Depletion, intersectionality and the limits of social policy: child carers in Mexico City

Authors:
Jean Grugel University of York, UK

Search for other papers by Jean Grugel in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
,
Susana Macias World Bank, USA

Search for other papers by Susana Macias in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
, and
Shirin M. Rai University of Warwick, UK

Search for other papers by Shirin M. Rai in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
Restricted access
Get eTOC alerts
Rights and permissions Cite this article

This article makes a dual contribution. First, it adds an intersectional perspective to studies of depletion through social reproduction, examining the depletion experienced by children and adolescents caring for their younger siblings in Mexico City. The depletion that child carers experience is shaped by age, low income, other forms of work in and outside the home, and gender. Second, we explore the limitations of cash transfer welfare programmes by examining their failure to address the needs of children who provide care within the family and show how misperceptions by social policymakers of the experiences of young carers limit the capacity of social policies to make a difference to their well-being. The article underlines the importance of the greater recognition of social reproductive work by poor children and adolescents, and of the intersectional depletion that they experience, both within social policy and in academic research.

  • Abebe, T. and Kjørholt, A. (2009) Social actors and victims of exploitation: working children in the cash economy of Ethiopia’s South, Childhood, 16(2): 17594. doi: 10.1177/0907568209104400

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Aldridge, J. and Becker, S. (1993) Children Who Care: Inside the World of Young Carers, Young Carers Research Group, Loughborough University, UK.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Becker, S. (2007) Global perspectives on children’s unpaid caregiving in the family, Global Social Policy, 7: 2350. doi: 10.1177/1468018107073892

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Becker, S., Aldridge, J. and Dearden, C. (1998) Young Carers and Their Families, Oxford: Blackwell Science.

  • Blofield, M. (2019) The politics of social policies in Latin America, Latin American Research Review, 54(4): 105664. doi: 10.25222/larr.817

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Boyden, J., Porter, C., Zharkevich, I. and Heissler, K. (2016) Balancing school and work with new opportunities: changes in children’s gendered time use in Ethiopia (2006–2013), Young Lives Working Paper, 161.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Bradshaw, S. (2008) From structural adjustment to social adjustment: a gendered analysis of conditional cash transfer programmes in Mexico and Nicaragua, Global Social Policy, 8(2): 188207. doi: 10.1177/1468018108090638

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Bray, R. (2009) A Literature Review on Child Carers in Angola, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe, Save the Children UK, https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/3738/pdf/3738.pdf

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Camilletti, E., Banati, R. and Cook, S. (2018) Children’s roles in social reproduction: re-examining the discourse on care through a child lens, The Journal of Law, Social Justice and Global Development, 21, www.lgdjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/3_CAMILLETTI_BANATI_COOK_LDG_GDSI_I21_2018.pdf

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Cass, B., Smith, C., Hill, T., Blaxland, M. and Hamilton, M. (2009) Young Carers in Australia: Understanding the Advantages and Disadvantages of Their Care Giving, Social Policy Research Paper 38, Canberra: Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Cecchini, S. and Atuesta, B. (2017) Programas de transferencias condicionadas en America ‘Latina y el Caribe, tendencias de cobertura e inversion’ [‘Conditional Transfer Programmes’ in Latin America and the Caribbean, coverage and investment trends’], CEPAL Series Polıticas Sociales, 22, Santiago de Chile: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Chant, S. (2007) Children in female-headed households: interrogating the concept of an ‘intergenerational transmission of disadvantage’, with particular reference to The Gambia, Philippines and Costa Rica, Working Paper 19, Gender Institute, LSE, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/6364/1/childreninfemaleheadhouseholds(LSERO).pdf

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Chopra, D. and Zambelli, E. (2017) No Time to rest: women’s lived experiences of balancing paid work and unpaid care work, IDS November 2017, www.ids.ac.uk/publications/no-time-to-rest-womens-lived-experiences-of-balancing-paid-work-and-unpaid-care-work/

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Elson, D. (2000) The Progress of Women: Empowerment and Economics: The Progress of the World’s Women, New York, NY: UNWOMEN.

  • Evans, R. (2010) Children’s caring roles and responsibilities within the family in Africa, Geography Compass, 4(10): 147796. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2010.00386.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Fontana, L. and Grugel, J. (2015) To eradicate or to legalise? The politics of ILO Convention 182 and the debate on child labour in Bolivia, Global Governance, 21(1): 6178. doi: 10.1163/19426720-02101006

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Fredman, S. and Goldblatt, B. (2015) Gender Equality and Human Rights, New York, NY: UNWOMEN.

  • Grugel, J. and Poley, F. (2012) Street working children, children’s agency and challenge of children’s rights: evidence from Minas Gerais, Brazil, Journal of International Development, 24(7): 82840. doi: 10.1002/jid.1852

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Grugel, J. and Riggirozzi, P. (2018) New directions in welfare: rights-based social policies in postneoliberal Latin America, Third World Quarterly, 39(3): 52743. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2017.1392084

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • James, A. (2004) Constructing Childhood: Theory, Policy and Social Practice, London: Palgrave.

  • Lui, C., Albert, E. and Treviño, R. (2016) Female-headed households and living conditions in Latin America, World Development, 90(C): 31128. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.10.008

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Luttrell, W. (2013) Children’s counter-narratives of care: towards educational justice, Children and Society, 27: 295308. doi: 10.1111/chso.12033

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Molyneux, M. (2006) Mothers at the service of the new poverty agenda: Progresa/Opurtunidades, Mexico’s conditional transfer programme, Social Policy Administration, 40(4): 42549. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2006.00497.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Ochoa, R. (2012) Not just the rich: new tendencies in kidnapping in Mexico City, Global Crime, 13(1): 121. doi: 10.1080/17440572.2011.632499

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Papadopolous, T. and Velazquez Leyer, R. (2016) Two decades of social investment in Latin America: outcomes, shortcomings and achievements of conditional cash transfers, Social Policy and Society, 15(3): 43549. doi: 10.1017/S1474746416000117

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Piiroinen, A. (2017) Children’s care work: forms, costs and support mechanisms, www.commissiononcare.org/2017/12/13/childrens-care-work-forms-costs-and-support-mechanisms/

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Punch, S. (2002) Research with children: the same or different from research with adults?, Childhood, 9(3): 32141.

  • Rai, S.M., Hoskyns, C. and Thomas, D. (2014) Depletion, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 16(1): 86105. doi: 10.1080/14616742.2013.789641

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Razavi, S. (2007) The return of social policy and the persistent neglect of unpaid care, Development and Change, 39(3): 377400. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00416.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Robson, E., Ansell, N., Huber, U.S., Gould, W.T.S. and van Blerk, L. (2006) Young caregivers in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, Population, Space and Place, 12(2): 93111. doi: 10.1002/psp.392

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Skovdal, M., Ogutu, V., Aoro, C. and Campbell, C. (2009) Young Carers as Social Actors: Coping Strategies of Children Caring for Ailing or Ageing Guardians in Western Kenya, LSE Research Online.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Stamatopoulos, V. (2015) One million and counting: the hidden army of young carers in Canada, Journal of Youth Studies, 18(6): 80922. doi: 10.1080/13676261.2014.992329

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • Stamatopoulos, V. (2018) The young carer penalty: exploring the costs of caregiving among a sample of Canadian youth, Child and Youth Services, 39(2/3): 180205. doi: 10.1080/0145935X.2018.1491303

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) (2016) Harnessing the Power of Data for Girls, New York, NY: UNICEF, https://www.unicef.org/gender/files/Harnessing-the-Power-of-Data-for-Girls-Brochure-2016-1-1.pdf

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
  • UNICEF (2018) Country report: Mexico. Studies on poverty and disparities in childhood, www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Mexico_ChildPovertyandDisparitiesReport(1).pdf

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
Jean Grugel University of York, UK

Search for other papers by Jean Grugel in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
,
Susana Macias World Bank, USA

Search for other papers by Susana Macias in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close
, and
Shirin M. Rai University of Warwick, UK

Search for other papers by Shirin M. Rai in
Current site
Google Scholar
Close

Content Metrics

May 2022 onwards Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 829 518 16
Full Text Views 143 13 1
PDF Downloads 125 17 1

Altmetrics

Dimensions