Resilience among Nigerian transnational parents in the Netherlands: a strength‐based approach to migration and transnational parenting

Abstract

In this article, we adopt a strength‐based approach to transnational parenting. Recent studies have shown that not all transnational parents have a negative sense of well‐being. Here, we explore parental resilience over a lifespan to understand how mothers and fathers alleviate the strain of spatial separation from their children. Having established from a quantitative study on the same group that neither men nor women necessarily suffer emotionally from separation from their children, we report the findings of a qualitative study on 18 Nigerian men and women in the Netherlands. We look at the strategies and resources that parents employ to overcome the challenges of migration and transnational parenting, to forge a sense of identity and belonging in a migratory context, to ‘do family’ while spatially separated, to deal with the difficult life events associated with migration, and to maintain a sense of agency amid stringent migration regulations. By revealing the importance of cultural and individual resources in fostering resilience, the contribution of our study is to the literature on the influence of structural factors in the promotion of well‐being.

Reticent Digital Diasporas in Times of Crisis

“…Transnational family literature, furthermore, explores how 'emotion work' is required when families live apart and family structures, roles, rights and responsibilities are no longer a given. In previous work, we found that ICT play an important role in the strategies migrant parents employ to resolve tension in their transnational family life (Berckmoes 2018; see also Baldassar et al 2016;Nedelcu and Wyss 2016;Kilkey and Merla 2014;Parreñas 2005).…”

“…Likewise, there is the emotion work of trying to protect his immediate kin -his child, living with him in the Netherlands -from the violence in the homeland. Here, we may find inspiration in the writings by sociologist Arlie Hochschild (1983Hochschild ( , 1979, who proposed an emotion-management perspective, and literature on transnational families and ICT (Berckmoes 2018;Baldassar 2014;Madianou 2012). Hochschild (1979) argues that emotion can be and often is subject to acts of management.…”

“…However, people like Gervais teach us that the recipients of these flows attempt to filter and sort the information that they are exposed to and that this entails a lot of emotion work (Hochschild 1983;1979) and relates to kinship and family. This article positions itself between literature on diaspora and conflict (Koser 2007;Smith & Stares 2007;Bernal 2005;Axel 2002), which tends to ignore affect and kinship relations, and literature on transnational families and emotions (Berckmoes 2018;Baldassar 2014;Åkesson et al 2012;Boccagni 2012;Parreñas 2005;Mahler 2001), which tends to ignore the importance that crisis and conflict play in such affective relations. Much has been written about the role of diasporas in conflict and the use of information technology since Anderson (1994: 326) coined the term "long-distance nationalism" where he worried about the effects of the fax machine on the accountability of longdistance nationalists, and there has been a long debate on the role of diasporas in peacebuilding (Bush 2008;Cochrane 2007;Lyons 2007;Smith & Stares 2007;Tölölyan 2007;Bernal 2004;Wayland 2004;Skrbis 1999).…”

Managing the rising tide of Nigerian migrants to the West—A policy vacuum or a structural challenge?

“…The rise in migrant outflows has increased diametrically in the past three decades. Emigration flows from Nigeria to Europe and the United States started in the 1960s and rose significantly over time with intensified political instability and economic decline (Berckmoes & Mazzucato, 2018). The number of Nigerians living outside Nigeria more than doubled between 1990 and 2013 (UN DESA, 2019), with nearly two‐thirds (61.4%) residing in more developed countries of Europe and North America in 2013 (Arhin‐Sam, 2019; UN DESA, 2013).…”

Illusions et souffrances. Les migrants chinois à Paris (S. Wang, 2017)

“…Où se situe la limite de la résilience personnelle face aux épreuves sociales de l'immigration ? De ce point de vue, les apports de cet ouvrage, centré sur les trajectoires morales des migrants, devraient être mis en parallèle avec d'autres travaux existants, notamment dans les champs de l'immigration, de l'éducation, des familles et des parcours biographiques (Berckmoes, Mazzucato, 2018 ;Santelli, 2009).…”