Classic work on migration by scholars across several disciplines typically assumed male migrants.  More recent writing explores how the experiences of female migrants often diverge dramatically from those of their male counterparts.  The case of Cabo Verde speaks strikingly to this new focus because of the notably high rate of women’s out-migration. Women flee Cape Verde not only from poverty but also from abuse•especially, betrayals of the expectations of kinship, including support (whether financial or emotional) by husbands.  Ironically, these women’s escapes abroad may end up traumatizing those nearest and dearest to them, especially their children.  In effect, women’s efforts to evade one kind of kinship betrayal may produce another.  In other cases, women may send their children abroad to provide them with better financial and professional opportunities, but the experience of migrating while quite young may produce its own traumas for the children, including sexual abuse.  At the same time, personal resiliency, along with social networks and privileges of class, may partly mitigate such sources of suffering--whether for those who were left behind, those who were sent abroad unwillingly, or those doing the abandoning.  In this talk, I explore a selection of riveting cases of Cabo Verdean women who have migrated to the U.S. and Europe from a variety of subject positions and have experienced versions of the above scenarios.  In their life stories, the complex and sometimes competing bonds and values of divergent kinship relations stand out as sources of both motivation and deception.