Undocumented mothers raising citizens: a study with lone undocumented migrant women in their interactions with childcare, school and home

Subtitle:De opvoeding van kinderen zonder papieren tot burgers : getuigenissen van alleenstaande moeders in hun interacties in opvang, school en thuis

This paper is exploring the practices of raising child(ren) by undocumented migrants mothers on their citizenship potentials. The case study concerns an in-depth ethnographic study of the lives of seven undocumented mothers living on Belgian soil. I consider their daily interactions and discourses in the context of childcare, school and practices of homemaking and identity. The mothers demonstrate an expertise in combining various logistic and moral resources on local and transnational level in raising their child. Despite their unequal position, they engage themselves in their childrenU+2019s school context and negotiate between their personal and cultural values and societyU+2019s normative discourses and practices of child raising. In the context of home they are reproducing but also creating new feelings of belonging, with a place for their perceived differences. Therefore their mothering is not merely limited to the private domain, but extends to public and political spheres, recasting and challenging traditional understandings of citizenship.

Publication year:2011