TY - JOUR

T1 - Becoming a (Neuro)Migrant

T2 - Attachment, Early Stimulation, and the Government of the Future of Chile

AU - Abarca Brown, Gabriel Antonio

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The encounters between health institutions, practitioners, and Haitian and Dominican communities have triggered several frictions and conflicts in the public health system in Chile since 2010, especially in maternal child health. In this article, I explore the interactions between health institutions, “psy” technologies, and afro-descendant women registered in the “Chile Crece Contigo” program and how these interactions impact women’s subjectivity and everyday lives. Developmental sciences, especially neurosciences, play a crucial role in the program by promoting comprehensive childhood development. I argue that the entanglements between attachment theory, neurosciences, and epigenetics gained authority for health practitioners and shaped migrants’ representations of motherhood and child-rearing anchored in neurobiology. Although health institutions have encouraged the adoption of “cultural competencies,” practitioners’ interventions have tended to promote a neurobiological understanding of attachment and early stimulation, neglecting moral and contextual aspects involved in migrants’ parenting practices. Interventions have delineated representations of “(ab)normal” motherhood and childhood, shaping moral ideals of children’s development and a migrant citizenship project for the future of Chile. I also argue that by placing concerns on the table about migrant children’s neurobiological development and social vulnerability, the program has shaped what some researchers call the “neuroscience of poverty.”

AB - The encounters between health institutions, practitioners, and Haitian and Dominican communities have triggered several frictions and conflicts in the public health system in Chile since 2010, especially in maternal child health. In this article, I explore the interactions between health institutions, “psy” technologies, and afro-descendant women registered in the “Chile Crece Contigo” program and how these interactions impact women’s subjectivity and everyday lives. Developmental sciences, especially neurosciences, play a crucial role in the program by promoting comprehensive childhood development. I argue that the entanglements between attachment theory, neurosciences, and epigenetics gained authority for health practitioners and shaped migrants’ representations of motherhood and child-rearing anchored in neurobiology. Although health institutions have encouraged the adoption of “cultural competencies,” practitioners’ interventions have tended to promote a neurobiological understanding of attachment and early stimulation, neglecting moral and contextual aspects involved in migrants’ parenting practices. Interventions have delineated representations of “(ab)normal” motherhood and childhood, shaping moral ideals of children’s development and a migrant citizenship project for the future of Chile. I also argue that by placing concerns on the table about migrant children’s neurobiological development and social vulnerability, the program has shaped what some researchers call the “neuroscience of poverty.”

U2 - 10.1177/01622439231167665

DO - 10.1177/01622439231167665

M3 - Journal article

SP - 1

EP - 26

JO - Science, Technology, & Human Values

JF - Science, Technology, & Human Values

ER -