Inequalities in Transnational Families

Abstract

Over the past two decades, interest in the transnational lifestyles of contemporary migrants has grown significantly. In this article, we focus not on transnational identities, processes or structures, but rather on the emergent literature on transnational families in the context of migration to the United States. Transnational family studies broadly fall into two thematic camps: 1) those that describe transnational households as cooperative units in the face of economic, political and legal constraint and 2) those that show how the conditions that lead family members to live apart exacerbate and create new sources of conflict within families. Whether highlighting family conflict or cooperation, contemporary transnational family studies differ theoretically from prior research on immigrant families. Instead of focusing on immigrant incorporation, this literature demonstrates how global structures of inequality at the macro‐level affect the everyday lives of transnational family members, as well as how individual action reproduces or challenges these broader social inequalities.

The Quality of Parent–Child Relationships in Transnational Families: Angolan and Nigerian Migrant Parents in The Netherlands

“…The literature indicates the importance of gender norms (Dreby 2006;Parreñas 2005;Pribilsky 2004), immigration policies (Falicov 2007;Fresnoza-Flot 2009;Menjívar 2012), class position (Dreby and Adkins 2010;Parreñas 2005;Schmalzbauer 2008) and means of communication (Fedyuk 2012;Madianou and Miller 2011;Parreñas 2005). Additional factors include the way that remittances are sent, the length of separation, the child's age when separated and the relationship the parent retains with the caregiver in the country of origin (Carling, Menjívar, and Schmalzbauer 2012;Fresnoza-Flot 2009;Pribilsky 2004;Schmalzbauer 2008).…”

Transnational ageing and the ‘zero generation’: the role of Moroccan migrants’ parents in care circulation

“…Rather than privileging migrants' perspectives and transnational practices as is so often done, the zero generation's involvement in the reception and transmission of care is highlighted. Families separated by migration may have asymmetries (Carling 2008;Dreby and Adkins 2010), but that is not to say that migrants singlehandedly provide care to their parents in the country of origin. Expressing needs and desires is an active way of care receiving (Russell, Bunting, and Gregory 1997), and migrants' ascendants, like geographically proximate parents and grandparents, are also caregivers.…”

Expanding transnational care networks: comparing caring for families with caring for homes

“…While absent migrants can actively engage in emotional, affective and sometimes material care from a distance by using communications technologies or sending gifts, they generally also must enlist on-site caregivers to attend to needs that require a proximate presence (Carling 2014;Dreby and Adkins 2010), and provide them with the financial means to do so (Carling 2014;Zentgraf and Chinchilla 2012). While absent migrants can actively engage in emotional, affective and sometimes material care from a distance by using communications technologies or sending gifts, they generally also must enlist on-site caregivers to attend to needs that require a proximate presence (Carling 2014;Dreby and Adkins 2010), and provide them with the financial means to do so (Carling 2014;Zentgraf and Chinchilla 2012).…”