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Book Launch
Rachel Benchekroun’s Precarious Motherhood – Navigating relationships and support post-migration in the UK
Tuesday 25 March 2025
5pm for a 5.30pm start (finishing at approx. 6.30pm). Refreshments will be available.
Room G03, Ground Floor, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Social Research Institute, IOE, UCL, 55-59 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0NU
NB: the entrance to 55-59 Gordon Square is on the corner with Woburn Sq. and not on Gordon Square itself
- Hosted by the UCL Sociology Network
- This event is to launch the new book by Dr Rachel Benchekroun (UCL Social Research Institute).
Precarious Motherhood explores the experiences of racially minoritised mothers living with insecure immigration status and financial hardship in London, UK. It exposes the impact of hostile immigration policies and precarity on mothers’ interpersonal relationships and access to support. The author draws attention to how mothers manage the constraints they face and enact belonging. She then explores the impact on mothers’ couple relationships, friendships, adult kin relationships and faith-based networks. The book underlines the vital role of personal relationships in providing access to resources and support, but also demonstrates how precariously positioned mothers must carefully navigate relational tensions in their everyday lives. It highlights how social infrastructure facilitates relational practices, helping mothers to sustain their children’s wellbeing and their own.
Meet our speakers and chair:
- Rachel Benchekroun (author), Senior Research Fellow at the Social Research Institute, University College London.
- Umut Erel (discussant), Professor in Sociology, Open University
- Louise Ryan (discussant), Senior Professor of Sociology, London Metropolitan University
- Ann Phoenix (chair), Professor of Psychosocial Studies, UCL Social Research Institute.