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Mobile Motherhood: Armenian Women's Labor Migration in the Post-Soviet Period

2002; Oxford University Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/dsp.2011.0060

1911-1568

Armine Ishkanian,

Migration, Refugees, and Integration

Mobile Motherhood:Armenian Women's Labor Migration in the Post-Soviet Period Armine Ishkanian (bio) Armine Ishkanian London School of Economics and Political Science Armine Ishkanian Armine Ishkanian is a lecturer at the Centre for Civil Society of the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She received her PhD in anthropology from the University of California, San Diego, in 2000, with a dissertation titled Hearths and Modernity: The Role of Women in NGOs in Post-Soviet Armenia. She is the author of several forthcoming book chapters: "Working at the Global-Local Intersection: The Challenges Facing Women in Armenia's NGO Sector," in Post-Soviet Women Encountering Transition: Nation-Building, Economic Survival, and Civic Activism, edited by C. Nechemias and K. Kuehnast (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Press); "Gendered Transitions: The Impact of Political and Socio-economic Transitions on Gender Relations in the Post-Soviet Republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus," in Eurasia in Transition: Conflict, Security and Development, edited by M.P. Avineh and Henk Houweling (De Sitter Publications); and "Helping the Homeland: The Impact of Transnational Diasporic Activism on Armenia's Post-Soviet Transition," in Transnationalism and Diaspora: Central Asia and the Caucasus, edited by Turaj Atabaki and Sanjyot Mehendale (Routledge), as well as of "Armenian Women's Civic Organizations and Their Role in Nation Building," in Voices of Armenian Women, edited by Barbara J. Merguerian and Joy Renjilian-Burgy (AIWA Press, 2000), and "Importing Civil Society? The Emergence of Armenia's NGO Sector and the Impact of Western Aid on Its Development" (Armenian Forum: A Journal of Contemporary Affairs, 2003). Notes 1. I conducted interviews with ten female migrants: seven in Los Angeles and three in San Francisco. 2. Transnational existence, or transnationalism, is a process by which migrants, through their activities and their social, economic, and political relations, create social fields that cross national boundaries (Basch, Glick Schiller, and Szanton Blanc 27.) 3. "Sacred motherhood" refers to an Armenian belief dating from Armenia's pre-Christian past, when the primary deity in the pantheon was Anahit, the goddess of fertility, morality, and maternity. Sona Zeitlian writes, "Anahit was supposed to be a morally pure, virtuous goddess who nurtured her worshippers, provided them with guidance, and comforted them in their times of need" (Hai Knotch viii; my translation). She maintains that the belief in Anahit demonstrates the importance of the "mother" role in ancient Armenia. She claims that even after Armenia adopted Christianity as the state religion in 301 CE and became more patriarchal, the importance of Anahit continued, as the beliefs related to Anahit were transferred onto the symbol of Mary (Astvatazin). Zeitlian adds that, like Anahit, the mother of the Armenian family is the keeper and embodiment of the sacred light because of her willingness to sacrifice her own needs and desires, to dedicate herself completely to her family, and to be loyal and virtuous (Hai Knotch viii). As the lamp of the family (jrak), Zeitlian contends, the mother becomes the light for the future of the Armenian people. Armenian sociologist Meline Haroutyunian argues that migration threatens the survival of the Armenian people because without strong families (i.e., both parents living in the same household) the fate of the Armenian Republic is in jeopardy. 4. I use "and/or" because increasingly many temporary labor migrants, especially those with grown children, are choosing to remain in the United States and begin the process of becoming legal residents in order to facilitate the emigration of their children to the United States. Since this is a very long and costly legal process, only those women who have adult children resort to this strategy. Most of those who have children younger eighteen years old tend to return to Armenia after a year or two of working in the United States. Immigrant-run employment agencies (e.g., Worldwide) in Los Angeles are now beginning to offer immigration services to labor migrants. 5. "Global cities" such as Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, and London, among others, are strategic sites, Sassen maintains, for the valorization of the leading components of capital and for the coordination of global economic processes (86). 6. Dispersion and exile...