Crossing social exclusion:: An empowerment experience with immigrant mothers

• Marina Calderón García ^[1] ; Cristina Del Villar Toribio ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Sevilla

     Universidad de Sevilla

     Sevilla, España

     
• Localización: Papeles de Trabajo sobre Cultura, Educación y Desarrollo Humano:  Working Papers on Culture, Education and Human Development, ISSN-e 1699-437X, Vol. 13, Nº. 4, 2017 (Ejemplar dedicado a: 5th International Health Humanities Conference), págs. 44-51
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Ejemplar
• Resumen

  • Through the present work, we initiate an individual and collective empowerment project with mothers who are also migrants. Activity is focused on a collaborative discussion workshop about motherhood and intercultural issues. We consider that not just biological factors affect health, social determinants also play a key role. In the first place, the aim of this paper is to know about different representations of motherhood. These representation have been built in the course of their history and personal experiences. The process of sharing and face different ideas allows us to become aware of the current conditions and to act in accordance with that. Cultural and social aspects seem to be strongly related to motherhood in the present work. We find that maternity is linked to the wife’s role and appears as a social imposition but is also introduced as a way to express gratitude and continuity with life, a way to reach transcendence, or as a strategy to get away from precariousness. Other findings point out that family planning appears as a feminine duty as well as the decision around if (whether) it is necessary or not to have material and economic resources to manage motherhood. The construction of a progressive social network between the participants is another positive effect of the workshop. A community-based sense is created which facilitate to cope social isolation as a principal manifestation of exclusion.