Attachment Denied? : The Experience of Separation for Live-In Caregivers' Children

The live-in caregivers' non-citizenship status in Canada results in separation from their children. So far, rare studies have addressed these children and the impacts of separation on them. This paper, through relying on some aspects of attachment theory, discusses the negative impacts of separation on the children of live-in caregivers and argues that race and class inequalities have rendered them invisible in psychological and other scholarly studies. The paper also addresses the problems faced by these children in the countries of origin. Live-in caregivers perform mothering for their children from afar. However, as the result of traditional ideology, their transnational mothering is stigmatized there. The stigmatization affects immigrant live-in caregivers and their separated children negatively. The paper calls for removing restrictions that separate children from their immigrant mothers and asks for other changes that improve the lives of these children.