Migrant Mothers and the Sedentary Child Bias: Constraints on Child Circulation in Indonesia

Leslie Butt; Harriot Beazley; Jessica Ball

doi:10.1080/14442213.2017.1346699

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Migrant Mothers and the Sedentary Child Bias: Constraints on Child Circulation in Indonesia

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Migrant Mothers and the Sedentary Child Bias: Constraints on Child Circulation in Indonesia

Leslie Butt, Harriot Beazley and Jessica Ball

Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Vol.18(4), pp.372-388

2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2017.1346699

Appears in UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection

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Abstract

mother-child separation

feminisation of migration

fostering

adoption policies

child welfare

Indonesia

UniSC Diversity Area - Gender Equity

UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages

Across the Asia-Pacific region, increasing numbers of women are migrating transnationally for low-skill work while their children remain in home communities, fostered by family or neighbours. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2014-15 in Lombok, Indonesia, this paper describes a sedentary child bias within Indonesian policies, and how this bias constrains migrant mothers' choices regarding the care and well-being of their children. Vignettes describing the challenges of caregivers in Lombok families illustrate how the absence of social services, local forms of child fostering and limits on transnational adoption and child mobility together significantly curtail migrant mothers' opportunities to arrange optimal support for their children while working abroad. The sedentary child bias in Indonesia raises issues around limits on the circulation of children that are relevant to the wider Asia and Pacific region, where temporary female labour migration and concomitant mother-child separation is on the rise.

Details

Title: Migrant Mothers and the Sedentary Child Bias: Constraints on Child Circulation in Indonesia
Authors: Leslie Butt (Author) - University of Victoria, Canada
Harriot Beazley (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Jessica Ball (Author) - University of Victoria, Canada
Publication details: Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Vol.18(4), pp.372-388
Publisher: Routledge
Date published: 2017
DOI: 10.1080/14442213.2017.1346699
ISSN: 1444-2213
Organisation Unit: Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450412402621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Anthropology

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