‘I’m not a complete mother’: childcare choices of migrant women in Cambodia

Traditional patriarchal gendered roles in childcare remain disproportionately unchallenged despite the rise of feminised migration. The gender norms in childcare and women's self-perceived motherhood not only place women in the leading role for childcare's arrangement and initiation when women first migrate but also challenge and influence women's childcare preferences during post-migration. Adopting a qualitative method, we purposively selected 26 Cambodian women, all rural-to-urban migrants, for semi-structured interviews to explore childcare arrangements throughout women's pre- and post-migration experiences and their underlying motivations and emotions. The findings revealed that childcare decisions are deeply shaped by gender norms and cultural beliefs about motherhood that position women as primary and irreplaceable caregivers. Women's self-perceived motherhood, centred on the importance of physical presence, drives their continued involvement in childcare, often leading them to relocating children to the city instead of fully delegating care. This arrangement reflects both conformity to and subtle resistance against the gendered care chain, highlighting women's caregiving strategies negotiated within domestic boundaries. By situating the analysis within Cambodia's domestic migration context, we extend the global care chain framework to illustrate how gender-normative beliefs in childcare and emotional drivers, such as guilt and self-blame, influence childcare arrangements and decisions in low- and middle-income countries.