Maternalism as a citizenship ideology: maternal practice among undocumented migrant mothers

In its various understandings, maternalism seeks recognition for the citizenship potential of mothering. Yet from a feminist perspective it remains controversial for its essentializing tendencies and universalist pretensions. In this paper we argue for a reconceptualization of maternalism as a citizenship ideology, based on an intersectional analysis of the life stories of and participant observation among x undocumented migrant single mothers from the South living in Belgium and France. Their life stories attest to formal and societal exclusion, yet also the daily struggle of survival, building and imagining a future for themselves and their children. They wage for support and build informal allegiances and networks of solidarity within and across kinship circles and cultural and transnational boundaries. Therefore their motherwork is not merely limited to the private domain, but extends to public and political spheres, recasting traditional understandings of citizenship.

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