Ms Angelica Hannan

Overview

Angelica Hannan has a background in education. She is primarily interested in the feminisation of migration, the feminisation of poverty and population politics in relation to migration and child care.

Research Summary

For most, the term “mother” arguably connotes images and feelings that are strongly and innately associated with warmth, love, care and a nurturing home environment. Yet globalisation and the increasing ease at the way in which labour – particularly female labour – is mobilised has given rise to “transnational mothering,” where women are separated from their families as they seek employment overseas. Often, female migrants from the global South make their way to the global North where families are generally more affluent and where there are care deficits to be filled, either as nannies, childcare workers, maids, cleaners or nurses – roles traditionally and stereotypically carried out by women. Left behind are their children, husbands or partners, elderly parents and even their extended family and community who once depended on them for their care and nurturing and who now depend on them for the remittances sent home in order to sustain the needs of the family unit. These women, either by choice but more commonly out of necessity, have replaced their caring role within their family home with a caring role of a different kind – by supporting their family financially from afar through providing care to another family.

Angelica’s thesis is concerned with ‘motherwork’ and migration and will examine the “push” and “pull” factors associated with Global South female migrants seeking employment in the care industry in Australia.