Geographies and strategies of caregiving among skilled Ghanaian migrant women

SynopsisResearch on migrant women tends to address the experiences of women located in low skilled, low-paid work like domestic care work in receiving countries. Less attention has been directed towards the mobility and experiences of skilled and elite professional women who, while pursuing their professional careers and livelihood strategies, must also attend to social reproductive roles. Drawing on research with two groups of skilled Ghanaian women – nurses in England and professionals who have returned to Ghana – this paper analyzes how they navigate multiple caregiving responsibilities. The women's movements produced family separations that engendered a myriad of multiscalar strategies to negotiate and reconfigure care relationships and obligations. Among nurses who are not from elite backgrounds, their formal care work and competing caring roles are shaped beyond, but in constant reference to, demands placed on them in multiple local and transnational settings. Among highly skilled migrants, their class status, access to resources and mobility mitigate the challenges of caregiving and the impacts of familial separation. In conclusion, the paper contributes to the literature on skilled migration and care by presenting the gender and class tensions that the combination of professional and personal caregiving create for skilled and mobile African women.