Mothers, nuns, and radical care: Navigating gender dynamics in solidarity activism at European borders

Border areas have become hubs of immobility, where migrants are subjected to intensified border controls and prolonged periods of uncertainty while awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications. In this context, local solidarity actors mobilize daily to provide basic services (food, shelter, clothing, and electricity), while also creating spaces for social and political support. These sites of volunteering and solidarity activism are often sustained by a majority of women activists and do not escape gender dynamics. This article explores how emotional labor is performed by activists in the contentious context of European borders. We argue that forms of care, charity, and feminism coexist and intersect within solidarity activism. To illustrate this argument, we analyze activist practices in support of migrants in multiple border regions to engage with broader debates on the affective politics of borders and the ethics of care in contemporary solidarity work. The analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the two authors between 2021 and 2023 in Ceuta, Melilla, Ventimiglia, Bolzano, and Trieste, including a total of 50 in-depth interviews (with 28 participants identifying as women) and five focus groups with solidarity activists. The article is structured around three recurring figures to explore how emotional labor is practiced: the mother, the nun, and the radical carer. Through these figures, we show how activism and everyday practices of solidarity reveal maternalizing and moralizing tendencies, dilemmas, as well as practices and interpretations of care in direct interactions with migrants. Through this lens, the article contributes to ongoing debates on gendered dynamics in solidarity activism and the affective counter-practices that challenge bordering processes at the edges of Europe.