Transnational Motherhood and Economic Failure among Immigrant Domestic Workers in South Africa and the United States

This comparative study illustrates how motherhood materializes through the often emotionally heavy choices that women immigrants make as they strive to take care of vulnerable family members in different locations. In so doing, this project illustrates how domestic labor takes shape along with women's strategies for navigating the most intimate relationships across a global stage fraught with economic and political challenges. This research, situated in relation to transnational feminist thought, highlights the strategies that women immigrants use to navigate motherhood and work across national borders. By focusing on the employment experiences and choices of immigrant domestic workers who are part of transnational motherhood flows, The author also explores immigrant women domestic workers' feelings of personal economic failure, as no matter how hard they work, they never seem to be able to pull their families out of poverty. This analysis is based on interviews with Zimbabwean women immigrants working in Johannesberg, South Africa, and Latina domestic workers in San Diego, California