Horizons of long-distance intimacies

Abstract

This article employs the renewed anthropology of kinship to revisit historical approaches to the study of social relations taking place in transnational social fields. Based on multi-sited qualitative anthropological fieldwork with a strong historical perspective centred on biographical interviews and social network analysis, the author examines a particular Cape Verdean household that comprises four generations and extends its contacts between several Cape Verdean islands, Portugal, São Tomé/Príncipe as well as the United States. The contextualization of the individual life courses of its members and their changing relatedness in the course of time brings to surface a complex design of factors that contribute to the sense of belonging or detachment in this Creole transnational island society. These are different levels of mobility, the challenges and limits of diverse levels of technical connectivity between several localities, the dynamics between approved relatedness and family-based migration regimes as well as the normative aspects resulting in a gendered perspective on the demands of reciprocity. The author introduces the notion of a "contributive family model" in order to capture the individual choice of keeping in touch and the meaning of social practices, which transform ideas of relatedness into reconfirmed transnational solidarities.

The Reversal of Migratory Family Lives: A Cape Verdean Perspective on Gender and Sociality pre- and post-deportation

“…First, a large body of scholarship has focused on the question of how intimate relationships such as marriage and parenthood adapt to conditions of spatial separation (Parreñas 2005;Baldassar 2007;Drotbohm 2009;Dreby 2010;Carling, Menjivar, and Schmalzbauer 2012). Second, given the increasing number of family members who accompany or follow migrants (or intend to) to the so-called global North, a number of scholars have studied in detail the highly selective procedures of family reunification and the contested meaning of transnational marriage migration (Strasser et al 2009;Kofman et al 2011).…”

“We will welcome you, don’t be afraid!” Family expectations and joint decision-making on returning “early” in irregular migration

“…Active contributions, like telephone calls, visits, remittances, or greetings, can be highly valued as symbolic acts of familial solidarity and sense of obligation, which help migrants to create a social presence from a great distance (Drotbohm, 2009;p. 147).…”

“…Social practices of care involve a certain degree of agency through the possibility of choice and active efforts to stay in touch, as emphasized in the concept of "contributive transnational families" (Drotbohm, 2009;p. 147).…”

“…147). The formation of transnational familial relations and practices of care evolve from processes of negotiation (Coe, 2008(Coe, , 2011Drotbohm, 2009;Van Dijk, 2002). Familial negotiations shape extents and limits of transnational reciprocity, influence migration trajectories, and affect return considerations (Hahn, 2007;Manuh, 2001;Nieswand, 2011, p. 109;Tiemoko, 2004;wong, 2006).…”

“…Studies on coerced return through deportation or so-called Assisted Voluntary Return Schemes (AVR) describe return as a "social disaster" if migrants do not feel sufficiently prepared to reencounter families and other social settings (Drotbohm, 2009;Dünnwald, 2008;Plambech, 2014;Ratia & Notermans, 2012). Some of these studies emphasize the crucial impact of residential illegality on return experiences, but mainly focus on migrants coercively removed by authorities.…”