Kim Caarls

Transnational Families Between Africa and Europe

This paper provides a descriptive and comparative analysis of transnational families with members located in Africa and Europe. It is thus far the only quantitative study, to our knowledge, that includes crosscountry comparisons and focuses on the African European context. By comparing both countries of origin and destination, differences in family arrangements are found among Ghana, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as within these groups depending on the European destination countries. Findings show that dates of arrival and migrant legal status are most commonly associated with transnational family forms. Family and gender norms at origin, migration motivations, destination country family reunification and migration policies, and destination country characteristics related to language, employment opportunities, and educational system help to explain the differences found.

Reunifying versus Living Apart Together Across Borders: A Comparative Analysis of Sub-Saharan Migration to Europe

This article studies the process of reunification in Europe among “living apart together across borders” (LATAB) couples of African origin (DR Congo, Ghana, and Senegal). Couple reunion is conceived as a multilevel process, wherein state selection (through immigration policies in destination countries) interacts with self-selection (at the couple level), under influence of the social context at origin. Based on event history analyses of the MAFE project, empirical results show that LATAB is a majority and durable living arrangement for sub-Saharan migrants, that the odds if reunifying depend on gender and inter-generational relationships, and that restrictive contexts at destination do not deter couple reunion.

Transnational Families Between Ghana, the Netherlands and the UK

This chapter investigates family life in the context of international migration between Ghana and Europe. Families engage in cross-border practices, such as nuclear and extended family members receiving remittances, goods, phone calls and visits from migrants abroad. Importantly, there is also evidence of reverse remittances, that is, flows from households in Ghana to their migratory contacts abroad. Transnational family forms, in which one or more members of the nuclear family are living abroad while the other members remain in the home or another country, are common. The extent to which migrants live transnationally or together with their nuclear family depends on their individual socio-economic and migration-related characteristics, but also on the destination country’s policies and structures. Furthermore, transnational families do not always reunify and when they do, they often reunify in Ghana rather than the country of destination.

Migrant Families Between Africa and Europe: Comparing Ghanaian, Congolese and Senegalese Migration Flows

This chapter provides a descriptive and comparative analysis of transnational families with members located in Africa and Europe. By comparing both countries of origin and destination, differences in family arrangements are found among Ghana, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as within these groups depending on the European destination countries. Findings show that families in origin countries and migrants overseas maintain active relationships through remittance sending and receiving, contact via telephone and visits. This involves nuclear as well as extended family members. Transnational family forms are most commonly associated with dates of arrival and legal status of migrants overseas. Furthermore, family and gender norms at origin, migration motivations, destination country family reunification and migration policies, and destination country characteristics related to language, employment opportunities and educational system help to explain the differences found in the prevalence of transnational families in the different countries studied.

Migration and Family Life Between Congo and Europe

In this chapter, we use the MAFE data to study the relationships between migration and family in the context of DR Congo and Europe. Taking advantage of the multi-sited nature of the data, we show that transnational families are quite common. Two thirds of all households from the region of Kinshasa declared having migrant members abroad (whatever their place of residence). Conversely, using the data collected in Europe, we show that a quarter of Congolese migrants in Belgium and UK still had close relatives in Congo at the time of the survey (spouse or children). Adopting a longitudinal approach, we show that living apart across borders is quite often a long-lasting arrangement for Congolese couples, as well as for their children. Results also show that reunification is not a one-way phenomenon: families also reunify in the origin country, when the migrants return. Results suggest that transnational families result from a mix of personal choices and structural constraints.

Senegalese Families Between Here and There

While family reunification has become a major concern in Europe, with the view that migrants overuse their right to reunite, this chapter shows that Senegalese migrants are largely oriented towards their origin country. Migrants in Europe are predominantly engaged in transnational families, their spouse(s) and/or child(ren) being left behind in Senegal. They thus live transnational lives, involving comings and goings and various sorts of transfers and contacts. This pattern echoes the multi-residential family systems observed that have long been observed within Senegal. Benefiting from the transnational and longitudinal nature of the MAFE data, this chapter challenges the widely shared assumption that family reunification in Europe is the normal path followed by most migrants. The statistical results show that “living apart together” across borders is a long-lasting arrangement for many Senegalese migrants: 10 years after migration, 82% of the married migrants who left their spouses behind are still separated from them; and 88% of those who left a child behind in Senegal are still separated from it. It is quite common for such periods of separation to be ended by reunification at origin (i.e. in Senegal), when the migrant returns. As regards reunification with left-behind children, this is more common than reunification in Europe. On average, migrants who maintain a transnational family life are more vulnerable than other migrants: they are more frequently undocumented, less educated and of lower socio-economic status. In the end, the high prevalence of transnational families appears to be a mixed product of personal (individual or family) choices and policy constraints.