Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research 2019, 20 (1): 68-90 | DOI: 10.13060/25706578.2019.20.1.463

Sentimental Money - What Is the Cost of Transnational Motherhood?

Petra Ezzeddine

This paper seeks to analyse the material and social practices of Ukrainian transnational mothers - female domestic workers - who are living and working in the Czech Republic. The author focuses on the specific emotional nature of domestic work - precarious working conditions and interactions with employers - which has become an important source of their income. In the second part of the paper, the author focuses on the social and sentimental significance of material objects (gifts) and remittances for the experience and practice of transnational motherhood. She explains how the consumption of remittances for their children works as an important strategy for transnational mothers to effectively identify and maintain their maternal role in the transnational social environment. She argues that this specific commodification of motherhood not only reflects the transformation of maternal practices (both of female employers and migrant women) in late capitalism, but also reflects gender, social, and other inequalities in the context of two transforming post-socialist societies.

Keywords: transnational motherhood, Ukraine, migrant domestic workers, remittances

Published: March 1, 2019Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Ezzeddine, Petra. 2019. "Sentimental Money - What Is the Cost of Transnational Motherhood?" Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research 20(1):68-90.
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Anderson, B. 2000. Doing the Dirty Work: The Global Politics of Domestic Labou., London, New York: Zed Books.
    2. Appadurai, A.1986. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    3. Breckner R. 2001. Biographical Interview. Nepublikované výukové materiály pro Summer School on Narrative Approach to Migration 2002, Budapest: CEU.
    4. Cliggett, L. 2005. "Remitting the Gift: Zambian Mobility and Anthropological Insights for Migration Studies." Population. Space Place, Vol. 11, No. 1: 35-48. Go to original source...
    5. Čižinský P. a kol. 2014. Zahraniční zaměstnanci na trhu práce v EU a ve vybraných zemích. Praha: Sdružení pro integraci a migraci.
    6. Denzin, N. K. 1989. Applied Social Research Methods Series, Vol. 16, Interpretive Interactionism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
    7. Douglas, M., Isherwood, M. 1979. The World of Goods. New York: Basic Books.
    8. Eckstein, S. 2004. "Dollarization and Its Discontents: Remittances and the Remaking of Cuba in the Post-Soviet Era." Comparative Politics, Vol. 36, No. 3: 313. Go to original source...
    9. Erel, U. 2007. "Constructing Meaningful Lives: Biographical Methods in Research on Migrant Women." Sociological Research Online, Vol. 12, No. 4: 1-14. Go to original source...
    10. Ehrenreich, B. 2003. "Maid to Order." Pp. 85-104 in Ehrenreich, B., Hochschild, A. (eds.). Global Woman (Nannies, Maids and Sex workers in New Economy). New York: Holt Paperback.
    11. Ezzeddine, P. 2012. "Mateřství na dálku. Transnacionální mateřství ukrajinských migrantek v České republice." Gender, rovné příležitosti, výzkum, roč. 13, č. 1: 24-32.
    12. Ezzeddine, P. (2014): Who cares? (Ageing, Care and Migration). Urban People, Vol. 6, No. 2: 219-237.
    13. Ezzedine, P. a kol. 2014. Migrantky a nájemná práce v domácnosti v České republice. Praha: Sdružení pro integraci a migraci.
    14. Ezzedine, P., Kocourek, J. 2007. Internal Restriction on Czech Labour Market. Prague: IOM
    15. Fisher-Rosenthal, W., Rosenthal, G. 2001. "Analýza narativně-biografických rozhovorů." Biograf, č. 24. Dostupné z: http://www.biograf.org/clanek.php?clanek=v2402.
    16. Goldring, L. 2004. "Family and Collective Remittances to Mexico: A Multi-Dimensional Typology of Remittances." Development and Change, Vol. 35, No. 4: 799-840. Go to original source...
    17. Hochschild, A. 1979. "Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure." American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 85, No. 3: 551-575. Go to original source...
    18. Hochschild, A. R. 1983. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
    19. Hochschild, A. 1989. The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. New York: Viking.
    20. Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. 2001. Doméstica/Immigrant Woman Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence. Berkeley, CA: University California Press.
    21. Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. 2007. Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Afluence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
    22. Kofman, E. 1999. "Female 'Birds of Passage' a Decade Later: Gender and Immigration in the European Union." International Migration Review, Vol. 33, No. 2: 269-299.
    23. Langness, L. L., Frank, G. 1981. An Anthropological Approach to Biography. Novato, CA: Chandler & Sharp Publishers.
    24. Leontiyeva, Y. 2015. "Kdo jsou ukrajinští migranti, kteří posílají peníze do zahraničí? Analýza faktorů ovlivňujících posílání peněžních remitencí." Pp. 185-199 in Drbohlav, D. (ed.) Ukrajinská pracovní migrace v Česku. Migrace - remitence - (rozvoj). Praha: Karolinum.
    25. Lutz, H. 1995. "The Legacy of Migration: Immigrant Mothers and Daughters and the Process of Intergenerational Transmission." Commenius, Vol. 15, No. 3: 304-317.
    26. Lutz, H. 2011. The New Maids: Transnational Women and the Care Economy. London, New York: Zed Books.
    27. Mahler, S. J., Pessar, P. R. 2001. "Gendered Geographies of Power: Analyzing Gender Across Transnational Spaces." Identities, Vol. 7, No. 4: 441-459. Go to original source...
    28. Mauss, M. 1999. Esej o daru, podobě a důvodech směny v archaických společnostech. Praha: SLON.
    29. Miller, D. 2010. Stuff. Oxford: Polity Press.
    30. Pugh, J. A. 2009. Longing and Belonging (Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture). Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. Go to original source...
    31. Rollins, J. 1985. Between Women: Domestics and their Empoyers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
    32. Rudick, S. 1989. Maternal Thinking: Towars Politics of Peace. London: Beacon Press.
    33. Sekeráková-Búriková, Z. 2017. K deťom a na upratovanie: podoby platenej práce v domácnosti. Brno: MUNI. Go to original source...
    34. Souralová, A. a kol. 2017. Péče na prodej. Jak se z práce z lásky stává placenou službou. Brno: MUNI Press. Go to original source...
    35. Spradley, J. 1980. Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
    36. Uhde, Z. 2012. "Slepá ulička instituce nájemní domácí péče." Gender, rovné příležitosti, výzkum, roč. 13, č. 1: 12-23.
    37. Uhde, Z. 2013. "Biografie migrantek jako žitá kritika zneuznání." Biograf, č. 58: 35-53.
    38. Yuval-Davis, N. 1997. "Women,Citizenship an Difference." Feminist Review, Vol. 96, No. 57: 4-27. Go to original source...
    39. Zelizer, V. A. 1994. The Social Meaning of Money. Pin Money, Paycheks, Poor Relief and Other Currancies. New York: Basic Books.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content