Disentangling interlocking regimes in the biographies of migrant mothers with tertiary education

ABSTRACT

Migrant mothers with tertiary education face significant challenges to accessing working positions commensurate with their studies. Although it is well known that motherhood influences women’s career and job outcomes, its impact on the professional trajectories of migrant women with tertiary education remains understudied. The paper proposes to fill this gap and argues that the intersection between regimes – particularly those of migration, care, and gender – conditions employment opportunities and shapes the trajectories of migrant mothers with tertiary education. The article is based on fieldwork conducted in Veneto, Italy, and Alsace, France, that included fifty interviews, out of which four portraits of migrant mothers with tertiary education were selected to analyse the intersection between regimes and its impact on professional trajectories.

KEYWORDS:

• Care
• gender
• migration
• motherhood
• skilled migrant women
• work

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the participants for accepting to contribute to my research. Thank you for sharing your experience, feelings and thoughts. I would also like to thank very much the guest editors of the special issue, particularly dr. Elise Pape and dr. Kenneth Horvath for their support. Special thanks also go to all the scholars and friends that contributed to the drafting of the article through discussions, feedbacks, and proof-reading. This work would not have been possible without the financial support of the University of Padua.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 According to the Unesco (2012), tertiary education builds on secondary education and includes what is commonly understood as academic education but also advanced vocational or professional education.

2 In Italy, the procedure for obtaining and renewing the residence permit is undertaken at the local Police headquarter (Questura).

3 Winika did not undertake formal training to learn how to make pizzas, but she followed the instructions of a colleague pizza maker, who taught her how to proceed.

4 According to the French legislation, nurse schools deliver a degree of tertiary education.

5 According to French Civil Code, Article 21-24, French citizenship is only awarded after evaluating ‘assimilation’, which includes knowledge of French language, history, culture and adherence to the ‘essential principles and values of the French Republic’.

6 French schools schedules included a week break on Wednesdays until a decree in 2013 established that lessons would take place from Monday to Friday. In 2017, an opt-out rule was adopted and several Alsatian municipalities re-established the break on Wednesdays.