Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork in Tunisia among mothers in transit, this paper reconceptualizes concepts of safety and wellbeing in relation to children, considering how the experience of motherhood changes when a child is considered as the source of protection for other adults during migration journeys.

Paper long abstract:

Tunisia has been emerging as a key country of transit in Mediterranean migration routes for close to a decade, and in 2023 surpassed Libya as the primary 'departure point' towards Italy. This article draws from recent fieldwork in Tunisia among pregnant women and mothers in transit from Cameroon, Guinea, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire. I discuss the parameters of ‘safety’ and ‘wellbeing’ in profoundly unsafe circumstances, and the sources of primarily spiritual support – in the absence of meaningful social infrastructures - to which these women related. Among mothers who had previously attempted to leave Tunisia by boat with their children, the role of the child (including unborn children) emerged as central to the perceived safety and protection of other adults attempting to reach Italy.

In this paper, I discuss how women living in conditions of extraordinary precarity in transit in Tunisia strive to create conditions of safety for their children. I put forward a reconceptualization of the concepts of safety and wellbeing in relation to children on the move with their mothers, that accounts for the changing experience of motherhood when a child is considered as a primary source of protection for other adults on a migration journey. Finally, in the course of this research, the mothers I engaged with formed a group to exchange resources and information. This paper also reflects on motherhood research as praxis, as well as my positionality as a mother, doing this fieldwork with a young child.