Border regimes shaping social reproduction: the childcare practices of migrant working mothers

This chapter analyses how the intersection of social reproduction and border regimes contributes to limiting migrant working mothers’ employment opportunities, confining them in low-income jobs, regardless of their educational background. Based on the experiences of 25 migrant working mothers with tertiary education, this chapter underlines that the intersection of social reproduction and border regimes disciplines them, restraining their professional aspirations and shaping their employment opportunities. External and internal bordering mechanisms also limit the support they can receive from welfare services and their families, which might constrain them to reduce their working time or leave their jobs, reinforcing male breadwinner models. Faced with these challenges, migrant mothers adopt different strategies, including that of organising collectively to cope with stratified reproduction. By crosscutting the analysis of social reproduction with that of border regimes, the chapter contributes to studying social reproduction with an intersectional approach.