Transnational Migration and Reconfiguration of the Family in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The unprecedented transnational migration ensuing from the economic crisis in Zimbabwe has sociocultural impacts on both migrant and non-migrant family members. This article, which draws from qualitative research with migrants and non-migrants, discusses how migration upsets cultural configurations of the family in terms of marriage, parenthood, childhood, the gender and age division of labor, and family relations. Transnational migration has destabilized traditional family structures by creating relations and gender roles that challenge cultural and social values relating to both the nuclear and extended families. Transnational migration has also transformed the family’s place in the migrant’s life and vice versa in ways that deviate from the cultural norm.