Mothering from a Distance: The Lived Experiences of Filipina Transnational Mothers in Singapore

Transnational motherhood continues to grow among Filipina mothers. It resulted in economic prosperity and quality of life of Filipino families but caused family pressures within the sphere of motherhood. This qualitative study is grounded through the philosophical lens of phenomenology aimed to explore the lived experiences of transnational mothers. It seeks to understand their life history, present experiences that redefined their motherhood, and reflections of the future. The lived experiences of transnational mothers began with the experience of the personal and structural dimensions of poverty in the past. Their decision to embark on labor migration was primarily instrumental to alleviate their life condition. However, mothering from a distance has ensued emotional, social, and psychological strains. To cope with the situation, they observed four central coping ways: the role of faith and prayer; the repression of emotional strains through work and friends; focus and positive thinking; and the rationalization of distance by way of regular virtual communication and remittances. The hopes of transnational mothers revealed their yearning for family reunification predicated on improving their family life through financial security, savings, and children's education. This intersection between motherhood and labor migration has therefore created new family forms, structures, roles, meaning, and expectations.

Depressive Symptoms and Emotional Distress of Transnational Mothers: A Scoping Review

Background: Female led migration is a recent trend that has been gaining momentum, particularly in Latin America. However, little attention has been given to the psychological consequences of mothers who leave their children in their country of origin and migrate to a host country to work. Therefore, it is important to investigate the mental health status of transnational mothers and to further identify issues for intervention and supportive services.Methods: PubMed, PsycINFO, ERIC, CENTRAL, Scopus, and ScienceDirect databases were searched systematically for peer-reviewed articles published from inception through July 2019. The search included the following terms: migrant, immigrant, transnational, transnational mother, AND mood disorders, depressive symptoms, and depression. Initially, 8,375 studies were identified. After exclusionary criteria were applied, 17 studies were identified and included in the review.Results: We found six quantitative studies that investigated depressive symptoms among transnational mothers. Of these studies, three found a positive association between transnational motherhood and depressive symptoms; three of these articles found a null correlation. A total of eight qualitative studies and three mixed-methods studies were found that addressed depressive symptoms and emotional distress among transnational mothers. The eight qualitative studies identified highlighted the significant emotional distress transnational mothers experience. Lastly, the three mixed-methods studies similarly discussed the emotional hardships faced by transnational mothers.Implications: The studies identified suggest that depressive symptoms and emotional distress are prevalent among transnational mothers. Therefore, public health social workers and other mental health providers need to focus on developing strategies to identify and screen transnational mothers for depressive symptoms.

Weapons of the weak twisted in jars of love. The transnational maternal foodways of Polish migrants in Brussels

The aim of the article is to analyse social change in the area of the gendered care practices and identities of migrant mothers, who were forced by the social and economic situation in Poland to (illegally) work abroad without their children and families. It asks what kind of experiences of social change we can find if we look at the foodways practised by transnational mothers from the working classes. The concepts of "transnational maternal foodways" and "maternal bustling around foodways" will be used as tropes to discuss and explore the gendered changes in motherhood experienced by Polish migrants. The analysis presented here is based on the results of extensive fieldwork conducted both in the villages and small towns of Eastern Poland and in Belgium (particularly in its capital, Brussels), and on 54 autobiographical narrative interviews with Polish women who, during the two decades after the fall of socialism in Poland (1989–2010), worked permanently or cyclically abroad. The analysis combines critical food studies with gender and migration studies.

Mothers and nation in the global era: The role of evangelical Protestant mothers in the discursive construction of multicultural Korea

Despite scholarly work examining mothers’ roles in nation-building, few studies have investigated how religion plays a role in the process. Comparing two groups of evangelical Protestant mothers, namely, transnational and domestic mothers, this study argues that religion powerfully shapes mothers’ understanding of multiculturalism but only alongside their cosmopolitan experiences. Drawing on in-depth interviews with evangelical mothers originating from Seoul, South Korea, the article examines how mothers perceive multicultural families and children, in comparison with Korean citizens, and investigates the strategies they use in making discursive boundaries to include immigrants. The findings show that transnational mothers have a more inclusive perception of multicultural families and children than domestic mothers, through their use of the interconnected languages of religion and cosmopolitanism. The article claims that an intersectional lens helps us understand mothers’ unique ways of imagining a multicultural Korea, emphasizing their complex positions in families, churches, and global communities. The study contributes to bringing a religious and cosmopolitan focus into the literature on mothers and nation, negating the monolithic media portrayal of religious women as a homogeneous group preserving a total identity in conservative views.

Untold stories: Jamaican transnational mothers in New York City

Globalization and contemporary international labour migration continue to transform women’s lives. Moreover, gender stereotypes, biased cultural norms, biological responsibilities and economic marginalization serve to constrain women disproportionately, particularly mothers. Indeed, globalization and migration increases existing pressures associated with motherhood. They intensify societal expectations of women, and often result in extreme distress. Many transnational mothers suffer in silence with little or no chance to share their stories and be heard. This study explores the experiences of Jamaican transnational mothers in New York City and documents their stories in light of current research which investigates how transnational motherhood transgresses gender stereotypes and pushes the boundaries of gender roles and expectations. The stories shared in this paper vividly capture the women’s narratives of loss, longing, empowerment and shared responsibilities across borders.

How Transnational Mothering is Seen to be ‘Troubling’: Contesting and Reframing Mothering

This article aims to examine how changes in mothering induced by international migration become transformed into ‘troubles’. Based on the analysis of 79 selected articles on transnational families published between 2004 and 2013 in national press and Internet media portals in Lithuania, along with interviews with transnational mothers conducted between 2008 and 2014, the authors raise questions about how changes in mothering due to migration come to be constructed as troubles and how mothers who emigrate to work abroad while their children remain living in the country of origin engage in mothering display. The authors bridge Goffman’s theoretical ideas with the current frame of family display suggested by Finch to extend the understanding about the ways the scripts of ‘good mothering’ are both referenced and transformed through multi-local interactions. The analysis of the portrayal of transnational mothers in mass media demonstrates how mothering across borders is scripted. The cases discussed by the authors show the way transnational mothers respond to the discrediting scripts and normalize troubles, investing in bringing new meanings to mothering. The analysis of newly emerging transnational practices gives empirical evidence to the assumption that transnational mothers do not simply ‘follow’ scripts but also shift them and create new stories of mothering.