Social Media as a Coping Strategy for Indonesian Migrant Mothers in Hong Kong to Maintain Mothering Roles

In Hong Kong, Indonesian migrant domestic workers (IMDWs) are forced to leave behind young children in their home country. Often spending the majority of their time in their employer's households, they must manage their limited personal time to maintain connections with their families back home. Many women IMDWs try to overcome distance limitations by performing transnational mothering using any available media to reach their children and to manage and witness their development. By using communication tools such as Internet-mediated calls for distance nurturing, they are able to keep up with their children's lives and monitor day-to-day developments. This research examines the role of communication technologies with an emphasis on the use of social media by women IMDWs in maintaining connections with their families back home. It examines the role social media plays in caregiving for women IMDWs, for whom the family and children's wellbeing back home are one of their most important concerns. This research incorporates netnography, which aims to understand online social interactions. The research was conducted from 2013 to 2019 physically in Hong Kong and through virtual channels. The findings indicate how social media is used as an emotional outlet by women IMDWs in Hong Kong, and how emotional care can be maintained to empower the migrant mothers. Social media and information and communication technology (ICT) have greatly improved channels of communication for IMDWs and created a new space of intimacy. Yet social media also has the possibility of creating tensions and anxiety for IMDWs. Keywords: Migrant, Mothers, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Netnography, Social Media
Introduction Migrant laborers and their activities in their host country cannot be separated from issues of gender. Migration is heavily gendered and most Indonesian migrant domestic workers (IMDWs) in Hong [...]