Detached Attachment: Burnout and Commitment among Caregivers in the Immigrant Rights Movement

Abstract

The increasing numbers of migrants and asylum seekers reaching the U.S.–Mexico border since 2014 has strained local nonprofit organizations helping them. Lack of material and human resources along with uncertain policy implementation by the government generates frustration and burnout among caregivers working in local nonprofits. Nonetheless, turnover as a result of burnout is surprisingly low. To answer why so few caregivers make efforts to help migrants and asylum seekers on the border, I analyze how caregivers respond to burnout in this resource-scarce context. I find that caregivers practice what I call detached attachment, the process of physically and emotionally distancing oneself from care work, while maintaining a cognitive attachment to it. Caregivers seek space to process their negative emotions and manage their relationships with care recipients to reduce intensity, while also reflecting on their normative attachments to the work. Paradoxically, then, the negative experience of burnout ends up renewing caregivers’ commitment to the immigrant rights movement. This article highlights the significance of everyday practices of care in sustaining social movement participation.

Emotion Work in Tabligh Jama’at Texts

“…The term emotion work was originally applied to conceptualising the everyday, ordinary management of emotions by individuals at home and in the workplace. More recently, social movement scholars have examined how activists manage their own and others' emotions in social movement contexts (Maney et al 2009;Gould 2015;Hagemann 2015;Jacobsson and Lindblom 2016;Kleres and Wettergren 2017;Santos 2020;Marquez 2021;Siegel 2021;Tuomola and Wahl-Jorgensen 2022). For instance, Hagemann comments: Emotion work, defined as active practices to regulate emotions, is .…”

Food activism and negotiating the gendered dynamics of public cultures of care

“…Several activists raised the issue of needing to take a break from volunteering as a form of selfcare, which a vast body of research has demonstrated is a significant issue in activist work, particularly for activists from marginalized groups (e.g., Kennelly, 2014;Márquez, 2021;Pepin-Neff & Wynter, 2019). One man, Ned, carefully selects his volunteer experiences so that he has adequate time for self-care, I can't be a part of a volunteer effort where I am constrained or controlled as an individual.…”

“…In contrast to the sense of reassurance that Ned felt, Alicia, a mid-thirties Latina and public health professional, offers another perspective that resonates with the gendered way in which women, and especially women of color, feel guilt for stepping away from activism (e.g., Gorski, 2019;Kennelly, 2014;Márquez, 2021), I have backtracked some of that time at the market just for personal reasons and self-care, (laugh), but I am heavily invested and still supporting the group. I try to attend as-the planning meetings as much as possible.…”