The migration of impoverished workers from developing countries to those already developed is akin to a transaction. By tending to work deemed unsatisfactory by middle to upper-class women, migrant workers improve their families’ financial backing to the extent that they become the primary breadwinners within their households. The term household is used loosely in describing the relationship these women have with their direct families. Despite the evident increase in financial status proposed by domestic working, migrant workers often feel as if there is a tear between the connective tissue of their families and themselves. These women find difficulty in fulfilling their roles as mothers while also tending to domestic work (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 22-23).  Transnational mothering is a means of negotiating physical familial absences with commodification, in the forms of remittances and gifts, and communication through means such as technology. Transnational mothering aims to lessen the familial gap experienced by families who are dispersed abroad. This form of mothering often makes use of cultural ties, ties that call reminiscences of earlier life prior to migration. While difficult, transnational mothering is not an impossibility. Asunchion Fresnoza-Flot’s Migration Status and Transnational Mothering: The Case of Filipino Migrants in France identifies some forms of transnational mothering used by female Filipino migrants. While this essay pays close attention to Filipino migrants as a minority, the forms of transnational mothering can be shifted in ways that are analogous to forms used by migrants of other nationalities.

Transnational mothering often takes the form of gifts. Gifts are often used to express an individual’s gratitude, love, and, in the case of migrant workers, existence within a family. This existence is stemmed from the physicality of gifts. Unlike remittances, gifts hold a meaning beyond that of monetary value. Gifts employ a sense of upward mobility in that the gifts purchased would have been unattainable without migrant work. These gifts serve as a subtle, albeit evident, constant remainder that migrant work is a necessity. Filipino migrant workers have made use of “balikbayan boxes”: boxes that contain souvenirs from the nation that the migrant is working in (Fresnoza-Flot’s 259). Through these boxes, migrant families attain a physical artifact from the migrant worker’s current land. These souvenirs temporarily fill the void created through the emigration of their mother. Gift giving is not the sole means of maintaining a motherly connection when abroad.

To lessen the communicative gap proposed by migrant work, workers have often created a schedule for calling their loved ones. Calling is the most immediate form of communication available to these individuals. To expedite this communication, migrant workers have purchased cell phones plans for their families in their native homes (Fresnoza-Flot’s 260). The costs of these plans are often in addition to monthly admittances. Olivia, a Filipino mother of four, describes the necessity of regular communication:

For me, we [mothers] need to maintain a regular communication with our children, even if we are far away from them. It is the first thing to do, communicate. The problem is that other Filipino migrants prefer to save money, saying that international calls cost a lot. So, what happened to their children? You see? … For me, the cost doesn’t bother me, even if I pay huge amounts of money; it’s for my children.

Through this regular communication, migrant workers are able to become knowledgeable of their home family’s current state: most notably, the well-being of their children and prominent family events. Filipino migrants make use of “Pasabi”, a popular mode of communication in which the friends of the migrant worker are asked to relay physical forms of endearment, such as hugs and kisses, to the home family of the worker (Fresnoza-Flot’s 259). These hugs and kisses represent a physicality that is absent from the lives of home families when their mothers have gone to work abroad. The physicality, although from someone else, is efficient in showing the yearning that a migrant worker experiences for their home country once working in another country.

Transnational mothering aims to disrupt the barriers imposed by familial dispersal. While this form of mothering is not the same as immediate mothering, familial connections are maintained.

Sources:

FRESNOZA-FLOT, ASUNCION. “Migration Status And Transnational Mothering: The Case Of Filipino Migrants In France.” Global Networks 9.2 (2009): 252-270. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.