Introduction

Abstract

This introductory chapter to the edited volume presents an overview of the changing conceptualisations of family derived from a review of the literature on migrant families between 2009 to 2019; research on family-related migration of adults and youth dealing with intimate relationships in different family constellations and their related personal communities; researchers and practitioner-based approaches used to access and decode family-related practices in migration, focusing on the relational and reflective perspectives of migrants, and the positionality/reflexivity of researchers; and a synopsis of the empirically-based case studies included in the volume which show how ‘doing family’ (mothering, caring, affiliating and identifying with significant others) impacts on the migration trajectories and im/mobilities of family and kin. The chapter adopts a relational and everyday perspective to understand adult and young migrants’ personal, familial affiliations and bonds, showing the ‘brighter’ and the ‘darker’ sides of families, and how family practices and roles are transformed, enacted, resisted and negotiated across diverse socio-geographical contexts and migration trajectories. The relational roles that reach across generations, from childhood to adulthood, inform the everyday practices of migrant families which have not been sufficiently recognised. Such perspective can illuminate the ways in which migration transforms families and families transform migration.