Moving without a Care in the World: A Care Approach to Migration Studies
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Flanagan, Caitlin
- Graduate Program:
- Geography (PHD)
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 18, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Brian King, Program Head/Chair
Bronwen Powell, Major Field Member
Lorraine Dowler, Major Field Member
Stephen Matthews, Outside Unit, Field & Minor Member
Christopher Fowler, Chair & Dissertation Advisor - Keywords:
- Migration
Care
Skilled Migrants
Gender
Iran
Feminist Demography - Abstract:
- Both care and migration are gendered processes. In migration studies the concept of care has most often been deployed to recognize a shift in labor migration to encompass those moving to perform care work. However, the burden of caring, and the loss of care networks, is felt by all migrants, not only those migrating for care work. But decisions concerning care and migration interact with another to influence the pathways of migrants. The purpose of this work is to illuminate the importance of the role of care in migrant decision-making. In three different styles I investigate how care influences migrants when decoupled from care work migration through an examination of skilled female migrants (SFMs), a study of the outcomes of those SFMs through a lens of care, and an operationalized care approach in demography. The first method, systematic review, identifies seven explanatory factors influencing the probability of a successful migration. The second method is an examination of outcomes for SFMs through the lens of care to expose the importance of care in the lives of those migrating for purposes other than care work. Finally, I approach structured demographic data with a care approach to bring together concepts from feminist geography and demography to explore vulnerability though a lack of representation in a structured data set. Together this work suggests that there are specific factors that interact to influence the outcomes of SFMS: individual agency, capital, stage of life course, household structure, occupational and workplace structures, structural factors (legal and regulatory), and geographic linkages and connections. When these are examined through a care lens, the assumption that SFMs’ high human capital will facilitate their migration is challenged, and the care lens illuminates crucial inequalities of care burdens rooted in gender that transcend class, education, and social status. The care lens approach creates a pathway of understanding SFMs that reorients thinking away from social capital theory; which has been leaned upon as a mechanism of capital convertibility. Taking a care approach to demography, one that is not focused on capital-seeking purposes of migration, is useful in highlighting groups whose lived experiences have not been represented in the survey data and are therefore unknowable to the state.