Disentangling interlocking regimes in the biographies of migrant mothers with tertiary education

Migrant mothers with tertiary education face significant challenges to accessing working positions commensurate with their studies. Although it is well known that motherhood influences women’s career and job outcomes, its impact on the professional trajectories of migrant women with tertiary education remains understudied. The paper proposes to fill this gap and argues that the intersection between regimes – particularly those of migration, care, and gender – conditions employment opportunities and shapes the trajectories of migrant mothers with tertiary education. The article is based on fieldwork conducted in Veneto, Italy, and Alsace, France, that included fifty interviews, out of which four portraits of migrant mothers with tertiary education were selected to analyse the intersection between regimes and its impact on professional trajectories.