Charting carework at the crossroads of irregular migration and border securitisation practices
Version 2 2024-06-13, 12:28Version 2 2024-06-13, 12:28
Version 1 2018-08-30, 15:11Version 1 2018-08-30, 15:11
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-13, 12:28authored byBM Cochrane
Refugee and asylum-seeking mothers perform the duties of carework during and after the complex circumstances associated with irregular journeys and settlement in host countries. Utilising motherhood as a central frame, the paper links policies of border securitisation with the tangible gendered consequences they produce in the daily carework of mothers. Past literature has explored gendered implications of border crossings and settlement, but rarely have authors examined these themes in tandem and never in the context of mothers and their carework. Based on narrative interviews with refugee and asylum-seeking mothers, I analyse how mothers’ everyday lives, and more specifically, their performance of carework is disrupted during migration, by boat journeys and detention, and after migration, by limited governmental assistance and restricted family reunification in host countries.