Immigrant Mothers

Double Transitions

For many immigrant mothers, their mothering and acculturation process take place simultaneously after immigration. Their double identities, therefore, often mean double transitions in performing their mothering roles and in trying to settle into their new home as an immigrant. Immigrant mothers have to learn to adjust to the cultural differences in bringing up their children in a new environment by relinquishing some of their old ways of mothering and by adopting the ways of their new world. Very often they also have to learn to cope with the marginalization and isolation as being “twice a minority”—an immigrant mother, and a woman of color.

Increased Economic Participation

Many immigrant families experience downward mobility in their social and economic status after immigration. As a consequence, many immigrant mothers become co-breadwinners in addition to their major role in childrearing. Although some of them were full-time mothers before immigration, many immigrant women—especially those of ethnic minorities—need to join the paid labor market for the economic survival of their families, regardless of their educational and class backgrounds. However, due to the structural barriers in the labor market and lack of proficiency in the official language in the host country, many immigrant mothers end up doing low-paid service or factory jobs that require long and irregular working hours.

Conflicting Ideology on Mothering

Many immigrants migrate for the future of their children. This is especially true with immigrant mothers from Asian countries. Studies show that regardless of their social class backgrounds, Asian immigrant mothers are enthusiastic in supporting the education of their children. For many of these immigrant mothers, providing a good education for their children is often seen as an important part of being a good mother. However, due to inadequate language skills, conflicting cultural values, and beliefs on education and parenting, some immigrant mothers—especially those who experience a larger acculturation gap with their children—find parenting in the new culture challenging, experience more communication problems and more uncertainty about how to handle certain situations, and have lower parenting satisfaction.

Lack of Kin Support

One main difficulty in being a mother and bringing children up in a new country is the lack of kin support for mothering that is available to the immigrant women in their home country. While some immigrant mothers are able to bring their kin to their host country, many immigrant mothers have to take on all the childrearing responsibilities single-handedly. The absence of extended family to share childrearing, coupled with limited language skills, puts the immigrant mothers at a disadvantage in seeking employment and in participating in social support programs for new mothers. As a consequence, social isolation and health depletion are more likely to occur among immigrant mothers than their nonimmigrant counterparts. In addition to preventing women from preparing for full-time employment, social isolation also exacerbates the unequal gender division of labor in immigrant families.

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