Abstract Book of the 8th International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences Studies
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Decolonising Care Chains: Zimbabwean Women’s Labor, Agency, and Resistance in the UK Care Sector
Nomatter Sande
ABSTRACT:
This paper analyses the migration of Zimbabwean women to the care industry in the United Kingdom using an intersectional decolonial feminist perspective. It examines how colonial legacies, racial capitalism, and neoliberal policies influence their experiences of exploitation and agency. This study synthesises current scholarship to develop a theoretical framework that reconceptualises care migration as a manifestation of colonial continuity, wherein the labour of Black women is exploited to support the economies of the Global North. The analysis examines Eurocentric migration theories, emphasising the insufficiency of push-pull approaches in addressing systemic power imbalances. This paper is suggesting ‘decolonial care chains’ as an appropriate conceptual framework to explore the perspective and experiences of African women and explicate the racialised and gendered dynamics in the caregiving sector. The results indicate that Zimbabwean women relocate due to the deteriorating economy, climate change, and caregiving prospects. In the UK, individuals encounter racialised deskilling and visa insecurity. This is intensified by the necessity of remittances, digital motherhood, and diaspora activism to navigate a colonial-capitalist paradigm. This study suggests that care labour should be acknowledged as skilled employment and that colonial hierarchies in migratory governance must be dismantled. The research advocates for measures that foster equity and solutions led by migrants. This study contributes to scholarship by offering “decolonial care chains” with an eye towards coloniality and intersectionality to question Eurocentric migration theories. Advocating measures to eliminate colonial hierarchies in care work connects care labour to racial capitalism and enhances African feminist political economy by so increasing migrant agency.
Keywords: care migration, intersectionality, decolonial feminism, racial capitalism, Zimbabwean diaspora