The aim of the chapter is to analyze a ‘postcolonial archive’ concerning the social production of adoptable migrant children inside Western institutions. Even if anthropology has belatedly taken children into account, today these small subjects have finally been put in their proper place: at the crossroads between the public and the private, between the State and the ‘maternal instinct’. Many Nigerian women who arrive in Italy are qualified as victims of human trafficking when they report their pimps, and are subsequently protected by the state through its social institutions. When they became mothers, something changes in the relationship between them and the institutions for care and assistance: no longer perceived as vulnerable women to protect, they became potential dangerous and harmful mothers to their children. The author would like to stress how this scientific and bureaucratic construction of African immigrant babies introduces ruptures and challenges in the relationship between African immigrant mothers, their relatives and the state. “I’m not dead, yet”, shouts a Nigerian mother in Court. Many among them never see their children again; children that magically become Products of Italy, new citizens.

Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child: Nigerian Migration, Race Memories and the Decolonization of Motherhood (2018)

Simona Taliani
2017-01-01

Abstract

The aim of the chapter is to analyze a ‘postcolonial archive’ concerning the social production of adoptable migrant children inside Western institutions. Even if anthropology has belatedly taken children into account, today these small subjects have finally been put in their proper place: at the crossroads between the public and the private, between the State and the ‘maternal instinct’. Many Nigerian women who arrive in Italy are qualified as victims of human trafficking when they report their pimps, and are subsequently protected by the state through its social institutions. When they became mothers, something changes in the relationship between them and the institutions for care and assistance: no longer perceived as vulnerable women to protect, they became potential dangerous and harmful mothers to their children. The author would like to stress how this scientific and bureaucratic construction of African immigrant babies introduces ruptures and challenges in the relationship between African immigrant mothers, their relatives and the state. “I’m not dead, yet”, shouts a Nigerian mother in Court. Many among them never see their children again; children that magically become Products of Italy, new citizens.
2017
Migration and the Contemporary Mediterranean. Shifting cultures in 21st-century Europe, Race and Resistance Across Borders in the Long 20th Century
Peter Lang
Race and Resistance across Borders in the Long Twentieth Century
111
130
9781787073517
Motherhood - Migration - Race - Adoption - Nigerian diaspora
Simona Taliani
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child ST in Gualtieri 2018.pdf

Accesso riservato

Descrizione: Post print con ancora alcune correzioni introdotte
Tipo di file: POSTPRINT (VERSIONE FINALE DELL’AUTORE)
Dimensione 510.26 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
510.26 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1691472
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact