Asserting children's rights through the digital practices of transnational families

Abstract

Objective This study investigates how transnational families function as advocates, channels, and iterators of children's rights in the context of digital communication. Background Transnational parents are involved in practices of doing family through digital copresence, in doing rights toward society and coagency among family members, creating a rights context. Method Data were collected in Moldova and Ukraine through 102 semistructured interviews and 10 focus group discussions with adults and children in transnational families and caregivers, and 24 interviews with experts from local and national authorities as well as NGOs. Results Transnational parents represent their children by engaging in digital communication practices with institutions and maintain family togetherness through involvement and support of children within transnational family relationships. Communication with institutions is burdened by distrust of and constraints regarding information and communication technologies (ICT) access, the limited availability of adults as interlocutors for daily communication, and deliberate nontransparency of communication at both ends. Conclusion Digital communication offers families the capability to represent children's rights externally, and to create internal family togetherness as a potentially new register of presence, articulated by the limits and specificity of the mode of communication employed. Implications Inclusive digital communication capacities of transnational family members necessary for the practice of family togetherness, exercise of parental responsibilities, and support for children's participation should be enhanced on both ends as well as within and without the family.

Doing family online: (In)formal knowledge circulation, information‐seeking practices, and support communities

“…By contrast, Dworkin et al (2023), studying parents of diverse backgrounds including lower income families, found that more frequent calling, texting, and social networking were sometimes linked to child problem behaviors. Ducu et al (2023), focusing on economic migrants who left their children behind in Ukraine and Moldova, found that parents may prefer not to use the Internet at all, and if they do, it is to keep in touch with their children, but they may not have time or access to a reliable connection to do so. Due to a lack of digital and administrative skills, they prefer to seek information offline, rather than online, even though some online administrative procedures were simplified by the authorities (Ducu et al, 2023).…”

“…Ducu et al (2023), focusing on economic migrants who left their children behind in Ukraine and Moldova, found that parents may prefer not to use the Internet at all, and if they do, it is to keep in touch with their children, but they may not have time or access to a reliable connection to do so. Due to a lack of digital and administrative skills, they prefer to seek information offline, rather than online, even though some online administrative procedures were simplified by the authorities (Ducu et al, 2023). The quality and pertinence of parents' information‐seeking and sharing practices online are thus highly unequal and vary according to their social position and level of education.…”

“…For transnational and migrant families, material constraints (e.g., access to the Internet, international time difference) can make connecting and communicating with loved ones more complex. Ducu et al (2023) show that access to ICTs is not always enough to maintain regular ties with children left behind in the country of origin. One should consider, for example, the difficulty of balancing work–life schedules for migrant parents in precarious situations abroad.…”

“…One should consider, for example, the difficulty of balancing work–life schedules for migrant parents in precarious situations abroad. Despite barriers to access and use of technologies by migrant family members and dire financial straits, the economic investment in ICTs and its daily uses afford moral and emotional support to geographically distant family members (Bakuri & Amaboateng, 2023; Ducu et al, 2023). In cases where distance does not allow regular visits, doing family online is compulsory to preserve a sense of unity.…”

“…In their study of Ukrainian and Moldavian parents who migrated without their children for economic reasons, Ducu et al (2023) use a fundamental children's rights perspective to discuss how ICT facilitates regular contact between left‐behind children and their faraway parent(s), as well as children's say in family matters. Rarely apprehended as agents in the dynamics of transnational families, children are portrayed here both as interlocutors of their migrant parents and as the object of their concern.…”