“Migration craziness!” Financial Turbulence and Transnational Families in Sri Lanka

Financial turbulence creates an environment characterized by sudden occurrences that lead to uncertainty in both financial markets and national economies. Therefore, predicting financial failure during periods of financial turbulence is crucial for the future of firms. The measures that businesses take in the current period serve as an opportunity to prepare for potential future challenges. Otherwise, they may face the issue of financial failure. This study measures financial failure in nine accommodation companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The time frame of the study encompasses periods identified as financial turbulence: the years 2008-2009, 2019-2020, and 2022-2023. During these years, significant events such as the global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war occurred. The aim of this study is to assess the financial failure of accommodation enterprises during periods of financial turbulence. Altman (2000), Zmijewski (1984), and Springate (1978) financial failure prediction models are used to achieve this objective. The relationships among the models were tested using Spearman’s correlation analysis. The findings indicate that accommodation companies were most affected by the global financial crisis during periods of financial turbulence. Additionally, Spearman’s correlation analysis results revealed strong relationships between the Altman and Springate models, as well as between the Altman and Zmijewski models, suggesting that these models could potentially substitute for one another.

This article puzzles out the relationships between displaced peoples, their families, resettlement, the household, employment, and social reproduction – the often voluntary, feminized, and un- or under-compensated labour that reproduces a family, household, or labour force. Transnational refugee households and the conditions of refugee resettlement are co-constituted. These households are: 1) physical dwellings where a family is situated; 2) sites of emotional, care, and additional work required for the reproduction of the (often transnational) family; 3) necessitating ‘material’ inputs, in the form of paid labour, social provisions, or other sources. This article uses Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) to demonstrate the tradeoffs in securing the economic and care resources required for maintaining transnational refugee households. Profiling cases of resettling refugee families in Winnipeg, Canada, the article suggests that ‘small-n’ research reveals the challenges in meeting common resettlement imperatives amid expensive housing markets and restricted access to social and economic resources.

In the Philippines, a dramatic increase in labor migration has created a large population of transnational migrant families. Thousands of children now grow up apart from one or both parents, as the parents are forced to work outside the country in order to send their children to school, give them access to quality health care, or, in some cases, just provide them with enough food. While the issue of transnational families has already generated much interest, this book is the first to offer a close look at the lives of the children in these families. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the family members left behind, the author examines two dimensions of the transnational family. First, she looks at the impact of distance on the intergenerational relationships, specifically from the children's perspective. She then analyzes gender norms in these families, both their reifications and transgressions in transnational households. Acknowledging that geographical separation unavoidably strains family intimacy, Parrenas argues that the maintenance of traditional gender ideologies exacerbates and sometimes even creates the tensions that plague many Filipino migrant families.

ABSTRACTSince the Somali Civil War in 1991, there have been a large number of Somalis living in the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Australia. An increasing number of these Somalis are living in transnational households where family members live and sometimes move back and forth in different nation‐states, yet these families maintain strong ties, share resources, and make decisions collectively about the well‐being of different members. In this paper, I argue that women play central roles in establishing and managing these transnational households. I examine these roles and their significance through an analysis of the activities and experiences of two groups of Somali women in Cairo within the domains of their transnational families and communities. These groups of women are: (1) refugees who have been granted or are seeking asylum from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Egypt, and (2) naturalized citizens of Western countries who have relocated to Egypt, and whom I will refer to as émigrés. I argue that many of these women become active members of transnational households and communities to (1) resist legal, economic, and/or cultural “othering” of host societies, and (2) renegotiate past and present identity discourses that marginalize these individuals on multiple levels that are determined by clan affiliations, socio‐economic conditions, and gender inequalities. By using complex transnational strategies, these women are engaging in new forms of activism to establish lives with more security, better future opportunities, and more dignity for their families and themselves. Yet their transnational family and community lives have benefits and challenges, which the women experience differently because of their varied diasporic histories and their uneven access to legal and social capital.

Globalization, while deterritorializing identity and culture, generates new practices and subjectivities that must be understood with reference to relationships between identity, language, and class in multiple markets. Through interviews and ethnographic observations focusing on children's language learning practices, this article examines how transnational South Korean families locate themselves in relation to the phenomenon of jogi yuhak, ‘early study abroad.’ It focuses on two graduate student families’ struggle over securing their social position by portraying themselves as different from other transnational Korean families through investing in alternate forms of linguistic capital. This reflects their contradictory and shifting subjectivities as they negotiate between foregrounding their roles as moral and intellectual elites vs. acting as materialistic parents. These transnational families’ struggles and conflicts underline how globalization in general, and jogi yuhak as a transnational strategy in particular, affects individuals’ subjectivities at the intersection of class, language, and transnationalism.세계화는 지역사회에 기반한 정체성과 문화를 약화시키기도 하지만, 복수의 국제 시장에서의 개인의 정체성, 언어, 그리고 사회계급간의 관계와 연관 지어 이해해야 하는 새로운 관행과 주관을 생성하기도 한다. 영어와 관련된 학습 관행에 초점을 맞춘 본 연구는 조기유학을 위해 고국을 떠나 외국에 거주하고 있는 한국 학생들과 그 가족들이 어떻게 자신들의 사회적 위치를 설정하는지에 대해서 면담과 민족지학적 관찰을 통해서 고찰한다. 미국에 거주하고 있는 두 대학원 유학생 가족들이 그들의 사회적 지위를 확보하기 위해서 어떻게 자신들의 정체성과 언어적 관행을 다른 조기유학생 가족들로부터 차별화하는지에 대해서 집중적으로 논의한다. 특히, 그들에게 거는 사회에서의 도덕적, 지적 엘리트로서의 역할에 대한 공언과 부모로서의 그들 자녀들의 영어 습득에 대한 물질주의적 갈망사이에서 갈등하는 모순적이고 변덕스러운 주관이 반영된 언어적 자산의 형태를 분석한다. 이들 초국가적 가정들의 노력과 갈등은 전반적으로 세계화와, 특별히 초국가적 전략으로서의 조기유학이 사회계급, 언어 그리고 초국가주의의 교차선상에서 개인의 주관에 어떻게 영향을 미치는지를 보여준다. [Korean]

This thesis explores how Brazilian migrant women ‘do family’ with their family members in Brazil. Of particular importance is their practice of family rituals and the giving of ritualist features to family practices to create and recreate a sense of familyhood, even while living at a distance for an extended period of time. The thesis dialogues with transnational family studies that consider the significance and continuity of family relationships in the process of migration. I investigate this in relation to and through the perspective of Brazilian women in London where, despite being populous, they remain a largely understudied migrant group. My investigation is framed by a qualitative methodological framework that includes a multi-sited ethnography at participant houses, biographical interviews and diaries. Fieldwork was carried out in the UK and in Brazil over 21 months, including thirty biographical interviews at the participants’ houses in both locations, and seven daily diaries, reporting the Brazilian women migrants’ daily interaction with their family members in Brazil. My analysis considers the process of ritualization of family life and the creation and recreation of family (in daily, weekly, monthly or annual events, or during the life-course) through communication technologies (letters, telephone, video communication) and visits that constitute the conditions of mediation for families living far apart. I show that ritualizing as a family involves a set of activities heavily encoded with symbolic and affective meanings as well as some constraints which can influence the capacity and opportunity to practise them. I conclude that the process of ritualization of family practices done by the Brazilian transnational families in this study was especially important for them, in order to (re)constitute their sense of familyhood at a distance.

In what ways digital communication technologies shape the experiences of navigating multiple crises among transnational family members? This chapter investigates the diverse and personalized digital practices of transnational families in handling the consequences of natural calamities and family-based crises. As a start, it illustrates how dispersed family members use digital media technologies to enact different phases of addressing a typhoon in the Philippines—preparation, constant monitoring, and recovery. It also presents their digital practices in managing family-related personal and health issues. Importantly, it foregrounds the digital disruptions that exacerbate critical and anxiety-inducing conditions while examining the diverse tactics deployed by transnational families to cope with multiple crises and gain a sense of assurance. In short, the chapter illuminates the benefits and tensions produced through connective practices for crisis management in a transnational household.

By focusing on the relations of intimacy between migrant wives working in Singapore and their left-behind husbands living in the Philippines, this article investigates how transnational couples negotiate the liminalities and temporariness embedded in the experience of labour migration. Using the timescales of migration as a conceptual frame, the article analyses the mutual, if uneven, shaping of marital relationships at the micro-timescale of transnational family time and the meso-timescale of Singapore’s labour migration regime. It focuses on how ‘doing family’ across distance is centrally facilitated through the affordances of communication technologies to create rhythms and manage ruptures. These technologies are crucial in (re)making domestic family time in the transnational household. The way the micro-temporalities of transnational family life are reorganised works in tension with how couples negotiate liminal conditions imposed by Singapore’s work permit and pass system. The article argues that temporariness and precarity, which deter the imagination of a stable future, are constantly negotiated in the lives of the transnational family through different temporal strategies. By bracketing off intense emotions and downplaying ruptures in relationships, the transnational family is able to focus on their future aspirations of achieving their projects through migration. As migration timelines are indefinitely extended and family separation is prolonged, the transnational family strives to endure through these strategies of (re)making their temporalities.

Family research and scholarship on immigrant families has evolved in the past decade to include factors such as community context, family environment, and individual attitudes to explain immigrant family formation and functioning (see Glick, 2010, for a review). Nevertheless, methodologically and theoretically, families are still predominantly conceived of as nuclear, living together, and bounded by the nation state. Family studies emphasize geographical proximity as a prerequisite for interaction and exchange within families, thereby eliding family ties that cross national borders. As a result, family practices across borders are ignored or assumed to be unfeasible (Baldassar & Baldock, 1999; Mazzucato & Schans, 2008) and transnational families—conceived of as families with members living in different nation states—have been treated as a temporary phenomenon, with family reunification in the host society as the preferred outcome for all family members (Landolt & Da, 2005). In contrast, research from the past decade in the areas of migration and development has demonstrated that individuals' migration-related choices are related to their family members' needs and that migration affects migrants' origin countries. This area of research, however, largely focuses on the economic effects of remittances on households as a whole and rarely analyzes the differential impact of remittances on individual family members (Adams & Page, 2005; Ratha, 2003). Moreover, studies from this field do not consider noneconomic effects such as the impact of migration on the well-being of family members who live apart. In this special section, we broaden analyses in the fields of both family and migration studies by examining the effects that migration has on the well-being (defined as psychological, educational, and health outcomes) of children who are left in the country of origin. Here, we use the word children to emphasize the relationship between a young person and his or her parent or caregiver; however, the contributions to this special section examine children and youths up to 18 years of age. Transnational family arrangements are prevalent worldwide because of stringent migration policies in migrant receiving countries that make it difficult for families to migrate together, families' attempts to escape violent conflict or persecution, or family members' preferences, especially in societies where child fostering is a common practice, such as in many places in Africa. The exact prevalence of transnational family arrangements is unknown, however, because of a scarcity of quantitative evidence caused by the lack of academic and policy attention to this phenomenon. Reports by nongovernmental organizations and international organizations such as Save the Children and UNICEF indicate that approximately 25% of children in selected migrant-sending countries have at least one parent abroad. This estimate appears sufficiently large to justify further research on transnational families and the well-being of children. As a consequence, scholars have begun to turn their attention toward transnational families, though most of the scholarship thus far is in the form of qualitative case studies. This introduction begins with an overview of current scholarship on transnational families from different disciplinary backgrounds and identifies important contributions to the literature and gaps in our knowledge. In the next section, we highlight three conceptual and methodological challenges and discuss how the articles in this special section advance our understanding of transnational families and the well-being of children. We conclude by discussing important elements of an agenda for future research on transnational families in general and their impact on child well-being in particular.

This paper examines the ways in which the Greek economic crisis has affected the social development of Albanian immigrants in both the sending and the host country. It focuses on transnational households and family development projects and examines the degree of resilience and the power of motivation that drives people’s reactions during the crisis, comparing first- and second-generation immigrants. My research focuses mainly on those Albanian immigrants who by the third year of the economic crisis still live in Greece. The empirical analysis is based on primary data derived from participant observation, a semi-structured questionnaire with second-generation migrants and in-depth interviews amongst first- and second-generation Albanian immigrants residing in both urban and rural areas in Greece.

En el contexto de los importantes flujos migratorios desde Europa del Este hacia Europa Meridional, en este artículo se presenta un estudio cualitativo realizado en Rumanía, la República de Moldavia y Ucrania en torno a la reorganización de los cuidados que se requieren para afrontar las repercusiones de la ausencia de personas cuidadoras, también conocida como «drenaje de cuidados». En particular, se analiza la reorganización de los cuidados destinados a los menores y a las personas mayores que se quedaron en los países de procedencia tomando en cuenta los cuatro pilares del sistema o polos del «diamante» de los cuidados, a saber: las familias transnacionales, el Estado, el tercer sector y el mercado. La perspectiva desde los países de origen, la comparación entre el sistema de cuidados infantil y el dirigido a los mayores, así como la inclusión del Estado y de la sociedad civil como proveedores de cuidados complementarios a los de las familias, ofrecen una visión más completa de las trasformaciones sociales generadas por la emigración masiva.

How have care practices in the transnational household have been carried out using digital communication technologies? This chapter presents the multiple modes of caregiving used by transnational families—practical, emotional, and moral care—in digital environments. It also conceptualizes caregiving practices through ‘elastic carework’ whereby care receiving and transfer are ‘stretched’ to reach across vast distances, influenced by ‘filial piety’ as well as technological access and capacities. By locating the interconnected factors that define caregiving at a distance, the chapter explores how transnational family members experience and negotiate care benefits and burden. Ultimately, the chapter offers a nuanced take on care provision in a transnational, familial, and networked arrangement.

This article examines transnational family development by drawing on the findings of longitudinal research on bi-national marriages between Japanese women and Pakistani men. This type of marriage increased in Japan during the 1990s after a surge in male labor migrants from Pakistan. Very little attention has been given to bi-national relationships between women of the global North and men from the global South. This article explores the ways in which gender, nationality, and other factors intersect in the creation of transnational families. More specifically, it focuses on transnationally split family dynamics in which Japanese wives relocate to Pakistan with their children while their Pakistani husbands remain in Japan to work. These transnational strategies bring the families various opportunities in terms of economic advancement, children’s education, and the provision of care for the elderly. However, they also encounter various challenges as their life-courses unfold. Thus, this article highlights both the possibilities and limitations of these transnational families and shows how these Japanese women contest and negotiate their roles and positions within transnational households.

Diasporic Somalis are increasingly leading a transnational life in which family members are sustained through networks of relations, obligations and resources that are located in different nation-states. These networks and relations enable diasporic Somalis to seek safety for themselves and their relatives, minimize risks and maximize family resources. In this article, I examine three key dimensions of such a way of life, namely: migration; remittances; and transnational family care. I focus on the roles that women play in this family-based support system. For instance, women move and facilitate the movement of other family members; they remit to family members; and they provide care for children and sick relatives. But these transnational households are not free from tensions. Family members are placed in hierarchical relations shaped by age; parental authority; possession of western citizenship; financial resources; and bonds of familial reciprocity and gratitude. Women gain appreciation from relatives and a sense of self-respect for their new roles. Some of the women also make use of the family network to arrange for the care of their children and sick relatives, while they engage in transnational trading activities. However, young and single female relatives often sacrifice or delay their individual dreams because of their familial obligations. I conclude that transnationalism – as a way of organizing and sustaining livelihood, resources and relations of Somali families – is not always emancipating or marginalizing for Somali women. Rather the benefits and challenges of such a way of life for women are different, mixed and uneven.

Studies of transnational families, in which members of the family live in different countries, have mostly focused on families who live apart as a result of economic globalization. However, transnational family life is not only a consequence of the global division of labor but also a consequence of increasing refugee flows. This explorative study is based on interviews with couples in three transnational Somali families, in which different family members either live in their destination country, Sweden, or the transit country, Kenya. The study shows that the geographical distance between the Somali couples has led to a new division of power and duties. The men have less control over the family’s economic and social resources, which has allowed the women to exert greater informal power. These changes cannot, however, be seen as permanent changes. The women interviewed worry about how their new life and lifestyle will work out when the family is finally reunited.