Cooking, cleaning, and caring: COVID-19, essential labour and the experiences of immigrant and migrant women in Nova Scotia

The opinions and recommendations in this report, and any errors, are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders of this report. [...] 12 / Cooking, Cleaning, and Caring GENDERED ESSENTIAL LABOUR THE EXPERIENCES OF IMMIGRANT AND MIGRANT WOMEN IN NOVA SCOTIA T He eXPerienCeS oF MigranT and immigrant women in Nova Scotia during the pandemic very much follow from their experiences before COVID-19 and are reflective of the general devaluing of essential, but particularly reproductive forms of labour in the province, as elsewhere. [...] On the one hand, their unwaged labour contributes to the production and reproduction of social systems and the economy, largely through the activities of child rearing and the reproduction of labour, but also through food provisioning and other forms of care. [...] Drawing on both the differences and commonalities between those in our study, in what follows, we trace the experiences of the migrant and immigrant women before and during the pandemic. [...] Concerning their own experience of the measures, all our participants were firmly in favour and support of the measures, and yet, adhering to them was challenging, particularly for those engaged in physical forms of labour and caregiving: The work increased, and we were wearing masks.