Reversing the Care Chain: An African Perspective on Diasporic Eritrean and Sudanese Women’s Remote Care Labour

This brief report examines the under-researched phenomenon of reversed transnational care chains, analysing how Eritrean and Sudanese women refugees in the diaspora provide sustained remote care labour to family members in their countries of origin. It challenges the predominant Global North-centric focus of care chain literature by centring an African perspective. The study argues that these women’s digital emotional and financial caregiving constitutes a critical, yet often invisible, form of transnational social reproduction that sustains households amidst protracted crises. Drawing upon qualitative data collected between 2023 and 2024, the research employs a feminist political economy framework to analyse the gendered burdens and digital practices of remote care. The data comprises in-depth interviews with 22 diasporic women based in Europe and North America. Findings reveal that participants engage in intensive, daily digital care labour—orchestrating remittances, offering psychological support via messaging applications, and navigating bureaucratic systems—which exacts a significant emotional toll whilst reinforcing their transnational identities. The report contends that this reversed care labour is a pivotal adaptation within African diasporas, fundamentally reshaping notions of kinship and obligation. It concludes by underscoring the urgency for policy frameworks and further scholarly enquiry to recognise and mitigate the psychosocial costs borne by women sustaining these transcontinental familial networks.