Europe's Transnational Families and Migration: Past and Present

Abstract

This chapter provides a broad sketch of how transnational families have cohered in and beyond Europe through time. It compares today's transnational families in Europe with families involved in mass migration from Europe to the Americas in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Similarities as well as striking contrasts emerge. The chapter focuses on past and present migration patterns in Europe and their impact on the formation of transnational families and networks. It cites two case studies of transnational family mobility from the Netherlands in the nineteenth century and to the Netherlands in the twentieth century to illustrate converging aid diverging tendencies, before concluding with a brief consideration of Europe's mixed legacy of fostering as well as denying and sometimes destroying transnational families through time.