Precarious Motherhood
Navigating Relationships and Support Post-Migration in the UK
Distributed for UCL Press
Precarious Motherhood
Navigating Relationships and Support Post-Migration in the UK
Precarious Motherhood is a deeply human investigation of the lives of racially minoritized mothers as they navigate the intersecting challenges of financial hardship and the UK’s hostile immigration policies. Based on thorough ethnographic research, Rachel Benchekroun examines how these mothers forge relationships to access support, maintain their children’s well-being, and carve out spaces of belonging in an often unwelcoming system. The book captures the resilience and the relentless precarity of motherhood in migration, where every relationship shapes social barriers and everyday survival.
Through the voices of over twenty migrant mothers, this work sheds light on the personal and political dimensions of motherhood. It provides critical insights into state policies and social infrastructures that shape migrant lives, making it a valuable resource for scholars of migration and social justice.
196 pages | 6.14 x 9.21
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Sociology: Race, Ethnic, and Minority Relations

Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 The Hostile Environment in the UK
Interlude: Ndidi: ‘They don’t have the same life’
2 Strategic mothering
Interlude: Catia: ‘Just stay here, stay quiet, because no-one will help you’
3 Coupledom
Interlude: Flora: ‘They don’t want to hear’
4 Friendship
Interlude: Kianga: ‘I will be somebody… to make them proud’
5 Adult kin relationships
Interlude: Claudia: ‘Not letting people in my life… it saves a lot’
6 Faith-based relationships
Conclusion
Glossary
References
Index
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