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Assignment #10

Arlie Hochschild, Lise Widding Isaksen, and Sambasivan Uma Devi discuss “the commons” of migration and its connections to financial and social capitals, and to children’s relational world in “Global Care Crisis: A Problem of Capital, Care Chains, or Commons?”. The article talks about how mothers from southern countries (South America, Northern Africa, etc) will leave their children in the care of others to migrate to more economically stable northern countries (North America, South Europe, etc.) to care for children not of their own. In doing so, these migrants are able to make much more money that they can send back home to cover a series of expenses they otherwise would struggle to pay. Theses global care chains move social capital from these southern countries to the north and takes financial capital and sends it to the south. I think the authors’ concerns surrounding the concept of “the commons” is that these migrant workers look at their migration as a private struggle. Yet, these migrants are a part of a socio-emotional common community; if they don’t recognize this common between one another, discussions about this migration as a public issue will cease to exist. Another issue the authors find is that people look at these migrants and only see the advantages of the situation. Yet there are costs these women pay for being migrants. Many constantly worry about the care of their own children and feel a sense of shame in being viewed as “bad mothers” for leaving their children. Other costs pertain to these migrant children’s relational world, which is filled with feelings of doubt, sadness, and envy. I think the authors wish to reframe the mindset that these migrants are only gaining from this situation, that there are large social repercussions these migrants face; and the sooner we view these migrants as a common community, we can open more discussions concerning such.