Migrant mothers: Performing kinwork and belonging across private and public boundaries

This paper explores how migrant mothering kinwork challenges private and public boundaries, giving rise to new conceptions and practices of citizenship. We highlight the potential of participatory theatre methods - specifically forum theatre and playback - for understanding the relationship between mothering, ethnic belonging and citizenship. We also assess the significance of migrant women's kinwork within their families and communities for re-framing notions of citizenship (Erel at al 2017a/b). Our analysis gives particular focus to two scenes developed as part of the participatory theatre project, which took place with a group of ethnically and racially diverse mothers in East London. The first scene entitled 'Where is my food?' draws attention to the mothers' kinwork and reproductive labour operating at the boundaries of the public/private dichotomy and also highlights gendered household dynamics. The second scene, entitled 'At the Community Centre' examines everyday encounters at the community centre, and how 'cultural work', which is pivotal to the mothers' kinwork inform inter-generational relations. The paper argues for a more embodied understanding of citizenship in order to broaden understanding of migrant mothers' kinwork in making new citizens