Family privilege and the politics of desirability: Russian birth mobilities to Brazil

This article explores how transnational childbirth functions as a strategy for mobility and status enhancement among privileged migrant families. It investigates how certain groups leverage economic and symbolic capital to align with host country ideals of the ‘good migrant family’ and avoid stigmatisation. Drawing on qualitative data, the study focuses on Russian middle – and upper-middle-class families who travel to Florianópolis, Brazil, to give birth and secure citizenship for their children. While other groups face scrutiny and are often framed as a ‘social problem’, Russian families benefit from racialised, gendered, and class-based privileges. Their economic self-sufficiency and heteronormative family structures enable them to navigate Brazilian migration regimes without moral suspicion. The article argues that these families’ experiences reveal how national policies function as forms of moral gatekeeping, favouring those who conform to normative ideals and reinforcing broader inequalities in access to mobility and belonging.