Introduction Reimagining the European Family: Cultures of Immigration

Abstract

The family as a fundamental social, emotional, and economic unit is undergoing change, especially—though by no means exclusively—in the Western, industrialized world. It is equally true that the family is always in flux, with models ranging from nuclear to extended, local to transnational. Recently, however, the idea that a global “we” could be entering a “postfamilial” age has gained momentum. One factor that policy-makers and demographers struggle with, cannot measure, or even overlook is the influence of immigration, both legal and illegal, on the structure, and, no less importantly, on the stories of the contemporary family. Instead of proclaiming its immanent obsolescence, I argue in this study that the family is undergoing a process of reimagining itself, reconfiguring its constituents under specific cultural, national, and regional conditions that include the influences of migration and immigration.