Becoming a Migrant Mother: An Intersectional Approach to the Narratives of Cape Verdean Women in Portugal

Abstract

Becoming a mother in the context of migration configures itself as a dynamic process of identity constitution that raises questions about citizenship, belonging, and migration policies. Furthermore, it is a process that involves a new set of maternal positions and practices that are composed through possibly conflicting cultural values. Based on the occurrence of unplanned pregnancies, this study sought to analyze the dimensions crossed by this event through an intersectional perspective of the narratives of Cape Verdean immigrant women who had children in Portugal, focusing on gender, migration, race/ethnicity. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine women, born in Cape Verde and residing in Greater Lisbon, through the Biographic-Narrative Interpretative Method (BNIM), which enabled an approach to the different dimensions that intersect in life stories of becoming an immigrant mother. Thematic analysis was chosen as an analytical tool, and the framework provided by intersectionality allows us to see the multiple identities that shape the processes of becoming a migrant mother. The results brought to light themes and issues that overlap and make motherhood more complex in the context of migration, highlighting and reinforcing the conditions of inequality.