In a Decision Trap – Debates around Caring and Care Provisions in Transnational Families. The Ukrainian Case

Both migration and parenthood, and – in particular – motherhood, belong to the central events in a human life, being both mutually entangled, and affecting the wider society. Transnational families become involved in a vivid discourse dedicated to a model of a perfect family, perfect woman, and perfect motherhood. Thus, an everyday life of transnational mothers assumes negotiations between geography, economy, social and family roles. New works on the topic forefront appreciation of both productive and reproductive female roles, which find a spectacular reflection in migrant family scholarship. Migration symptomatically reveals the diversity and the complexity of the women’s social roles and the strategies of their fulfillment. In our paper we focus on the functioning of Ukrainian transnational families. By supplying narrations of the migrant women, we analyze their life trajectories, the manner in which a migration decision is taken, the stories of parenthood, performance of caretaking, maintenance of family ties (based on indirect rather than direct relations) and social ties.