ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how care and social reproduction are flexible and adaptable in the context of regional and global migrations. It argues that instead of conceptualising care as a ‘deficit’, as suggested by the global care chains literature, it would be more useful to understand how traditional structures of care change to accommodate the new reality of migration. Migration is intrinsically linked to social transformation. The migration to Spain, though, opened the door for them to accumulate significant savings over relatively short periods of time, albeit for higher risks and for virtually no choice in the type of job they did. Migration theories need to be better able to integrate return, actual or potential, as an integral part of migration processes. Migration did bring about some additional changes in the sexual division of labour. Migration allows both men and women to become aware of the socially constructed nature of gender relations.
