Abstract
Family relationships among current migrants are sometimes spread over large geographical distances and across national borders. In this chapter, I consider transnational families and kinship networks as spatial phenomena, focusing not only on evidence regarding transnational families within migration processes but also on the significance of spatial distance for the everyday lives of these families. Narrative interviews with Turkish migrants in Germany show that families and kinship networks find it difficult to pursue various kinds of relationship maintenance equally within a transnational context. By distinguishing three patterns for managing transnational relationships, I argue that the physical separation of family members and relatives is to be seen not only as problematic but also as beneficial for families and kinship networks.
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Notes
- 1.
As to relationships between migrating mothers and their left-behind children, some geographical separations have been shown to occur in discontinuous periods, each lasting as long as several years. In a study of female Filipino migrants, separations usually last for more than 2 years and in some cases up to 16 years (Parreñas 2001: 367, 370). Results from a study of mothers from Latin America indicate that more than 10 years may pass before they are reunited with their children (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 1997: 549).
- 2.
For an overview, see Faist et al. (2013).
- 3.
In contrast, family members may migrate to fulfil family obligations. In this sense, spatial dispersion as a migration strategy must be regarded as ‘a rational family decision to preserve the family, a resourceful and resilient way of strengthening it: families split in order to be together translocally’ (Chan 1997: 195).
- 4.
‘In the migration process, the family undergoes changes because it must continue to meet the same set of needs within a dramatically changed context’ (Landolt and Da 2005: 627–628).
- 5.
In addition to the nuclear family, the extended family and wider kinship, ‘personal relationships’ include friendships and acquaintances (Lenz and Nestmann 2009). Even if it is important to bear in mind that those diverse types of relationships are significant in the transnational context as well, the considerations that follow are limited to family and kinship relationships.
- 6.
On physical proximity as a Western normative ideal, see Baldassar and Merla (2014a: 12).
- 7.
This work was supported by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2008–2011) under Grant 217226.
- 8.
For the sake of conciseness, all these categories will be subsumed under the term ‘Turkish migrants’.
- 9.
Since their adult children and grandchildren have remained in Germany, many of the Turkish retirement migrants have chosen a transnational lifestyle (see Baykara-Krumme 2013). In these cases of circular migrations between Germany and Turkey, elderly migrants continually alternate spatial proximity and distance with respect to their family members.
- 10.
The number of contacts in Turkey varied widely, ranging from one or two to a large and complex network (Fauser and Reisenauer 2013: 179).
- 11.
On the methodological accessibility of ordinary families, see also Bott (1971: 6).
- 12.
On transnational lifeworlds of Turkish migrant children in Germany, see Reisenauer (2015).
- 13.
For a historical overview on transregional and transnational families from the Middle Ages until the present, see Johnson et al. (2011).
- 14.
The practices discussed in this section correspond to the five types of support identified by the care circulation framework (Baldassar and Merla 2014b: 48 ff.).
- 15.
All the interview passages cited in this chapter are taken from the German TRANS-NET survey. For each, the pseudonym of the interviewee, the participant number and the line number in the interview transcript are provided in parentheses. The passages have been translated by the author.
- 16.
On the role that participation in local events, such as weddings, plays for transnational family networks, see Fog Olwig (2002).
- 17.
On problems in caregiving across national borders with regard to Estonian migrants in Finland and their left-behind elderly parents, see also the illustrative examples in Zechner (2008: 36 f.).
- 18.
Such support may be provided by members of the core (or wider) family living in Turkey or by paid caregivers. (On the situation in Latin America, see Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 1997: 559.)
- 19.
On the emotional consequences of the absence of mothers in transnational families, see Parreñas (2001).
- 20.
This is reflected in the term ‘portability of care’ (Baldassar and Merla 2014a: 25).
- 21.
On the impact of information and communication technologies on family relationships see, in particular, Baldassar et al. (2016).
- 22.
This aspect is emphasized by Loretta Baldassar and Cora V. Baldock with regard to migrants in Australia who provide care to their left-behind elderly parents. ‘Not being in close proximity, they cared about, rather than cared for, their parents’, which leads to ‘intimacy at a distance’ (Baldassar and Baldock 2000: 83).
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Reisenauer, E. (2018). Distant Relationships in Transnational Families and Kinship Networks: The Case of Turkish Migrants in Germany. In: Crespi, I., Giada Meda, S., Merla, L. (eds) Making Multicultural Families in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59755-3_7
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