Raising citizens in ‘mixed’ family setting: mothering techniques of Filipino and Thai migrants in Belgium

Abstract

As states increasingly regulate ‘mixed’ family formation, self-positioning has become central to the lives of migrant spouses, including women. To understand this process, the present article investigates the mothering techniques of Filipino and Thai migrant women in Belgium, that is, the decisions, actions and ways of being they consciously enact in response to state policies ‘here’ and/or 'there' to secure the mother–child bond in space and time. Interviews and observations reveal these women’s main techniques: obtaining Belgian nationality for themselves, prioritising a single nationality (Belgian) for their children and staying at home (in the case of Filipino migrant women) or working (in the case of Thai women). This self-positioning sets these women’s own path and prepare their children’s route towards full, active membership in the nation. Mothering appears therefore as a fertile site of citizenship, which from afar echoes the public–private divide but in close-up reveals the porosity of such dichotomy.

Keywords:

• Mothering techniques
• ‘mixed’ family
• transnational consciousness
• national belonging
• social incorporation
• citizenship

Acknowledgements

A first version of this article was presented in the panel 'Migration, citizenship and "mixed" families in Europe' during the 12th IMISCOE Annual Conference at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) in 2015. I thank Betty de Hart for her useful suggestions following my paper presentation. My fieldwork for the study would not have been possible without the trust and cooperation of all the research participants who shared with me their migration and family life stories.

Notes

1. Thailand and the Philippines were respectively 67th and 75th in this ranking. For details, see Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index for 2017: http://visaindex.com/#.

2. There is an annual lottery during which young boys who draw a black card (instead of a red one) are exempted from military service. Besides, one Thai study participant said that some parents pay a bribe amounting to 1000 or 1500 euros so that their son avoids military service (23 June 2014 interview).

3. ‘la naturalisation des étrangers pour leur permettre d’acquérir la citoyenneté complète et de devenir des « semblables »’ (English translation by the author).