"Ayudarles con todo" ("I help with everything") : Children's place in the social reproduction of migrant families in London

Foster Zabit, Jahan (2023) "Ayudarles con todo" ("I help with everything") : Children's place in the social reproduction of migrant families in London. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

Migration, whether motivated by economic uncertainty, political upheaval, the effects of uneven development, or simply the chance for an adventure, can be understood as part of a broader strategy to improve the resources necessary for social reproduction. Yet when individuals and families migrate, transformations inevitably take place in the ways that social reproduction is organised and accomplished. Based on interviews with 44 people (16 children and young people, 13 adults, and 15 professional stakeholders) and over a year of participant observation at a community organisation, this research explores the social reproductive worlds of Latin American migrant children and young people living in London. The research draws upon the concept of social reproduction developed within feminist political economy and migration studies, as well as the theoretical contributions of the Childhood Studies literature, in order to situate the various practices, forms of labour, transnational networks, and socio-cultural practices that migrant children engage in, which contribute to the social reproduction needs of themselves and their families. The research reveals that Latin American migrant children and young people are involved in cooking, cleaning, and caring for their siblings, translating and interpreting for their families and wider community, and, at times, ‘helping out’ their parents at work. The research argues that young people’s contribution to the work of social reproduction is an active choice, yet it is also understood within the context of Latin American migrant family’s social, political, and economic positioning in the U.K. which requires the incorporation of the reproductive labour of children and young people. Finally, the research argues that young people’s social reproductive labour, including that of young men, highlights a need to examine expectations about gendered divisions of labour in ways that consider the geo-spatially specific context of young people’s lives.

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