_.png){kind=logo}
* Corresponding Author
Considering the Role of Money and Gifts in the (Re)-construction of Motherhood and Family Among Indonesian Transnational Female Domestic Workers
https://doi.org/10.22146/ikat.v4i2.61570 Diah Irawaty(1*)
(1) Department of Anthropology State University of New York (SUNY) Binghamton, New York, USA
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
Most studies on female migrants as money earners claim that this new context of labor exhibits two distinct realms of either the commodification of love and care or the expression of care where money and emotion intertwine in maintaining family relationships and in creating reciprocity and exchange. I explore different modes of using money and gifts in addition to the major framework of economization of emotion and the emotionalization of money. I differentiate the gifts from money as it refers to non-cash gifts or in-kind gifts. This paper investigates other cultural contexts and social-political dynamics that possibly induce the construction of different roles of money and gifts. It assesses the kinship strategies and mechanisms female migrants, and their stayed-behind children develop in response to physical separation by sending money and gifts and their resistance to the state’s dominant version of the family and money. This paper elaborates how money and gifts connect to women’s identity as transnational mothers to redefine their parenting roles as main economic providers and their identity as transnational family members. It has some bearing on creating a new identity as women that might be not akin to the state’s gender politics and the politics of family as well as state maternalism. The study interrogates how sending and receiving money and gifts in a transnational family engenders transformation in the construction of the family and motherhood. I analyze how the practice of sending money and gifts challenges the state’s politics of traditional family and gender by examining how sending money and gifts frequently gains legitimacy with the migrant mothers’ claim of having a good family even though they do not adhere to traditional family norms.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adams, Jr., R. H. (1991). The Economics Uses and Impact of International Remittances in Rural Egypt. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 39(4), 695-722.
Ariza, M. (2014). Migration and Family in Mexican Research: A Recent Appraisal. Migraciones Internacionales, 7(4), 9-37
Artico, C. I. (2003). Latino Families Broken by Immigration. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing.
Authokorala, P. (1993). Improving the Contribution of Migrant Remittances to Development: The Experience of Asian Labour-exporting Countries. International Migration, 31(1), 103-124. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2435.1993.tb00720.x
Baldassar, L., & Merla, L. (2014). Transnational Families, Migration, and Circulation of Care: Understanding Mobility and Absence in Family Life. London: Routledge.
Baldassar, L. (2007). Transnational Families and the Provision of Moral and Emotional Support: The Relationship between Truth and Distance. Identities, 14(4), 385-409. doi: 10.1080/10702890701578423
Bell, A. V. (2019). “I’m Not Really 100% a Woman If I Can’t Have a Kid”: Infertility and the Intersection of Gender, Identity, and the Body. Gender & Society, 33 (4), 629-651. doi: 10.1177/0891243219849526
Berry, S. (1989). Social institutions and Access to Resources. Africa, 59(1), 41-55.
Cabraal, A., & Singh, S. (2013). Contested Representations of Remittances and the Transnational Family. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 36(1), 50-64. doi: 10.1080/00856401.2012.710304
Cabraal, A., & Singh, S. (2014). Boomerang remittances’ and the circulation of care: A study of Indian transnational families in Australia. In Loretta Baldassar & Laura Merla (Eds.), Transnational Families, Migration and the Circulation of Care (pp. 220-234). Oxfordshire, England: Routledge
Chandavarkar, A. G. (1980). Use of Migrants’ Remittances in Labour-Exporting Countries. Finance and Development, 17, 36-44.
Clarke, A. J. (2007). Making Sameness: Mothering Commerce and the Culture of Children’s Birthday Parties. In Casey, E and Martens, L. Gender and Consumption: Domestic Cultures and Commercialization of Everyday Life. Hampshire and Burlington: ASHGATE.
Cliggett, L. (2005). Remitting the Gift: Zambian Mobility and Anthropological Insights for Migration Studies. Population, Space, and Place, 11(1), 35-48. doi: 10.1002/psp.355
Coe, C. (2008). The Structuring of Feeling in Ghanaian Transnational Families. City & Society, 20(2), 222-250. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-744X.2008.00018.x
Coe, C. (2011). What Is Love? The Materiality of Care in Ghanaian Transnational Families. International Migration, 49(6), 7-24. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2435.2011.00704.x
Coe, C. (2012). Growing Up and Going Abroad: How Ghanaian Children Imagine Transnational Migration. Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38(6), 913-931. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2012.677173
Coe, C. (2014). The Scattered Family: Parenting, African Migrants, and Global Inequality. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cole, E. R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American Psychologist, 64, pp. 170–180.
Fina, D. A. (2003). Identity in Narrative: A Study of Immigrant Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamin.
Fina, D. A., Bamberg, M. G.W., & Schiffrin, D.(2006). Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Folbre, N., & Nelson, J. A. (2000). For Love or Money—Or Both? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4),123-140.
Francisco, V. (2015). The Transnational Family as a Resource for Political Mobilization. In Kontos, M., & Bonifacio, T. (Eds.). Migrant Domestic Workers and Family Life: International Perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Francisco-Menchavez, V. (2018). The Labor of Care: Filipina Migrants and Transnational Families in the Digital Age. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Gallo, E. (2013). Migrants and Their Money are not All the Same: Migration, Remittances and Family Morality in Rural South India. Migration Letters, 10(1), 33-46. doi: 10.33182/ml.v10i1.109
Georges, E. (1990). The Making of a Transnational Community: Migration, Development, and Cultural Change in the Dominican Republic. New York: Colombia University Press.
Glenn, E. N., Chang, G., & Forcey, L. R. (1994). Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency. New York and London: Routledge.
Godelier, M. (1999). The Enigma of the Gift. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gregory, C. A. (1982). Gifts and Commodities. London: Academic Press.
Gutierrez-Rodriguez, E. (2014). Domestic Work-Affective Labor: On Feminization and the Coloniality of Labor. Women’s Studies International Forum, 46, 45-53. doi: 10.1016/j.wsif.2014.03.005
Guyer, J. (Ed.) (1995). Money Matters: Instability, Values and Social Payments in the Modern History of West African Communities. Heinemann: Portsmouth NH.
Hoang, L. A., & Yeoh, B. S. A. (2012). Sustaining Families across Transnational Spaces: Vietnamese Migrant Parents and their Left-Behind Children. Asian Studies Review, 36(3), 307-325. doi: 10.1080/10357823.2012.711810
Hollway, W. (1997). The Maternal Bed. In Hollway, W. and Featherstone, B. (Eds.). Mothering and Ambivalence (pp. 54-79). London: Routledge.
Hollway, W. (2001). From Motherhood to Maternal Subjectivity. Critical Psychology 2, pp. 13–38.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, P., & Avila, E. (1997). “I’m Here, but I’m There”: The Meanings of Latina Transnational Motherhood. Gender & Society, 11(5),548-571. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/190339
Hugo, G. (1995). Labour Export from Indonesia: An Overview. ASEAN Economic Bulletin, 12 (2), 275-298. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/25770600
International Organization for Migration. (2010). Labour Migration from Indonesia: An Overview of Indonesian Migration to Selected Destinations in Asia and the Middle East. Jakarta: International Organization for Migration.
Kim, E. (2015). Parent-child relationships and the transition into adulthood of Korean young adults in their 20s. Family and Culture, 27(1), 69–116. doi: 10.21478/family.27.1.201503.004.
Kipp, R. S. (1993). Dissociated Identities: Ethnicity, Religion, and Class in an Indonesian Society. Ann-Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Kurien, P. (2002). Kaleidoscopic Ethnicity: International Migration and the Reconstruction of Community Identities in India. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Lan, P.-C. (2006). Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Loveband, A. (2006). Positioning the Product: Indonesian Migrant Women Workers in Taiwan. In Hewison, K & Young, K (Eds.). Transnational Migration and work in Asia. London and New York: Routledge.
Lutz, H. (2011). The New Maids: Transnational Women and the Care Economy. London, New York: Zed Books.
Luxton, M. (1980). More Than a Labour of Love. Toronto: Women’s Educational Press.
Mahler, S. J. (2001). Transnational Relationships: The Struggle to Communicate Across Borders. Identities, 7(4),583-619. doi: 10.1080/1070289X.2001.9962679
Medick, H., & Sabean, D. (1984). Interest and Emotion in Family and Kinship Studies. In Medick, H and Sabean, D. (Eds). Interest and Emotion: Essays on The Study of Family and Kindship. (pp. 9-27). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miller, D. (1998). A Theory of Shopping. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
Miller, T. (2005). Making Sense of Motherhood: A Narrative Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morgan, D. H. J. (1996). Family Connections: An Introduction to Family Studies. Cambridge: Polity.
Morgan, D. H. J. (1999). Risk and Family Practices: Accounting for Change and Fluidity in Family Life. In Silva, E. B., & Smart, C. (Eds.). The New Family? (pp. 13-30). New Delhi: SAGE Publications.
Morgan, D. H. J. (2004), Everyday Life and Family Practice. In Silva, E. B., & Bennett, T. (Eds.), Contemporary Culture and Everyday Life. Durham: Sociology Press.
Morgan, D. H. J. (2011a). Rethinking Family Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Morgan, D. H. J. (2011b). Locating ‘Family Practice.’ Sociological Research Online, 16 (4), 1-9. doi: 10.5153/sro.2535
Nagoshi, J. L., & Brzuzy, S. (2010). Transgender Theory: Embodying Research and Practice. Social Work and Social Policy,25(4), 431-443. doi: 10.1177/0886109910384068
Olivier, S., Kristine, d.V., Andrew, M.F., John, M.R. (2015). Social Control in Online Communities of Consumption: A Framework for Community Management. Psychology and Marketing, 32(3), 250-264. doi:10.1002/mar.20778
O’Reilly, A. (Ed.) (2004a). From Motherhood to Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich’s of Woman Born. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
O’Reilly, A. (2004b). Mothering Against Motherhood and the Possibility of Empowered Maternity for Mothers and Their Children. In O’Reilly, A. (Ed.). From Motherhood to Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich’s of Woman Born. Albany: SUNY Press, 159-174.
O’Reilly, A. (2005). Mis)Conceptions: The Paradox of Maternal Power and Loss in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Paradise. In O’Reilly, A. et. al. (Eds). Motherhood: Power and Oppression. Toronto: Women’s Press.
O’Reilly, A. (Ed.) (2008). Feminist Mothering. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
O’Reilly, A. (Ed.) (2010). Twenty-first Century Motherhood: Experience, Identity, Policy, Agency. New York: Columbia University Press.
Oliveira, G. (2018). Motherhood Across Borders: Immigrants and Their Children in Mexico and New York. New York: NYU Press.
Olwig, K. F. (1999). Narratives of the Children Left Behind: Home and Identity in Globalised Caribbean Families. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 25(2), 267-284. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.1999.9976685
Olwig, K. F., et al. (2014). Migration, Family and the Welfare State: Integrating Migrants and Refugees in Scandinavia.Oxfordshire, England: Routledge
Parreñas, R. S. (2001). Mothering from a Distance: Emotions, Gender, and Intergenerational in Filipino Transnational Families. Feminist Studies, 27(2), 361-390. doi: 10.2307/3178765
Parreñas, R. S. (2002). The Care Crisis in the Philippines: Children and Transnational Families in the New Global Economy. In Ehrenreich, B. and Hochschild, AR. (Eds.). Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. Henry Holt and Company. New York: A Metropolitan/Owl Book.
Parreñas, R. S. (2005a). Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woos. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Parreñas, R. S. (2005b). Long Distance Intimacy: Class, Gender and Intergenerational Relations Between Mothers and Children in Filipino Transnational Families. Global Networks, 5(4), 317-336. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0374.2005.00122.x
Parreñas, R. S. (2008). The Force of Domesticity: Filipina Migrants and Globalization. New York: New York University Press
Parreñas, R. S. (2015). Servants of Globalization: Migration and Domestic Work. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Pessar, P., & Mahler, S. (2003). Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In. The International Migration Review, 37(3), 812-846.
Ratha, D., Shaw, W., & World Bank Staff. (2007). South-South Migration and Remittances. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank
Ratha, D., Mohapatra, S., & Xu, Z. (2008). Migration and Development Brief 8. Retrieved from http: //sitesources.worldback.org/INTROSPECTS/Resources/3349341110315015165/MD Brief8.pff
Rich, A. (1986 [1977]). Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York, London: W.W. Norton.
Rudnyckyj, D. (2004). Technologies of Servitude: Governmentality and Indonesian Transnational Labor Migration. Anthropological Quarterly, 77(3), 407-434. doi: 10.1353/anq.2004.0045
Short, P. (2005). Reflections on Motherhood. In Porter, M., Short, P., & O’Reilly, A. (Eds.), Motherhood: Power and Oppression. Toronto: Women’s Press, 285-295.
Singh, S. (2013). Globalization & Money. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield.
Singh, S. (2016). Money, Migration, and Family: India to Australia. Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.
Singh, S., & Gatina, L. (2015). Money flows two ways between transnational families in Australia and India. South Asian Diaspora, 7(1), 33-47. doi: 10.1080/19438192.2014.980564
Singh, S., Cabraal, A., & Robertson, S. (2010). Remittances as a Currency of Care: A Focus on ‘Twice Migrants’ among the Indian Diaspora in Australia. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 41(2), 245-263. doi: 10.3138/jcfs.41.2.245
Stark, O., & Lucas, R. E. B. (1988). Migration, Remittances and the Family. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 36(3), 465-481.
Suro, R. (2003). Remittance Senders and Receivers: Tracking the Transnational Channels. Washington, DC: Multilateral Investment Fund and the Pew Hispanic Center.
Suryakusuma, J. (1996). The State and Sexuality in New Order Indonesia. In L.J. Sears (Ed.), Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia. (pp. xxx-yyy). Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Suryakusuma, J. (2004). Sex, Power and Nation. Jakarta: Metafor Publishing.
Taylor, J. E., & Martin, P. L. (1996). The anatomy of a migration hump. In Taylor, J.E (Eds.), Development strategy employment and migration: insights from models (pp. 43-62). Washington, D.C: OECD Publications and Information Center
Taylor, J. E., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Massey, D. S., & Pellegrino, A. (1996a). International Migration and National Development. Population Index ,62(2), 181-212.
Taylor, J. E., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Massey, D. S., & Pellegrino, A. (1996b). International Migration and Community Development. Population Index, 62(3), 397-418.
Taylor, J. E., & Martin, P. L. (1998). Human Capital: Migration and Rural Population Change. In Gardener, B. and Rausser, G. (Eds.). Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Volume I. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Taylor, J. E. (1999). The new economics of labour migration and the role of remittances in the migration process. International migration, 37(1), 63-88.
Thai, H. C. (2014). Insufficient Funds: The Culture of Money in Low-Wage Transnational Families. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Thomas, L. M., & Cole, J. (2009). Love in Africa. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
Tirtosudarmo, R. (1999). The Indonesian State's Response to Migration. Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia,14(1), 212-228. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/41057019
Villani, S. L. (1997). Motherhood at the Crossroads: Meeting the Challenge of a Changing Role. New York and London: Insight Books, Plenum Press.
Wilding, R., & Baldassar, L. (2018). Ageing, Migration and New Media: The Significance of Transnational Care. Journal ofSociology, 54(2),226-235. doi: 10.1177/1440783318766168
Woodward, K. (1997). Motherhood: Identities, Meanings and Myths. In Woodward, K. (Ed). Identity and Difference (239-285). London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: SAGE Publications and The Open University.
World Bank. (2017). Indonesia’s Global Workers: Juggling Opportunities and Risks. Jakarta: The World Bank Office of Jakarta.
Wortham, S. (2001). Narratives in Action: A Strategy for Research and Analysis. Chicago: Teachers College Press.
Yount-André, C. (2018). Gifts, trips and Facebook families: Children and the semiotics of kinship in transnational Senegal. Africa, 88(4), 683-701. doi: 10.1017/S0001972018000426
Zechner, M. (2008). Care of Older Persons in Transnational Settings. Journal ofAging Studies, 22, 32-44. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2007.02.002
Zelizer, A. V. (2005). The Purchase of Intimacy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/ikat.v4i2.61570
Article Metrics
Abstract views : 1129
| 
views : 972
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2021 Diah Irawaty
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.