Project description

The project investigates affective landscapes, memories and desires of mothers and daughters with mobile biographies in Switzerland. The focus is on the legacies and continuities in Swiss political anxieties over migrant reproduction and mothering and their impact on emotional belonging (or non-belonging). Through participatory ethnographic fieldwork, the research examines how migration policies and social inequalities have shaped the feelings of belonging or non-belonging of women in midlife and their adult daughters, whose gendered identities have been transformed by international migration. Personal narratives of reproduction and work across generations reflect the changes and specificities of gendered migration, labour and belonging in post-capitalist societies.
Sound mapping and a collage of memories and soundscapes will contribute to the sensory dimension and the ethnography’s collaborative, multimodal nature. The research design and methodology emphasise an engaged, gentle, and participatory approach.

Keywords: motherhood/mothering, reproduction, mobility, belonging, memory, postmigration discourse