TY - JOUR

T1 - The 'successful' return

T2 - Caribbean narratives of migration, family, and gender

AU - Olwig, Karen Fog

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Research on female migrant caregivers has tended to focus upon the emotional and social problems they encounter working abroad, given women’s traditional role as caregivers for their own families. This article analyses how Caribbean women who have returned after a period abroad as domestic workers inscribe their migration experiences within the gendered narrative of the good relative who migrates to help the family left behind and therefore deserves social recognition in the community of origin. It argues that this narrative allows the women to both affirm and reinterpret local family and gender roles within the context of migration. This analysis points to the close connection between narrative structures, accounts of migration experiences, and self-presentations and suggests that narratives about family and gender roles not only reflect people’s lives, but are also a malleable resource that can be (re)shaped to validate a variety of life-courses.

AB - Research on female migrant caregivers has tended to focus upon the emotional and social problems they encounter working abroad, given women’s traditional role as caregivers for their own families. This article analyses how Caribbean women who have returned after a period abroad as domestic workers inscribe their migration experiences within the gendered narrative of the good relative who migrates to help the family left behind and therefore deserves social recognition in the community of origin. It argues that this narrative allows the women to both affirm and reinterpret local family and gender roles within the context of migration. This analysis points to the close connection between narrative structures, accounts of migration experiences, and self-presentations and suggests that narratives about family and gender roles not only reflect people’s lives, but are also a malleable resource that can be (re)shaped to validate a variety of life-courses.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 18

SP - 828

EP - 845

JO - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

JF - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

SN - 1359-0987

IS - 4

ER -