Transnational Families Research Articles

Telecare that works: lessons on integrating digital technologies in elder care from Indian transnational families

In recent decades, policy makers around the world have been working on implementing various technologies into healthcare, and the Covid19 pandemic fueled this process. The specialized technological solutions for telecare – the use of technologies for care at a distance – are often adopted by users in different ways than intended, or are abandoned if the users cannot find applications that are meaningful to them. However, beyond specialized healthcare technologies, people are incorporating mundane digital technologies into their (health)care practices. In this paper, we draw on ethnographic research on the use of everyday digital technologies in Indian families where migrating children who are professional nurses care for their aging parents at a distance. Our findings show that 1) remote elder care is enacted through frequent calling which further fosters trust, necessary to provide healthcare remotely; 2) the motivation for older adults to engage with digital technologies is grounded in the value of family and affect which is consequential also for health; 3) technologies, too, require care-work in the form of everyday maintenance; and 4) in-person visits from children remain important, indicating that hybrid interaction is optimal for good care at a distance. We conclude that taking these findings into account may contribute to a more successful implementation of formal telecare systems.

Remittances and Livestock Management in Agropastoral Households in Rural Kyrgyzstan: Telecoupled Impacts of Globalization☆

AbstractAgropastoralism and international labor migration are livelihood strategies that are interconnected as dominant ways of life across rural Kyrgyzstan. A prevalent rural livelihood strategy—agropastoralism—is closely tied to agrarian semi‐nomadic ways of life that link families and communities to the surrounding mountain environment. Another livelihood strategy—international labor migration—links or telecouples communities and income streams to transnational family structures, international labor markets, and distant economies. This article examines four hypothetical relationships between key elements of these two livelihood strategies. The relationship between remittances, pasture access, and livestock holdings is examined by analyzing 1,815 household surveys from southern rural Kyrgyzstan. We find remittances and livestock holdings have a significant positive relationship when a household is receiving a large amount of remittances, but not when the remittances received are modest. We also find that access to more distant, productive pastures is positively associated with the receipt of any amount of remittances. These findings demonstrate the ways in which migration and remittances can impact livestock management and agropastoral livelihoods at different levels of remittance reception.

Growing-up young adults and their social agency in migration: how Ukrainian children initiate and mediate their own migration within the family unit

ABSTRACT In an earlier period of migration studies, young people were overlooked, but scholars later began to study their position and perspective. Within the transnational family they are often studied as “abandoned” in the country of origin or as reunified with parent(s) in the country of immigration. Nevertheless, in both cases parents are seen as decision-makers whether young people will migrate or stay. A different angle provides studies of independent child migration or unaccompanied minors from Africa or Latin America. These young people are capable of developing their agency to the extent that they can migrate alone and neglect negotiation with parents as a result of conflict or different objectives. This article elaborates this topic and shows that growing-up adults from Western Ukraine (15–16 years-old when migrated) are also social agents, capable of triggering their own migration independently of parents as a consequence of experience from short-term stays in the country of immigration, as well as meritocratic principles and distinct generational outlooks.

Language ideologies and practices in flux: the case of an Italian-Chinese transnational family

ABSTRACT Transnationals constitute one-third of the population of the economically prosperous Singapore. Applying a family language policy (FLP) framework and collaborative autoethnography from data (interviews, videos, and diaries) spanning 13 years, this study delves into the linguistic journey of an Italian-Chinese family with two children born in Singapore. The analysis demonstrates the dynamics of language ideologies, management, and practices, following changes in parental beliefs, children’s linguistic proficiencies and agency, availability of resources within the family and the host country, and unexpected events like COVID-19. The article highlights how multilingual parents’ ideologies shape up owning to individual experiences, beliefs, and aspirations, and how these ideologies are translated into language choices and day-to-day language maintenance, vis-à-vis Singapore’s English-centric policies. This unique longitudinal case study also touches on features pertaining to transnational families in Singapore, such as the perception of the local variety ‘Singlish,’ caregiving, and schooling options, illustrating the intricate interplay of micro and macro factors governing family multilingualism.

Learning Qur’anic Arabic in a virtual village: Family religious language policy in transnational Indonesian Muslim families

Learning Qur’anic Arabic in a virtual village: Family religious language policy in transnational Indonesian Muslim families

Illuminating health aspects for immigrant Thai women in Swedish transnational marriages

BackgroundWomen who are migrants experience discrimination and face major risks, including sexual exploitation, trafficking, and violence, which affect their health and well-being.This study explored critical health incidents experienced by immigrant Thai women in marriage migration.MethodsA qualitative explorative approach with in-depth interviews was used. Forty immigrant Thai women who currently or previously had a Swedish spouse were recruited for the study. An inductive critical incident technique was used to collect and analyze the data as the first step. In a second deductive step, the Newman system model was used to categorize health dilemmas.ResultsThe women reported 438 critical health incidents in five main areas. Psychological health dilemmas included emotional abuse, feeling overwhelmed due to family responsibilities and the stress of leaving family behind. Sociocultural health dilemmas included transnational family duties or not performing family duties. Physiological health dilemmas included experiencing physical violence and environmental, domestic or work accidents. Developmental health dilemmas included failing health, difficulties upholding the duties expected of a spouse in the target culture and caring for an elderly husband. Spiritual health dilemmas included critical incidents in which the women perceived themselves to have failed in their hopes and duties as a wife, which intensified their dependence on faith, particularly the Buddhist concept of karma.ConclusionProfessionals in health and welfare practices in Thailand together with professionals in Western countries who work with women in marriage migration situations need to recognize the psychological, sociocultural, physiological, developmental, and spiritual health dilemmas experienced by these women. Furthermore, civil organizations that meet Thai women in foreign countries, such as Buddhist cultural associations, would benefit from the multicultural knowledge revealed by the present study. This knowledge can facilitate healthcare and welfare support for women in marriage migration situations.

“To Separate Myself from Them, I Think I Will Feel Great Sadness”: Transnational Fatherhood and Border Regimes in Central Mexico

Abstract Studies of fatherhood in Latin America demonstrate an uneven shift from traditional, patriarchal fatherhood to a more reflexive version that incorporates elements of active, relational fatherhood. This hybrid fatherhood emerged from the transition of Fordism to flexible accumulation, a transformation that coincided with massive migration from Central Mexico to the United States. Migration scholars have demonstrated the fluidity of masculine identities, men’s strategies to father across borders, and how US immigration enforcement shapes gendered subjectivities and power relations in transnational families. Building off these insights, we examine how return migrant men in rural central Mexico navigated changing meanings and practices of fatherhood. Their hybrid strategies reflect the inherent contradictions of a border regime that limited circular migration to the United States and their interest in maintaining close emotional attachments to children. Transnational fathers’ connections to reproduction reveal another way that affect articulates with capital accumulation and borders.

Caring for elderly parents while living away: Sri Lanka’s professional and skilled emigrants

Providing parental care within transnational families poses significant psychological costs for migrants in their migration and return migration decisions. The facilitation of transnational elderly care is complicated by associated stressors and mediated by systems that ease the emotional burden. The recently growing skilled emigration from Sri Lanka, often as a means of escapism, poses unique challenges in navigating the care needs of the left-behind elderly. Our study explored how 10 skilled migrants from Sri Lanka attempted to provide transnational care. Findings revealed that emigrants resorted to many conventional and novel coping mechanisms, which in turn, mediated their return decisions.

A Transnational Family Mediator: Seeking Avenues, Envisioning Features

A Transnational Family Mediator: Seeking Avenues, Envisioning Features

A Comprehensive Study on the Psychological Effects on Left-Behind Children and Parachute Kids

Left-behind children (LBCs) and parachute kids represent unique groups of adolescents experiencing transnational parenting. LBCs are those left behind in their home countries as their parents migrate elsewhere, while parachute kids are sent abroad, primarily for educational purposes, with parents choosing to remain in their country of origin. This paper conducts a comprehensive literature review and investigation into the psychological effects and implications of these phenomena, focusing on East Asia and Latin America. The review uncovers a range of adverse psychological effects experienced by these adolescents, highlighting the urgent need for targeted interventions to address root causes and provide holistic support systems for their well-being. Recognizing the overall negative impact of parental absence, this study emphasizes the importance of understanding and mitigating the challenges faced by LBCs and parachute kids. In addition to proposing suggestions to enhance the lives of these adolescents, there is a call for more formalized research and data collection on this topic. As the population of transnational families grows, it becomes imperative to gather comprehensive data to inform effective interventions and support mechanisms. This paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge surrounding transnational parenting, shedding light on the psychological well-being of left-behind children and parachute kids, and advocating for a more nuanced understanding of their experiences.

Binational Identities and Experiences of Discrimination in the Context of Migration: The Role of Transnational Family Ties and Practices

ABSTRACT Previous research suggests that migrants develop binational identities – a sense of belonging to both their country of origin and of settlement. These identities, in turn, are determined by the way they are treated by the majority population of the receiving society. This article aims to contribute nuance to these understandings of binational identities and experiences of origin-based discrimination in migrants by bringing in a further perspective: transnationalism. In particular, we suggest that transnational family ties and practices increase migrants’ sense of belonging to their country of origin and additionally moderate the impact of origin-based discrimination on the sense of belonging to the country of origin and settlement. We test these hypotheses based on a representative survey among the migrant population in Germany. While findings confirm the hypothesis regarding a direct relationship between transnational family ties and practices and sense of belonging, the moderation hypothesis was not confirmed. Instead, by tendency the relationship is more pronounced among participants without transnational family ties and practices. Findings highlight the importance of the transnational perspective to further contextualize the relationship of origin-based discrimination to binational identities among migrants, thus to investigate the role of social context in binational identity formation.

Bridging distance: Transnational and local family ties in refugees’ social support networks

Abstract This study examines the familial ties in the social support network of refugees in Germany. It investigates whether distance to family plays a role in the provision of emotional and informational support and how this relationship is moderated by social network services (SNS). Using data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (N = 5237), the paper provides evidence for a family-centred network. Increasing distance to family is generally negatively associated with receiving support. However, the strength of support from the partner and sibling is less affected by distance than support from parents. Findings indicate that emotional support can generally be conveyed across greater distances, while informational support, often entailing location-bound aid, is not as easily transmittable. This study contributes to the understanding of refugee networks as transnational families with intergenerational differences in support. It also refines the depiction of support dynamics as being multifaceted and potentially limited due to fragmented contacts.

Mental Health Implications of Family Separation Associated with Migration Policies in the United States: A Systematic Review

The practice of family separation as a mechanism of oppression has a deep-rooted history in the U.S., manifesting in diverse contexts, including punitive migration policies. This systematic review aimed to provide a rigorous and updated synthesis of the research on family separation as a result of migration policies and its impacts on immigrants’ mental health while making a distinction between forced family separation, family separation by constrained choices, and living with the fear of family separation. We systematically searched four bibliographic databases using keywords related to family separation, migration, transnational families, and mental health for peer-reviewed studies published in English on or before January 1st, 2022. Results of the review indicate that family separation or fear of it may result in depression, anxiety, behavioral and emotional issues, sleep disturbances, and stress or distress in affected children. Similarly, impacted parents or caregivers might experience stress or distress, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. Findings call for migration policy changes prioritizing family unity and comprehensive mental health interventions to respond to the pervasive consequences of family separation or fear thereof among immigrants in the U.S.

Unpacking children’s perspectives of multilingualism through language portraits: insights from a Polish pre-school in Australia

ABSTRACT This paper delves into the dynamics of language-based agency of six-year-old children raised in transnational families in Australia. The members of the focal group are four pre-schoolers, who while creating language portraits, offer insights into the truncated diversity of their linguistic repertoires. Through extent, position, choice of colour, use of symbols, and the accompanying written comments, the children communicate information about home language maintenance. Concomitant interviews unfold the overall picture of family language policies of the studied participants. Unsurprisingly, although the children’s opinions are shaped or even persuaded by their parents’ discourses, and considering the fact that parents do not normally discuss their family language policies with them, the young participants provide valuable and reliable perspectives on language management in their homes. Further, they exhibit agency in their family language policies, which are yet to be deliberated in terms of a multi-actor construct, whereby all family members have their own voices. That said, children exercise a freedom of language choice despite the conscious or unconscious linguistic efforts of their parents, which can be regarded as a manner of negotiating and impacting language use within the family.

Family language policy in a transnational family living in Finland: multilingual repertoire, language practices, and child agency.

Each multilingual transnational family is unique and thus deserves to be carefully studied in terms of its family language policy (FLP). Speaker-centered approaches can provide a deeper understanding of linguistic diversity in a multilingual setting. The studied Russian-Italian family is raising a multilingual boy (8:2) in Finland. The multilingual repertoire includes Russian, Italian, Finnish, English, and Hebrew. In this case-study, an ethnographic approach is used to explore the multilingual family repertoire by presenting their lived experiences and language practices. I discuss the FLP and child's active role in shaping the family's linguistic practices (child agency). The following methods were combined: semi-structured interviews, language background surveys, written diary entries, self-recordings of interactions in the family, and a language portrait that depicts the child's multilingual repertoire. The interviews and other recordings were transcribed manually. The following research questions guided the study: (1) How do the family members describe their FLP? (2) How does the FLP evolve through everyday interactions (language practices)? (3) How does the child exercise his agency in the family setting? The results reveal that the family's language practices follow predominantly an one person-one language (OPOL) strategy; consequently, the child speaks a different language with each parent. However, the analysis of the language ideologies reveals positive attitudes toward both multilingualism and all the languages in the family's repertoire, which explains the multilingual practices having multiplicity and unexpectedness. FLP is shaping the family language practices. Evidence of language hierarchy can be explained by a number of family-external and family-internal social factors.

“We Cannot Go There, They Cannot Come Here”: Dispersed Care, Asian Indian Immigrant Families and the COVID-19 Pandemic

“We Cannot Go There, They Cannot Come Here”: Dispersed Care, Asian Indian Immigrant Families and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Understanding networked family language policy: a study among Bengali immigrants in Australia

ABSTRACT Family language policy (FLP) impacts the maintenance of heritage language(s) in the family domain, where parents play a crucial role in making language-related decisions for their children. Globalisation, immigration, the COVID-19 pandemic, and digital communication have all affected FLP. Studies are now calling for examining how dispersed transnational families incorporate digital practices as a part of their FLP, given the shift from the exclusive use of traditional face-to-face communication to the inclusion of digital communication media such as Skype and WhatsApp. This research examines the viability of utilising Spolsky’s tripartite framework to study the new concept of ‘networked FLP,’ a term coined by Curdt-Christiansen and Huang, which acknowledges dispersed families and digital communication. We examine data from ten Bengali immigrant families in Australia with dispersed senior family members living abroad. Our findings enrich the concept of networked FLP by highlighting the digital affordances that networked FLP provides to dispersed transnational families and the importance of socio-cultural and emotional factors when applying Spolsky's framework to FLP with digital media. We show that family bonding, maintaining heritage culture, and emotional connections are the primary motivations for digital communication, while language learning is secondary. Our study finds that it is essential to incorporate sociocultural and emotional factors when investigating networked FLP.

Localising international schools in multilingual Switzerland: from parental strategies to institutional dual-language programmes

ABSTRACT This article aims to complexify the linguistic dimension of international schooling in light of the increasing diversification of the field but also as a result of the ‘banalisation’ of English and the growing ‘added’ value of multilingual competence in the knowledge economy. Drawing on data from focus groups with mobile families and institutional documents from an international school in Switzerland, we claim that the value of English-medium education to facilitate worldwide mobility is simultaneously conceived by parents as an obstacle for their children’s acquisition of certain linguistic capitals in the locality. This engenders constant family (re-)evaluations of school choice and the development of strategies for children to acquire locally-available linguistic competences. The Swiss context activates the multilingual imagination of global middle-class families who demand that the school help their children maximise their chances of local linguistic capitalisation. In our case study, the current educational shift responds to parental desires for elite multilingualism with French and materialises in an optional dual-language programme to attract an increasing number of Swiss and established transnational families in a competitive eduscape.

“Our Kids are Going to Live their Future, Not our Past”: The Family Language Policies of Three Transnational Families

In recent decades, the field of family language policy (FLP) has expanded in breadth to reconceptualize the notion of family structure and the rich variety of motivations of transnational families. In an age spotlighted by the blurring of linguistic and cultural borders, this study was guided by one overarching question: As a parent, would you be willing to compromise the development of your child’s heritage language in exchange for your child increasing their social capital, improving their English language skills, and becoming a global citizen? Interviews were conducted with three sets of highly-educated, multilingual parents who lived abroad for work and to afford their children future linguistic, cultural, and economic opportunities. Results found that as the parents realized these opportunities, the children’s relationship to the parents’ first language and culture deteriorated; however, the parents took these challenges in stride, not losing sight of the skills their children were currently developing. Further, owing to their positive outlook, the parents considered their children’s heritage language attrition as a temporary outcome that the children could ameliorate down the road, should they so choose.

Beyond populism and into the state: The political economy of national-conservatism

This article argues that the crises of neoliberal globalisation since the 2000s have given rise to a new transnational political family that we call ‘national-conservatism’. Through a critical examination of the literature on the Global Right and the role of the state under globalisation, we contend that national-conservatism acts as an innovative model for acquiring and exerting power from the right today, characterised by an endorsement of the state’s economic role, an emphasis on traditional values and hierarchies such as religion, and a proactive, occasionally confrontational stance in foreign policy. Consequently, the paradigm of national-conservatism prompts the division of transnational neoliberalism into discrete national domains. These domains function as havens where the neoliberal elite is shielded both from foreign competitive pressures and radical demands of respective national societies. Crucially, national-conservatism garners legitimacy for this new order through its commitment to revitalising traditional, hierarchical models of national sovereignty.