Universal Mother: Transnational Migration and the Human Rights of Black Women in the Americas

This essay examines how the intersection of race, gender, and cultural stereotypes operate to limit black migrant women's human rights recognition and access to the legal system in North America. The author explores the negative identities assigned to Mavis Baker, a Jamaican immigrant to Canada, by the media and an immigration officer recommending her deportation. The author also includes a discussion of the implications of globalization on unskilled female labour and a critique of the way in which the international human rights regime prioritizes political and civil rights violations over social, economic and cultural rights violations.