Ambivalences of Care: Movement, Masculinity and Presence in Tajikistan

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Tajikistan–the region where migration to Russia has become almost the only stable source of livelihood–this article contributes to a growing body of anthropological literature concerned with tensions, ambivalences and contradictions of care. Drawing on the ethnography of my interlocutor’s attempts to arrange care for his elderly parents, I show how migration is entwined with the relations of indebtedness and care that are constitutive of moral personhood. Attending to the complex entanglements of care, personhood, movement, and presence, I expose the key paradox of care in migration contexts: migration creates distance and separation which results in the disjuncture between care as a material provision and care as an affective performance of respect. Men’s attempts to bridge this disjuncture can keep them ‘stuck’ in a loop of movement between Russia and Tajikistan and put a strain on their relationships, bodies, and sense of self.