Narratives of the children left behind: Home and identity in globalised Caribbean families

Abstract

The long history of population movements in the Caribbean has led to the establishment of globalised families in which diffuse networks of relationships tie migrants and the relatives they leave behind into coherent social fields. Migration studies have documented that migrants often leave children behind with relatives, and that these children constitute pivotal points in the social fields. Yet there has been little focus on the children who grow up in these global family networks. This article examines four life stories related by young people from the Leeward Island of Nevis who were left behind by their migrant parents to live with their grandparents when they were small children. The aim of the analysis is to elucidate how children experience growing up in a home environment which is based on global relations as far as the most fundamental social, economic and emotional aspects of life are concerned. This study may also lead to a broader understanding of the cultural values associated with a good family life among people for whom population mobility and socioeconomic connectivity on a global scale have long constituted a basic framework of existence.