Kinship Interaction and Communications among Space-Age Migrants

Abstract

This research examines the nature of kinship interaction and communication among migrant families residing in the Cape Kennedy region of east-central Florida. The argument that individuals who are strongly attached to their extended families will be reluctant to move even if better jobs are available elsewhere was not supported, albeit indirectly, by this research. Similarly, there was little in the data for this sample to support the notion that the location of kin influences the directional pattern of migration. The proposition that geographic mobility leads more than any other factor to an attenuation of extended kinship interaction was substantiated. The corollary hypothesis that extended family identification can be maintained despite geographical mobility was also confirmed. The notion that kinship relations can be sustained over great geographical distances because modern communicative networks minimize the socially disruptive effects of that distance appears to be well founded. Parental ties are a crucial factor in sustaining the web of kinship. Whenever such ties are severed, particularly through the death of the parental mother, the concomitant result is a weakening of ties with the larger kin group. The data clearly support the hypothesis that women are the primary actors in maintaining contact and communication with extended family members.