Publication details
Vietnamese Mothers and Czech Nannies: Competing Mothering Strategies
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The literature on delegated motherhood has tended to focus on migrant domestic workers and their relations with non-migrant middle class families. In addition, it has accentuated the ways that motherhood is challenged when the care is done by paid carers without biological ties to the child. Using the intersectional approach, and looking at the situation of Czech nannies working for Vietnamese immigrant families in the Czech Republic, this paper examines conflicting strategies of doing motherhood. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted with working mothers, mother workers and children, the paper looks into the moral hierarchies between Vietnamese mothers and Czech nannies. In so doing, the paper addresses the micropolitics of paid child care where the family, not the nanny, is of immigrant background. It demonstrates how notions of motherhood are re-negotiated in the daily lives of families. The paper argues that mothering strategies and shared motherhood are full of tensions and contradictions that must be understood in the context of the power relations that operate in the private sphere. |