantes, crianças, prestadoras de cuidados.

 

Résumé

Crise globale des soins: le point de vue de la mère et de l’enfant

Les travailleuses migrantes envoient l’argent qu’elles gagnent dans les belles maisons du nord à leurs familles pauvres et de la classe moyenne du sud. Tandis que l’argent circule vers le sud, les soins maternels circulent vers le nord, créant un «déficit de soins» dans le sud. Cependant, on entend souvent l’histoire émouvante de ceux qui reçoivent les soins dans le nord et l’histoire économique des prestataires de soins dans le sud. À partir d’études récentes sur les enfants des travailleuses migrantes au Costa Rica, aux Philippines et à Kerala, en Inde, nous avons étudié le processus par lequel on prend soin de ces enfants et les épreuves émotionnelles qu’ils doivent souvent surmonter: incompréhension de l’absence de la mer, tristesse causée par cette absence, jalousie à l’égard des enfants dont les mères ne sont pas migrantes et ambivalence vis-à-vis des cadeaux matériels. Beaucoup — aussi bien dans le sud que dans le nord — cachent l’expérience de ces enfants, la considèrent normale ou en parlent comme d’une affaire privée de la moralité de la mère. Mais, entre autres facteurs, le déficit de soins est un préjudice tragique et caché qui découle de notre incapacité sociale à trouver de solutions mieux adaptées à la répartition des richesses sur la planète.

Mots-clés mondialisation et soins personnels, mères migrantes, enfants, prestataires de soins.

 

Resumen

Crisis global del cuidado: la perspectiva de la madre y del niño

Las trabajadoras emigrantes envían dinero que ganan en casas ricas en el Norte para sus familias pobres y de clase media en el Sur. Al mismo tiempo que el dinero va para el Sur, el trabajo del cuidado se dirige hacia el Norte, creando así un “déficit del cuidado” en el Sur. Sin embargo, oímos con frecuencia, la historia emotiva de quien recibe el cuidado en el Norte y la historia económica de quien cuida en el Sur. Recurriendo a estudios recientes sobre hijos de trabajadores emigrantes en Costa Rica, en Filipinas y en Kerala, en la India, exploramos el proceso a través del cual estos niños son cuidados y las pruebas emocionales que tienen que superar a menudo: administrar la incomprensión de la ausencia de la madre, la tristeza por esa ausencia, la envidia de las criaturas con madres no emigrantes y la ambivalencia en relación a los regalos materiales. Muchos — tanto en el Sur como en el Norte — ocultan la experiencia de esas criaturas, la consideran normal o la discuten como asunto privado de la moralidad de la madre. Pero el déficit del cuidado, entre otros factores, es un prejuicio trágico y oculto, producto de nuestra incapacidad social para encontrar mejores formas de distribución de la riqueza global.

Palabras-llave globalización y cuidados personales, madres migrantes, niños, proveedor/a de cuidados.

 

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text only available in PDF format

 

References

Abella, Manolo I., and Yogesh Atal (eds.) (1986), Middle East Interlude: Asian Workers Abroad, Bangkok, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.        [ Links ]

Anderson, Bridget (2000), Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labour, London and New York, Zed Books.

Anderson, Bridget (2003), “Just another job? The commodification of domestic labor”, in Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie R. Hochschild, Global Women: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company.

Anthias, Floya, and Gabriella Lazaridis (eds.) (2000), Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: Women on the Move, Oxford and New York, Berg.

Aranda, E. (2003), “Global care work and gendered constraints: the case of Puerto Rican transmigrants”, Gender and Society, 17 (4), pp. 609-626.

Arnold, Fred, and Nasra M. Shah (eds.) (1986), Asian Labor Migration: Pipeline to the Middle East, Boulder, CO, Westview Press.

Artico, Ceres I. (2003), Latino Families Broken by Immigration: The Adolescents, Perceptions, New York, LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC.

Asher, S. R., S. Hymel, and P. D. Renshaw (1984), “Loneliness in children”, Child Development, 55, pp. 1456-64.

Barbic, A., and Inga Miklavcic-Brezigar (1999), “Domestic work abroad: a necessity and an opportunity of rural women from the Goriska borderland region of Slovenia”, in Janet H. Momsen (ed.) Gender Migration and Domestic Service, London and New York, Routledge.

Battistella, Graziano, and Cecilia Conoco (1998), “The impact of labour migration on the children left behind: a study of elementary school children in the Philippines”, SOJURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 13 (2), pp. 220-235.

Bellah, Robert N., Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton (1984), Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Berkeley, University of California Press.

Bollier, David (2003), Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth, New York and London, Routledge.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1986), “The forms of capital”, trans. Richard Nice, chapter 9 in John G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Westport, CT, Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loic Wacquant (1992), An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Cambridge, Polity Press.

Brochmann, Grete (1993), Middle East Avenue: Female Migration from Sri Lanka to the Gulf, Boulder, CO, Westview Press.

Bryceson, Deborah, and Ulla Vuorela (2002), “Transnational families in the twenty-first century”, in D. Bryceson and U. Vuorela (eds.), The Transnational Family: New European Frontiers and Global Networks, New York, Berg, pp. 3-30.

Castles, Stephen, and Mark J. Miller (1998), The Age of Migration, New York, Guilford Press.

Coleman, James (1988), “Social capital and the creation of human capital”, American Journal of Sociology, supplement, 94, pp. S95-S120.

Constable, Nicole (1997), Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Filipina Workers, Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Constable, Nicole (2003), “Filipina workers in Hong Kong homes: household rules and relations”, in Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York, Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company.

Cox, D. (1990), “Children of migrant workers: a family relationship issue”, in Children and Migration: A New Challenge for World-Wide Social Services, Hong Kong, International Social Service.

Dalton, George (ed.) (1971), “Economic development and social change: the modernization of village communities”, American Museum Sourcebooks in Anthropology, Garden City, New York, The Natural History Press.

Djamba, Yanyi K. (2001), “Gender differences in motivations and intentions for move: Ethiopia and South Africa compared”, paper presented in Session V of the International Colloquium on Gender, Population and Development in Africa, UEPA/UAPS, INED, ENSEA, IFORD, 16-21 juillet.

Durkheim, Emile (1984), Division of Labour in Society, trans. W. D. Halls, New York, Free Press.

Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.) (2003), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York, Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company.

Ericta, Carmelita N., Mercedita E. Tia, Amalia S. Sevilla, and Teodeoro M. Orteza (2003), “Profile of Filipino Overseas Workers”, paper presented to Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC) Annual Conference, Quezon City, Manila, Philippines, National Statistics Office, October.

Espiritu, Yen Le (2003), Homebound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities and Countries, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press.

Farnam, Arie (2003), “Children left parentless as migrants flee poor Ukraine”, Christian Science Monitor, June 10.

Fevre, Ralph (2003), The New Sociology of Economic Behaviour, London and New Delhi, Sage Publications.

Fine, Ben (2003), “Social capital: the World Bank’s fungible friend”, Journal of Agrarian Change, 3 (4), pp. 586-603.

Frank, Robert (2001), “Checks in the mail”, Wall Street Journal, May 22.

Gamburd, Michele Ruth (2000), The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lanka’s Migrant Housemaids, Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

Giddens, Anthony (1991), Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Stanford, Stanford University Press.

Go, S. P., and L. T. Postrado (1986), “Filipino overseas contract workers: their families and communities”, in F. Arnold and N. Shah (eds.), Asian Labor Migration: Pipeline to the Middle East, Boulder, CO, Westview Press.

Government of India (2001), National Sample Survey Organization, 55^th Round, July 1999-June 2000.

Gulati, L. (1986) “The impact on the family of male migration to the Middle East: some evidence from Kerala, India”, in F. Arnold and N. Shah (eds.), Asian Labor Migration: Pipeline to the Middle East, Boulder, CO, Westview Press.

Habermas, Jurgen (2001), The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Harden, Garrett (1995), “The tragedy of the commons”, Science, 162, pp. 1243-1248.

Harris, J., and M. Todaro (1970), “Migration, unemployment and development: a two-sector analysis” American Economic Review, 60, pp. 126-142.

Harriss, John (2001), Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank and Social Capital, London, Leftword Books.

Hochschild, Arlie Russell (2000), “The nanny chain”, The American Prospect, 3, pp. 32-36.

Hochschild, Arlie Russell (2003), Commercialization of Intimate Life: Notes from Home and Work, Berkeley, University of California Press.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette (1994), Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of Immigration, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette (2001), Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence, Berkeley, University of California Press.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette (2003), Gender and U. S. Immigration: Contemporary Trends, Berkeley, University of California Press.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette, and Ernestine Avila (1977) “’I’m here, but I’m there’: the meanings of Latina transnational motherhood”, Gender and Society, 5, pp. 548-571.

Hood, Jane C. (1983), Becoming a Two-Job Family, New York, Praeger Publishers.

Huber, Joan, and Glenna Spitze (1983), Sex Stratification: Children, Housework and Jobs, New York, Academic Press.

Kabeer, Naila (1996), Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, London and New York, Verso.

Kandel, William, and Grace Kao (2001), “The impact of temporary labor migration on Mexican children’s educational aspirations and performance”, International Migration Review, 35 (4), pp. 1205-1233.

Kerala State Planning Board (2002), Economic Review, Thiruvananthapuram, Government of Kerala.

Khruemanee, Maliwan (2002), “All work, no play: an evaluation of health and employment rights of female Burmese migrants working as domestic workers in Bangkok”, paper presented at the Conference on Gender, Migration and Governance in Asia, Australia National University, December 5-6.

Lakoff, George (1980), Metaphors We Live By, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Levy, Robert (1973), Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press.

Lewis, Michael (2003), Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, London, W. W. Norton.

Massey, Douglas S. (1998), “March of folly: U. S. immigration policy after NAFTA”, The American Prospect, 9 (37).

Mauss, Marcel (1967), The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, New York, Norton.

Momsen, Janet Henshall (1999), Gender, Migration and Domestic Service, London, Routledge.

Morales, Hector (2001), “Left-behind households of Filipino overseas Filipino workers”, paper presented at the Asian Population Network Workshop on Migration and the Asian Family in a Globalizing World, Singapore.

Morales, Hector (2002), “Cross-border movements of people”, in Deepak Nayyar and UNU/WIDER Studies in Development Economics (eds.), Governing Globalization: Issues and Institutions, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Nowotny, H. (1981), “Women in public life in Australia”, in C. Fuchs Epstein and R. Laub Coser (eds.), Access to Power: Cross-national Studies of Women and Elites, London, George Allen & Unwin, pp. 149-165.

Ong, Ah-wa (1987), Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline: Factory Women in Malaysia, Albany, NY, SUNY Press.

Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar (2001), Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work, Stanford, Stanford University Press.

Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar (2003), “The care crisis in the Philippines: children and transnational families in the new global economy”, in Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York, Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company.

Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar (2005), Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes, Palo Alto, Stanford University Press.

Piper, Nicola, and Mina Roces (eds.) (2003), Wife of Wonder? Asian Women’s Marriage and Migration, Oxford, Rowman and Littlefield.

Pitayanon, S. (1986), “The families of the migrants”, in M. Abella and Y. Atal (eds.), Middle East Interlude: Asian Workers Abroad, Bangkok, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

Polanyi, Karl (2001, [1944]), The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Boston, Beacon Press.

Portes, Alejandro (1998), “Social capital: its origins and applications in modern sociology”, Annual Review of Sociology, 24, pp. 1-24.

Putnam, Robert (1993), Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.

Putnam, Robert (1995), “Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital”, Journal of Democracy, 6 (1), pp. 65-78.

Putnam, Robert (2000), Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York, Simon and Schuster.

Ratha, Delip (2005), “Sending money home: trends in migrant remittances”, Finance and Development, 42 (4), International Monetary Fund. Available in <www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2005/12/picture.htm>.

Rivas, Lynn May (2003), “Invisible labors: caring for the independent person”, in Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York, Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company.

Rowe, Jonathan (2002), “The promise of commons”, Earth Island Journal, pp. 28-30.

Savides, Susan (2005), “Care chains between East Europe and Norway”, work in progress, Department of Sociology, University of Bergen, Norway.

Scalabrini Migration Center (1987), Seasonal Orphans and Solo Parents: The Impact of Overseas Migration, Quezon City, Scalabrini Migration Center.

Schmalzbauer, Leah (2004), “Searching for wages and mothering from afar: the case of Honduran transnational families”, Journal of Marriage and Family, 66 (5), pp. 1317-1331.

Smith, Adam (1950 [1776]), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, London, Melthuen.

Smith, Adam (2002, [1759]), Theory of Moral Sentiments, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.

The World Bank Social Capital Thematic Group (2002), “Integrated questionnaire for the measurement of social capital”.

Titmuss, Richard (1971), The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy, New York, Vintage Books.

Tronto, Joan (1993), Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care, London, Routledge.

Umadevi, Sambasivan (2003), Care Across Borders: The Case of Migrant Female Health Workers from kerala in the Middle East, unpublished paper, part of the Ongoing Project on Gender and Globalization, Care Across Borders, University of Bergen.

Van Staveren, Irene (2000), “A conceptualization of social capital in economics: commitment and spillover effects”, Working Paper Series, 324, The Hague, Institute of Social Studies.

United Nations (2002), International Migration Report: 2002.

Wacquant, Loic (1996), The Passion of the Pugilist: Desire and Domination in the Making of Prizefighters, unpublished manuscript, Sociology Department, University of California at Berkeley.

Wacquant, Loic (2004), Body and Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer, New York, Oxford University Press.

Wheatley, Alan (2003), “Remittances: an economic lifeline or a liability?”, Reuters News Agency article, December 18, http://in.news.yahoo.com/031218/137/2afq3.html.

Woolcock, Michael (2001), “The place of social capital in understanding social and economic outcomes”, Isuma, 2 (1).

Yeates, Nicola (2004), “Global care chains: critical reflections and lines of inquiry”, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6 (3), pp. 369-391.

Zelizer, Viviana A. (2003), “Circuits of capitalism”, in Victor Nice and Richard Swedberg Princeton (eds.), The Economic Sociology of Capitalism, Princeton University Press.

Zlotnik, Hania 2003, “The global dimensions of female migration”. Available in http://www.migrationinformation.org.

 

* Sociologist at the University of Bergen, Norway. E-mail: lise.isaksen@sos.uib.no

** Emeritus professor of Economics and Women’s Studies at the University of Kerala.

*** University of California, Berkeley. E-mail: ahochsch@berkeley.edu