Mother alone: Caregiving and identity in Senegalese migrant women living in southern Spain

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze identity construction regarding caregiving amongst Senegalese women in diaspora, and to identify what challenges and negotiations they face in their caregiving practices. We conducted semistructured interviews with seven women of Senegalese origin who live in Andalusia, southern Spain. We conducted voice and I-position analysis, which highlighted power inequalities and was sensitive to the dynamic and dialogical acculturation process. The findings showed an identity reconstruction process from caregiving in the cultural context of their home country—where caregiving has a strong collectivist component with mutual support networks, especially in child raising and motherhood, as well as intergenerational respect and caregiving relationships—to a more individualistic host cultural context, where motherhood is more isolated and solitary. Diasporic Senegalese women have also lost their support networks and are overburdened by caregiving work, problems of conciliation between paid work and childcare needs, loss of social status as mothers and as adults, and racism. In such situations, their resilience strategies position them as responsible mothers, maintaining the values of their home culture and developing new strategies for searching information and support.