“Me Cuesta Mucho”: Latina immigrant mothers navigating remote learning and caregiving during COVID‐19

Abstract

Before the pandemic, immigrant mothers from Latin America in the United States typically shouldered the weight of caregiving for children, maintained jobs, and managed transnational care responsibilities. But as COVID‐19 erupted across the globe, the combination of gendered roles and a collapsing economy ruptured the already fragile arrangement of childcare and paid labor for Latina immigrant mothers. In this article, I examine how school closures intersected with Latina women's identities and social positions as immigrant mothers who suddenly confronted job loss, illness, and increased familial responsibilities. I show how Latina immigrant women renegotiated relationships to schooling, becoming teachers overnight in an unfamiliar system. Mothers shifted educational aspirations for their children to prioritize safety, as they managed increased stress and conflict while schools remained remote. I demonstrate how the breakdowns in care infrastructure forced mothers to rethink the elusive balance between paid labor and childcare, especially for those who were undocumented. Throughout, I explore how immigrant women's intersecting identities left them vulnerable to structural racism and exclusionary immigration policies. Despite the multiple layers of struggle, women continued to support their children's education and socio‐emotional well‐being, even in the face of multiple levels of gendered, racialized inequalities.

Women disproportionately shoulder burdens imposed by the global COVID‐19 pandemic

“…(2023) work elucidating Black mothers’ use of the time at home with their children during the early COVID‐19 pandemic to foster critical dialogue regarding racial injustice. Similarly, Bruhn's ethnography (2022) highlights Latina women's abilities to support children's educational and psychosocial well‐being during the pandemic, even in the face of school closures, job loss, illness and their vulnerability to sexism, racism, and exclusionary immigration policy.…”

Women, work, and families during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Examining the effects of COVID policies and looking to the future

“…One practical effect of the closures of schools and childcare centers was that the work of educating and caring for children shifted largely to parents (Bruhn, 2023; Coleman‐King et al., 2023; Lutz et al., in press). Additionally, the shuttering of childcare‐related jobs had a substantial economic impact on a sector that is female‐dominated: over 90% of workers in education and childcare in the United States are women (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020).…”

Navigating health and well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Experiences of Latina immigrant mothers in rural Midwestern communities

“…While schools were closed, many caregivers had the added responsibility of serving as teacher for their school‐age children. For Latina immigrant mothers who had not attended school in the United States, the additional responsibility of leading children through online learning was an additional stressor (Bruhn, 2022). Bruhn (2022) noted that stress Latina mothers experienced during the pandemic was heighted by their lower socioeconomic status and adversely impacted their maternal role as they aimed to “remain vigilant to protect their children from the contagious disease” (Bruhn, 2022, p. 16).…”

“…For Latina immigrant mothers who had not attended school in the United States, the additional responsibility of leading children through online learning was an additional stressor (Bruhn, 2022). Bruhn (2022) noted that stress Latina mothers experienced during the pandemic was heighted by their lower socioeconomic status and adversely impacted their maternal role as they aimed to “remain vigilant to protect their children from the contagious disease” (Bruhn, 2022, p. 16). However, Boyer et al (2023) and Bickham Mendez (2020) denoted Latina mothers' resiliency as they drew upon their intersectional experiences to make the most of challenges presented during the pandemic.…”