Mothering across uncertain borders: Emotional geographies of skilled immigrant mothers in times of global crisis

By Ayshan Mammadzada | OMC 2025

Photo by RDNE Stock on Pexels

In times of global crises, skilled immigrant mothers navigate unprecedented emotional landscapes. As COVID-19 travel bans revoked the flexibility that families with close members living across national borders — transnational families — once relied on, many mothers were suddenly cut off from children and relatives back home, exposing deep vulnerabilities in their cross-border lives. Similarly, climate-related displacement is on the rise, with hundreds of millions potentially uprooted by 2050. These emergencies thrust immigrant mothers into “uncertain borders” both literal and figurative: physical separations and psychological distances that test the limits of caregiving. 

Migration scholars increasingly recognise that emotions are a fundamental dimension of human mobility. The concept of emotional geographies captures how love, fear and hope stretch across continents, shaping daily life for these women. Whether working on the frontlines of a global pandemic or sending remittances from afar, they participate in global care networks where time, energy and affection flow unevenly from poorer to richer regions. Their experiences intersect with sociology, gender studies, psychology, and migration studies. Skilled immigrant mothers often carry a heavy emotional burden as they pursue opportunities abroad. The migration process is far from ‘emotionally innocuous’ – many women suffer the ache of physical absence and struggle with leaving children behind. Culturally ingrained ideals of “proper mothering” amplify this guilt: mothers socialised to be ever-present caregivers feel they have ‘abandoned their children’. Research has documented serious mental health impacts. Prolonged mother–child separation is linked to higher risks of depression and anxiety among migrant mothers. A study in the Netherlands found that 1 in 4 pregnant immigrant women experience depression and 1 in 5 experience clinical anxiety, rates significantly higher than among native-born mothers.  

Motherhood is reinvented across distance. Scholars describe transnational motherhood as the effort by migrant women to fulfil maternal responsibilities by providing both financial support and emotional care to children from afar. As one study put it, migrant mothers ‘exchange their physical presence and nurturing for their children’s material well-being’. Families reorganise to cope with separation. When a mother migrates, extended kin networks often step in to care for the children left behind, forming part of a global care chain. The classic notion of a straight line of care from mother to child becomes a more complex circuit of care, with love and labour circulating through multiple caregivers and locales. Migrant mothers remain deeply involved in parenting decisions even from afar. They arrange childcare, schooling, and healthcare by proxy, and devise new routines. These women straddle roles as breadwinners and caregivers. The result is a reconfiguration of motherhood not bounded by geography but defined by emotional and financial devotion across uncertain borders.  

Distance is increasingly mediated by technology. In the digital age, migrant mothers utilise smartphones, video calls, and social media to foster a sense of closeness. Studies show that digital information/communication technologies help parents maintain virtual intimacy with relatives, securing emotional support and enabling transnational caregiving. Mothers utilise these tools to fulfil and demonstrate their maternal role. For example, ethnographic research with Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong demonstrated how ‘smartphones transformed the configuration of mothering practices’. Migrant mothers create a virtual co-presence – being “there” even when physically absent. Regular Zoom sessions allow them to monitor their children’s well-being; mothers say that seeing a child’s face helps them gauge their health better than a phone call. Anthropologists note that in such polymedia environments, where families use a variety of communication technologies, everyday intimacies — bedtime stories — are conducted via screens. 

While immigrant mothers improvise solutions, they confront structural barriers. Immigration and integration policies are often gender-blind, failing to account for women’s specific needs. For decades, migration systems have treated women as dependents, with family migration ‘highly feminised’ and women commonly following male-led labour schemes. Female migrants are classified by their relation to men, sidelining skilled mothers by tying visa status to a spouse or devaluing credentials. Gender-neutral policies frequently produce unequal effects, particularly for racialised and lower-income women. Many highly educated immigrant women face underemployment and barriers to re-entering their professions. Rigid permit rules, lack of childcare, and inflexible leave policies constrain their options. They also lose familial and community support networks from their home countries. A Canadian study found that migrant women with young children experienced isolation and loneliness from being mothers in a new country with limited support. 

Skilled immigrant mothers must navigate labour markets that don’t accommodate career breaks, legal systems that slow reunification, and welfare regimes that ignore their dual roles as worker and carer. The risks and insecurities they face throughout migration differ markedly from those of men – yet too often, these gendered experiences are left unaddressed in policy. They show resilience and act as architects of their families’ well-being. One coping strategy is the creation of supportive networks. Diaspora groups and online forums offer solidarity. Community-based organisations with culturally sensitive approaches, such as mental health care and childcare, serve as protective buffers. Over time, many migrant mothers negotiate new identities. As one study notes, women manage their emotions within transnational families where they must juggle motherhood and material responsibility. This balancing act can catalyse growth. By caring across borders, they develop transnational identities, embracing a dual sense of “home” and expanding their definitions of motherhood and success. Still, resilience should not absolve governments. It must be met with institutional support. Studies from the pandemic show how families adapted through new strategies to face immobilisation and shifting care patterns. These adaptations must be matched by structural reforms.

Amid health emergencies, economic downturns, or displacement, skilled immigrant mothers have emerged as pillars of strength, at great cost. The crises of recent years revealed the hidden emotional geographies underlying migration. COVID-19 ‘exposed vulnerabilities associated with transnational living’. Moving forward, we need gender-responsive policies that acknowledge migrant women’s burdens. From flexible reunification and childcare to mental health services in multiple languages, governments must address systemic barriers through effective policies. Immigrant mothers must be recognised not only as economic actors but as caregivers sustaining families across borders. Their resilience deserves empathy and action, not as a substitute for rights, but a call to build more humane systems for an interconnected, uncertain world.

Ayshan Mammadzada

Ayshan is an interdisciplinary migration and crisis researcher with over a decade of international experience across academic, UN, and public policy spheres. Her current research explores how skilled migration trajectories are shaped by emotional geographies, gendered care labour, and crisis governance under conditions such as climate change, pandemics, and policy uncertainty. She has held leadership roles in research and data strategy at the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership and contributed to UN-affiliated initiatives advancing environmental resilience and inclusive migration policy. Certified in statistics and data science by MIT, she also holds PMP, GIS, and machine learning credentials. Ayshan’s work integrates mixed methods, feminist and intersectional frameworks, and spatial analysis to examine care, governance, and inequality in the context of transnational migration. Her scholarship has received awards from the Canadian Association of Geographers, MIT, and the Pathways to Prosperity Conference, and she has presented at international forums including Oxford, ESREA, ACSS, and CAG.