How Transnational Mothering is Seen to be ‘Troubling’: Contesting and Reframing Mothering

Abstract

This article aims to examine how changes in mothering induced by international migration become transformed into ‘troubles’. Based on the analysis of 79 selected articles on transnational families published between 2004 and 2013 in national press and Internet media portals in Lithuania, along with interviews with transnational mothers conducted between 2008 and 2014, the authors raise questions about how changes in mothering due to migration come to be constructed as troubles and how mothers who emigrate to work abroad while their children remain living in the country of origin engage in mothering display. The authors bridge Goffman’s theoretical ideas with the current frame of family display suggested by Finch to extend the understanding about the ways the scripts of ‘good mothering’ are both referenced and transformed through multi-local interactions. The analysis of the portrayal of transnational mothers in mass media demonstrates how mothering across borders is scripted. The cases discussed by the authors show the way transnational mothers respond to the discrediting scripts and normalize troubles, investing in bringing new meanings to mothering. The analysis of newly emerging transnational practices gives empirical evidence to the assumption that transnational mothers do not simply ‘follow’ scripts but also shift them and create new stories of mothering.

Displaying grandparenting within Romanian transnational families

“…He suggests using the concept of 'displaying families' to gain a fuller understanding of these transnational relationships. Other researchers have also recommended using the concept of displaying to analyse transnational families (Ducu 2013;Juozeliūnienė and Budginaitė 2018;Seymour 2015;Seymour and Walsh 2013;Share et al 2017;Walsh 2015). Walsh (2015) notes that the difference between 'doing' and 'displaying' families can be deceptive.…”

“…One example of this is that of an external audience within the home country. In the face of being accused by the domestic press of having abandoned their children, transnational mothers adopt various strategies in their attempts to act in a 'mother-like' fashion (Ducu 2013;Juozeliūnienė and Budginaitė 2018). Another example is when, as the external audience, the local community in the destination country questions the familyhood of transnational family members and they try to counter these challenges (Seymour and Walsh 2013;Walsh 2018).…”

Troubling Children’s Families: Who Is Troubled and Why? Approaches to Inter-Cultural Dialogue

“…In a globalizing world, transnational mobile knowledge flows impact on children’s family lives in concrete ways (Thelen and Haukanes, 2010), whether through movements of people or through economic dynamics, international policies, and organizations. Family and child social policy is thus being changed by global processes from multiple directions, impacting on family and care practices and expectations, giving rise to ‘confrontation, contradiction, and sometimes conflict’ (Köngeter and Good Gingrich, 2013: 138; and see Juozeliūnienė and Budginaitė, in press).…”

“Family Troubles” and “Troubling Families”: Opening Up Fertile Ground

“…This then leads us on to our second theme of “troubling families,” which in itself has a dual meaning: first, what happens to “family troubles” when we trouble the meaning of “family” itself, and second, at what point do “family troubles” become sufficiently “troubling”—whether to family members themselves or to others—to require some sort of action or “intervention”? Issues of public and private and the significance of power become prominent at this point, and in particular, how, when, on what basis, and in whose eyes, families with troubles come to be seen as “troubling families,” perhaps recast as “problem families,” or (in recent U.K. policy) as “troubled families.” Furthermore, such issues become all the more complex in a globalized world, where issues of migration and cross-cultural power differentials come into play (e.g., Chase & Statham, 2013; Duque-Páramo, 2013; Erel, 2013; Juozeliūnienė & Budginaitė, 2018; Korbin, 2013).…”