Localizing masculinities in the global care chains: experiences of migrant men in Spain and Ecuador

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the experiences of migrant men in the global care chain framework in order to move away from the female-dominated paradigm, towards one that acknowledges masculinities as a constitute element in the reconfiguration of gender relations throughout the migratory process between Global South and North. Specifically, it addresses the construction of masculinities in the process of the globalization of reproductive labour, including domestic work, transnational parenting and family reunification. Drawing on mixed and multi-local methods, this research examines how the provision of paid and unpaid domestic work and caring leads to new forms of inequality in the working and family lives of migrant men in Spain and in Ecuador. Exploring the link between migration, masculinities and care, this study highlights that while exerting masculine privilege in the construction of the transnational family and in the country of origin, migrant men nevertheless experience marginality in the Spanish labour market. In this sense, this paper offers to bring immigrant men back into the frame, not as androcentric agents, but as actors with gendered experiences marked by both masculine privilege and social marginality. One of the central contributions of this article is to show how hierarchical structures within masculinity intersect to build uneven gendered global workers and families across nation states.