Paper short abstract:

This research explores the life story narrative of a Muslim migrant woman living in Belgium and investigates the intersections of migration, motherhood, religion, and racialization in her everyday life.

Paper long abstract:

Narratives of motherhood in diasporic contexts have shown that experiences of migrant motherhood are affected by a complex array of factors. In Belgium, the public discourses around migrant women’s integration into society and motherhood are saturated with stereotyped imagery of women as non-active members of the society. Women’s reproduction is racialized and viewed as burdensome on the economy. This research focuses on the life story narrative of a Muslim migrant woman living in Belgium and investigates the intersections of migration, motherhood, religion, and racialization in her everyday life. Life story narratives reflect elements of individual and agentic aspects of lifecourse as well as the effects of historical socio-political structures. The paper is as much an attempt to discuss dominant discourses on motherhood and their link to migrant integration and citizenship discourses as it is to illustrate migrant mothers’ agency and practices of citizenship enactment.