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Does International Migration Lead to Divorce? Ghanaian Couples in Ghana and Abroad
Abstract
This article examines the effects of international migration on the probability of divorce among Ghanaian couples in 2009. Couples that experienced joint migration, and those where the husband and/or the wife migrated alone are compared with couples with no migration experience. The relationship between migration and divorce is contextualized with anthropological insights into marital relationships in Ghana. Ghanaian data from the Migrations between Africa and Europe (MAFE) research programme, containing retrospective information on married couples, are analysed. Discrete-time event history analysis shows that migrant couples have higher divorce rates than non-migrant couples, but only when the wife migrated, either independently or jointly. Couples who spend longer periods apart are also more likely to divorce, especially when it is the husband who migrates.
... This means that migration is male dominated phenomenon. To date, little attention has been accorded to the correlation between migration and divorce and separation though some socio-demographic studies conducted in the past decades have demonstrated direct links between international migration and divorce (Caarls and Mazzucato 2015;Andersson et al. 2015;Hill 2004). One of the apparent consequences of migrations is that, it drives families to be geographically apart. ...
... When Caarls and Mazzucato (2015) studied on the fact that migration may lead to divorce, they identified the scarcity of literature and research on it anywhere in the world. Tabutin and Schoumaker (2004) mention that 35% of women's first marriages end in divorce after 30 years of marriage in Ghana. ...
... The general perception is that the longer the partners stay separated, the higher is the risk of straining relationship and eventually divorce (Frank and Wildsmith 2005;Hill 2004;Charsley 2005;Gallo 2006;George 2000;Manuh 1999;Zontini 2010). Caarls and Mazzucato (2015) contend that women migrating to a Western context are more likely to make decisions on divorce than those who migrate to other African countries. However, this may not be the case for men. ...
Migration is no longer a new area of research. It has become a crucial issue for the world since the last two decades for a range of reasons. Migration has attracted so many allied issues such as development; security; international relations, and conflict. Immediate before these issues gained attention, migration was seen as a development mantra. In the effort of making migration and development link, researchers, academics, policy makers tended to overemphasize migration. The hypothesis of migration-development nexus is drawn generally on the contribution of migrants’ remittances to the gross domestic products (GDP) of receiving countries. While this contribution could no way be undermined, the cost and benefit calculation is performed largely by trivializing some key variables of migration such as opportunity cost and psychological costs. In setting the scene, we take a position to critically look into the debate of migration and development nexus.
... This shift can create disadvantages for women as they are required to handle additional tasks that were previously done by the husband (Madhu, 2008). Women may feel pressured and frustrated by the increased workload they have to complete in a short period, longer working hours, and lack of time to rest and take care of their own health (Caarls & Mazzucato, 2015). In the relationship between parents and children, many research studies that the absence of family members who migrate to work negatively affects children. ...
... This also creates disadvantages for women who have to take on more work, which was previously done by the husband in the family. Caarls & Mazzucato (2015) found that international migration leads to an increase in divorce and that there are gender differences in the impact of migration on divorce. Migration increases the risk of divorce in families where the husband migrates abroad to find work; families where only the female are migrants have a lower divorce rate. ...
Objectives. This study aims to examine the influence of labor migration on family structure changes in rural areas of Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam. The three factors selected are the relationship between husband and wife, the relationship between parents and children, the relationship between the elderly, and the way generations bond in the family. Material and methods. Researchers approached migrant households living in rural areas in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam, to conduct a questionnaire survey. Researchers went to each commune and village and distributed questionnaires to 300 people representing households with labor migrants. Results. According to the results of this study, all the three factors are the relationship between husband and wife, the relationship between parents and children, the relationship between the elderly, and the way of connecting the generations in the family affected by labor migration. The relationship between parents and children is the most affected, so it is necessary to soon come up with solutions to help localities solve sustainable labor migration issues while simultaneously fostering cultural development and healthy, happy family. The findings of this study provide insights and suggestions to contribute to orienting the development of family culture in relation to the labor migration process in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam in the coming time. Conclusions. The findings of this study contribute to the existing theoretical basis on the influence of the labor migration process on the change in the family structure of migrants in Thanh Hoa, Vietnam. Keywords: change, family structure, affect, labor migration, countryside.
... Among various household economic strategies, solo migration (while leaving the marital partner behind) is a common livelihood strategy for many households, for whom concerns such as employment uncertainty and high cost of living in the destination areas lead to couple separation for an extended period of time. This global phenomenon has been documented in studies in the context of Mexican-U.S. migration (Lindstrom and Saucedo 2002), sub-Saharan African migration to Europe (Caarls and Mazzucato 2015;Feijten and Ham 2007), and internal migration settings such as India and China (Ma, Liaw and Zeng 1996;Desai and Banerji 2008). For instance, Lahaie et al. (2009) showed that there were almost 40% of Mexican migrant households has spouse migration. ...
... Indeed, negative mechanisms such as the loss of, or at least a reduced level of, intimacy and emotional support from the absent spouse could likewise affect one's psychological well-being. Previous study suggests that international migration can result in the increase of divorce, and part of reason is that many couples have been geographically separated (Caarls and Mazzucato 2015). Moreover, an increase in household work, care burden and the responsibilities to other family members for the left-behind partners at the original home (e.g. ...
Spousal separation due to migration is a prevalent phenomenon in the developing world, but its psychological consequences for left-behind partners are largely understudied. Using data from 2010, 2012 and 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper first examined whether spousal migration causes rural married adults any psychological distress; this finding was then advanced by testing the mechanisms that could potentially explain the linkage between these two variables. Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) for multivalued treatment effect models and paired Propensity Score Matching (PSM) have been used to correct the potential selection bias of spousal migration. The results show that prolonged spousal separation through migration increases the depressive symptoms of married adults in rural China, and the detrimental effects on left-behind spouses' psychological well-being can be explained by the reduced level of emotional intimacy between husband and wife, and partially by women becoming the master of the household. Considering that being the master of the household is accompanied by elevated stress levels associated with increasing family responsibilities, further examination showed that economic resources can buffer the negative effect associated with being the master of the household when the spouse migrates. However, we did not find that time use is an effective mechanism to link spousal migration and left-behind spouses' well-being.
... Children's perspectives have been little investigated when transnational families are affected by marital problems. When parents migrate, the stress of living apart can lead to marital tensions (Pribilsky 2004), especially when women migrate (Caarls and Mazzucato 2015). Research also reveals that migration can serve as an escape path from a problematic marriage for some Filipina wives (Constable 2003). ...
... Because of sensitivity issues, our data did not account for details of parental divorce, such as whether the divorce occurred before or after the migration event. A recent study looked at the prevalence of divorce among Ghanaian migrants in Europe and found that it was not more prevalent among couples who migrated than among those who stayed in Ghana (Caarls and Mazzucato 2015). This evidence may imply that divorce and migration represent random occurrences among Ghanaian couples and that children may perceive the two events as uncorrelated experiences and are able to dissociate their feelings for migration from those regarding marital discord. ...
This study empirically measures the perceptions towards maternal and paternal migration of male and female children who stay behind in Ghana. It analyses survey data collected in 2010 among secondary school children aged 11–18 in four urban areas with high out-migration rates: the greater Accra region, Kumasi, Sunyani and Cape Coast (N = 1965). The results show significant gendered differences in how children perceive parental migration. Specifically, female children have more positive views towards maternal and paternal migration when parents are abroad and in a stable marital relationship, when the assessed parent is abroad but the other parent is the caregiver in Ghana, when there is a frequent change in the care arrangement, and when female children receive remittances. These findings were not replicated for male children. The analysis highlights the sensitivity of the results to the gender of the child and to the characteristics of children’s transnational lives that are being analysed.
... The study results show inconclusive linkage between divorce rate and living afar from marriage, and the content of the two interview excerpts runs through the comments made by respondents. Caarls and Mazzucato (2015) explained that there are other unobserved and unexplained reasons which can cause divorce in such marriages apart from distance. The respondents who gave the second excerpt mentioned technology as one factor which enhances communication and closeness in such relationship. ...
It is usually perceived that when couples marry, they live together to complement each other and keep each other’s company. There have been changes in family behaviour at the global level. In both the Western world and Africa, mainly when people achieve material well-being, their family relationships become subsidiary to their needs and wants. This study examines married couples who live separately and the consequences of this arrangement on their social and economic lifestyles. It uses examples from formal sector workers, and largely based on a qualitative study conducted using virtual interviews. The study reveals that although the usual expectation is for married couples to live under the same roof, contemporary socio-economic conditions often prevent this. As a result, couples adapt as needed to maintain and sustain their marriages. The study adapts the Living Apart Together (LAT) concept to suit legally married couples who are separated based on economic activities. It concludes that LAT, as discussed in the literature, focuses on couples, usually unmarried, who decide to live apart because of reasons beyond their control.
... When only the husband or wife migrated, the rate of divorce in migrant couples was higher than in non-migrant couples. Especially, when migrated husbands stay outside for longer periods cases of divorce are more likely (Caarls & Mazzucato, 2015). Thus, the issue of increasing cases of divorce among migrant households was rigorously discussed in all 4 FGDs located in Himali Chowk, Sombare, Sagarmatha and Gyane Chowk. ...
Foreign employment has brought significant economic benefits and changes on the socio-economic situation of migrant households in Nepal. However, studies regarding the impact of foreign employment on social cohesion are limited. Hence, this study focuses on the impact of social cohesions in households and community levels taking the case of a large rural village from eastern Nepal. The study is based on qualitative research methodology applying three different but interconnected levels (individual, community and institution) in social cohesion perspectives. The study has found that household split (Anshabanda) is taking place much earlier in migrated families. The trend and volume of foreign employment-induced divorce cases among migrant couples are increasing rapidly compared to non-migrant households. Traditional cultures and practices are disappearing due to the absence of a large number of youths in the village. The study concludes that people’s motivation, perceptions, norms and values have changed over the time at both individual and community levels towards local cultures, borrowing behaviours and some other socio-cultural activities and performance, especially among migrant households and communities.
... Ghanaians immigrate to the U.S. for educational enhancement and for occupational opportunities [14]. The U.S. is a target destination due to its economic stability and its varied and advanced educational opportunities [15]. The Ghanaian population in the U.S. emigrated in the hopes of bettering their lives and that of their family relations [6] and pursuing academic advancement or for esteem and image -A Ghanaian immigrant who returns to Ghana from the U.S. is hailed as wealthy by the non-migrants [16]. ...
Transnational couples make life together while far apart across international borders. Fully understanding transnational couple living requires an in-depth analysis of the causes of marital relationship strains among transnational couples and the behavioral adjustments and expectancies needed to accommodate relationship disruptions. Framed within the double ABC-X model of family stress and coping, this study investigated the impacts of transnational living on married Ghanaian couples. Twenty-Four married participants from three U.S. States and their Ghanaian spouses in Ghana were interviewed. Participants shared what motivated their transnational migration to the United States, how U.S. immigration policies influenced their marriage, and the psychological, physical, and emotional impacts of transnational living on them and their marriage relationship. Findings reveal that married transnational couples experience relationship strains that significantly affect different domains of their health and wellbeing. These strains exhibit as psychological, physical, and emotional challenges. Participants reported issues including recurring depression, chronic illnesses, financial hardships, and divorce. These relationship strains were found to result from unrealistic expectations about life in the U.S., inadequate understanding of immigration realities, lack of relationship nurturing, and barriers created by changing U.S. immigration policies. This study has implications for health practitioners and immigration policymakers.
... Migration can also undermine the stability of the family. However, the timing of family events is often unknown, and it makes difficult to establish the direction of the cause-and-effect relationship between migration and union dissolution (see for a review Glick 2010;Flowerder and Al-Amad 2004;Muszynska and Kulu 2006;Boyle et al. 2008;Caarls and Mazzucato 2015). ...
Purpose
An increasing number of international immigrant workers enter the EU labour market to fill the gap in many key economic sectors. Labour migration often implies a process of family adaptation and, in some cases, a breakdown in the community structure and networks. This study aims to provide insights into the dynamics of transnational families, focusing on changes in the redefinition of roles within family members and children care arrangements.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was based on the analysis of 12 biographical interviews conducted using semi-structured interviews between November 2018 and December 2019 among Romanian women who worked as caregivers in families in an Italian metropolitan city and the surrounding urban area.
Findings
Despite the economic dimension being essential, psychological well-being increasingly burdens workers’ migratory experience and that of their family members. Findings suggest including employers and children among the actively involved actors of the family decision-making process; working and contractual conditions as factors that significantly impact the opportunities and capability of workers to provide and receive care, mainly if the latter are employed in the informal market.
Originality/value
The study makes it possible to highlight that the dynamics in decision-making processes in transnational families change in the different phases of the migration project and involve numerous actors. These processes are not always rational and are strongly influenced by the labour market structure in which migrants are employed.
... Menegon 2009, p. 317. 63 Caarls and Mazzucato 2015;Landale and Ogena 1995. 64 Rowe 2007, pp. ...
This article investigates the impact of male migration on left-behind women in nineteenth-century Chongqing, focusing on the intersection among gender, migration, and religion. It analyze the unintended consequences of failed male migration, in which the husband's failure to send regular remittances was prone to cause tremendous anxiety and financial difficulties for his wife. In the absence of strong male-centered kinship organizations, Chongqingese women exploited unorthodox options to support themselves. Buddhist monasticism proved appealing because it provided both a stable source of livelihood and an inclusive all-female space. However, female renunciation was controversial because it challenged state-sponsored patriarchal values. Returned husbands enlisted the state's help in revoking their wives' religious decisions. Paradoxically, for vulnerable women like concubines, nunhood proved an attractive option because it helped them obtain migration-triggered divorces on favorable terms. They strategically synergized the bodily practice of monastic celibacy with the discourse of female chastity to assure their estranged spouses of lifelong commitments to non-remarriage. By doing so, these women succeeded in receiving generous financial compensation. This study highlights how the combination of religion and translocality enabled women to renegotiate their positionality within the patriarchy.
... Migration also entails financial risk and uncertainty and, at least in the short term, severe budgetary constraints that strain conjugal relationships (Gudmunson et al. 2007). In cases where migration is from more patriarchal to more gender-egalitarian societies, a clash in gender values, along with women's greater freedom and opportunities outside the home, can generate conflict and instability (Anderson, Obućina, and Scott 2015;Caarls and Mazzucato 2015). Equally important, the absence of kinship and other social ties that provide social and moral monitoring in origin communities lowers the social costs of union dissolution, especially in destinations where divorce is common (Frank and Wildsmith 2005). ...
In many low- and medium-income countries that are the traditional sources of international migrants, total fertility rates have dropped to levels at or near replacement. In this context of low fertility, we expect migration’s effects on fertility to operate primarily through marital timing and marital stability. We examine the effects of international migration on age at first marriage, union dissolution, timing of first birth, and completed fertility, using retrospective life-history data collected in Mexico and eight other Latin American countries by the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) and the Latin American Migration Project (LAMP). Using discrete-time hazards and Poisson regression models, we find clear evidence that early migration experience results in delayed marriage, delayed first birth, and a higher rate of marital dissolution. We also find evidence among women that cumulative international migration experience is associated with fewer births and that the estimated effects of migration experience are attenuated after taking into account age at union formation and husbands’ prior union experiences. As fertility levels in migrant origin and destination countries continue on their path toward convergence, migrant fertility below native fertility may become more common due to migration’s disruptive effects on marital timing and marital stability and the selection of divorced or separated adults into migration.
... However, the NSPCC's report is limited in that the level of economic development in advanced countries like the US and the UK makes it difficult to generalise their findings to a developing country such as Ghana, which has a gross national income per capita of 1813.80 US$ (Ghana Statistical Service, 2018). Nevertheless, the study's description of family dysfunction as a possible predisposing factor for neglect seems compatible with the Ghanaian context due to the high rate of divorce in Ghana, which suggests an instance of family dysfunctionality (Caarls and Mazzucato, 2015;Takyi and Gyimah, 2007). ...
Child neglect incidents are the most frequent cases reported to the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana. Therefore, an effective approach to inform practice decisions to curb the numbers is of great importance. Using a qualitative research design, 28 Practitioners’ and parents’ narratives on the perception and causes of child neglect were explored. The study revealed that there is a convergence and divergence of views on how child neglect is conceptualised. The findings suggest the need for practitioners to intensify awareness on some of Ghana’s cultural practices, such as inheritance expectations, that hinder better outcomes for children.
... Finally, the migration of a partner can lead to union dissolution, as a result of (dis) empowerment, extramarital relations, and worsened well-being (Boyle, Kulu, and Cooke 2008;Frank and Wildsmith 2005;Hill 2004). A greater chance of marital tension and divorce emerges when women migrate and the husband stays behind, especially when partners have different gender expectations (Boyle, Kulu, and Cooke 2008;Caarls and Mazzucato 2015;Pribilsky 2004). ...
Policymakers and scholars today recognise the important role that women play in international migration and the fact that migration is a gendered process. However, this has not always been the case. Much of migration scholarship was gender-blind for most of the twentieth century, despite the fact that women have migrated throughout human history. In this chapter, we provide a brief and quite schematic overview of the gender and migration literature to foreground the way in which gender has been integrated (or not) in discussion on migration and development. We distinguish between different types of development and explain how gender and migration in inter-related to these different understandings of development. We finalise with a call for a better appreciation of the way migration contributes to those countries that are already developed as well as for greater attention to the development, rights, and well-being of those who migrate.
... Long periods of separation, often extending for several years, is associated with weakening relationships, union dissolution, and the formation of new sexual partnerships in places of origin and destination (Dreby, 2010;Landale, Oropesa, & Noah, 2014;Nobles, Rubalcava, & Teruel, 2015). Much of this research has been conducted on Hispanics, so these findings may not extend to other groups (e.g., Caarls & Mazzucato, 2015). For example, in contexts where women are more likely to migrate for work and leave spouses behind in the origin setting, migration may challenge traditional gender roles and create strain on couples beyond the strain of maintaining a transnational relationship (Hoang & Yeoh, 2011). ...
The authors review research conducted during the past decade on immigrant families, focusing primarily on the United States and the sending countries with close connections to the United States. They note several major advances. First, researchers have focused extensively on immigrant families that are physically separated but socially and economically linked across origin and destination communities and explored what these family arrangements mean for family structure and functions. Second, family scholars have explored how contexts of reception shape families and family relationships. Of special note is research that documented the experiences and risks associated with undocumented legal status for parents and children. Third, family researchers have explored how the acculturation and enculturation process operates as families settle in the destination setting and raise the next generation. Looking forward, they identify several possible directions for future research to better understand how immigrant families have responded to a changing world in which nations and economies are increasingly interconnected and diverse, populations are aging, and family roles are in flux and where these changes are often met with fear and resistance in immigrant‐receiving destinations.
... Also, 52.2% of the population as of the time of data collection were not married (either married before or never married). In addition, Ghana is also reported to have high divorce rates (see Tabutin et al., 2004 cited in Caarls andMazzucato, 2015), with most of them being females (GSS, 2012). This may imply that males are not marrying and those who are married may be very much concerned about longevity of the relationship because of high divorce rates. ...
... Also, 52.2% of the population as of the time of data collection were not married (either married before or never married). In addition, Ghana is also reported to have high divorce rates (see Tabutin et al., 2004 cited in Caarls andMazzucato, 2015), with most of them being females (GSS, 2012). This may imply that males are not marrying and those who are married may be very much concerned about longevity of the relationship because of high divorce rates. ...
... The distribution plot illustrates that most of these women become single in the five years prior to migration after having been in a relationship. This is an interesting result, since earlier studies mostly found that international migration may lead to union dissolutions among female migrants (Caarls et al., 2018;Caarls & Mazzucato, 2015;Zontini, 2010), and thus this finding indicates that the opposite may also occur. However, once again, the causal link between migration and union disruption is not clear, as partnerships may have ended in anticipation of the impending migration of these women. ...
This article examines the relationship between the timing of international migration and family formation trajectories (union formation and fertility) of Sub-Saharan African migrants in Europe. Longitudinal life-history data from Senegalese migrants in France, Italy and Spain, collected as part of the Migrations between Africa and Europe (MAFE) project are used. Applying sequence analysis techniques and distinguishing between men and women, individuals are grouped into different clusters according to the (dis-)similarities in their family for- mation trajectories before and after migration. Furthermore, multinomial logistic regression models are used to test associations between individual and contextual characteristics and the obtained clusters. The results show important differences between men and women regarding their migration-family formation trajectories. Moreover, the interrelatedness of family and migration events was more pronounced among women than men. The regression analysis indicates that male and female trajectories are related in particular to age and the country of destination, but there are also differences by educational level. The findings stress the importance of differentiating between men and women when studying the family formation behavior of migrants.
... Glenn and Supancic [40], Landale and Ogena [41], Frank and Wildsmith [42], and Gautier et al. [43] all found that the divorce rate is usually high in areas with high migratory and floating populations. Caarls and Mazzucato [44] found that the likelihood of divorcing is higher when a wife (without her husband's escort) works abroad, but lower when the husband (without his wife's escort) works abroad. ...
Marital happiness is an important symbol of social harmony and can help promote sustainable economic and social development. In recent years, the rapid rise of the divorce rate in China, a country where the divorce rate had previously been low, has attracted wide attention. However, few articles have focused on the popularization of information and communication technology's impact on China’s rising divorce rate in recent years. As a first attempt, the provincial panel data during the period 2001–2016 is applied to study quantitatively the relationship between mobile phone penetration and the divorce rate. In order to get more reliable estimation results, this paper uses two indicators to measure the divorce rate, and quantile regression is applied for further analysis. Additionally, one-year to five-year lag times of the mobile phone penetration are used as the core explanatory variables in order to analyse the lagging effect of mobile phone penetration on divorce rate. The result shows that the correlation between the mobile phone penetration and the divorce rate was statistically positive significant in China during the period 2001–2016. Furthermore, the paper also finds that mobile phone penetration had the greatest impact on divorce rate in central China, followed by eastern China, but it was not obvious in western China during this period. From a technological perspective, this paper provides some possible explanations for the rising divorce rate in China in recent years, and further enriches the relevant research on the impact of the development of information and communication technology on societal changes.
... Other studies focus on the migration process and argue that migration may reduce intergenerational contact and support exchange, despite the fact that migration is often intended as a 'family project' (Heath, Rothon, and Kilpi 2008). Examples of migration-specific factors that may jeopardise family solidarity are transnationalism, marriage migration, and the break-up of families through war and death (Andersson, Obucina, and Scott 2015;Caarls and Mazzucato 2015;Kalter and Schroedter 2010;Landale, Thomas, and Van Hook 2011). ...
Previous studies have shown that family ties are relatively strong in most non-western immigrant groups in Europe. This paper focuses on differences within the immigrant population and examines how cultural and social aspects of integration affect the relationships that adult children have with their parents. The study is based on survey data with a systematic oversample of persons aged 15–45 with Moroccan and Turkish origins in the Netherlands. The focus is on the amount of contact and conflict that children have with their parents. Findings show that persons of Moroccan and Turkish origins have more frequent contact, but also somewhat more conflict with their parents compared to people without any migration background. Ordinal logit models show that ties to parents are weaker when immigrant children are more liberal in their values and behaviours and when they have more frequent contact with natives. Educational attainment tends to increase conflict between parents and adult children. It is concluded that cultural and social integration may hurt family relationships, pointing to another but less often recognised obstacle for immigrant integration in the west.
... Dabei könnten über die Analyse erwerbsbezogener Effekte hinaus auch expliziter nicht-monetäre Konsequenzen von studienbezogener Auslandsmobilität berücksichtigt werden. In dieser Hinsicht bestehen beispielsweise Anschlussmöglichkeiten an die Forschungsfelder, welche sich mit den Konsequenzen von Migration für die Beziehungsstabilität (Boyle, Kulu, Cooke, Gayle, & Mulder, 2008;Caarls & Mazzucato, 2015) und die Lebenszufriedenheit im weiteren Sinne auseinandersetzen (beispielsweise De Jong, Chamratrithirong, & Tran, 2002;Bartram, 2013;Nowok, van Ham, Findlay, & Gayle, 2013). ...
... A recent body of research has focused on the relation between parental marital status and the well-being of children in transnational care. Evidence from migration research in Ghana reveals that parental absence may strain spousal relations, especially when women migrate singly or when both parents are away at the same time (Caarls & Mazzucato, 2015). A number of studies compared child well-being under conditions of parental migration in families where parents are together or divorced and found that, more often than not, children of divorced migrant parents are worse off in terms of nutrition, fever, and diarrhea (Carling & Tønnessen, 2013); psychological health ; educational aspirations (Nobles, 2011); and school performance (Cebotari & Mazzucato, 2016). ...
This study is the first to employ panel data to examine well-being outcomes-self-rated health, happiness, life satisfaction, and school enjoyment-of children in transnational families in an African context. It analyzes data collected in 2013, 2014, and 2015 from secondary schoolchildren and youth (ages 12-21) in Ghana (N = 741). Results indicate that children with fathers, mothers, or both parents away and those cared for by a parent, a family, or a nonfamily member are equally or more likely to have higher levels of well-being as children in nonmigrant families. Yet, there are certain risk factors-being a female, living in a family affected by divorce or by a change in caregiver while parents migrate-that may decrease child well-being.
... Second, the sample excluded left-behind participants whose parents had divorced. Researchers have found that migration can increase the risk of divorce, particularly when the wife alone migrates (Caarls & Mazzucato, 2015). Parental divorce may be more likely in the case of adolescents with a migrant mother, thus placing them in a more vulnerable situation than their counterparts who are merely left behind. ...
In China, 61 million children are left behind in rural areas suffering from prolonged parent-child separation when their parents migrate for work. Meaning-focused coping is known to play a positive role in adaptation, particularly during persistent adversity, but little is known about how adolescents make meaning during prolonged parent-child separation. This qualitative study investigated how adolescents utilize meaning-focused coping during such separation. Seventeen adolescents who had been left behind (Mage = 14.1 years, SD = 1.03 years) by migrant parents were recruited via purposive sampling. Eight subthemes emerged and were grouped into four themes: living with prolonged parent-child separation, ambivalent feelings, constructed meaning of parental migration, and meaning-making strategies. Despite detached parent-child relationships and weak family support, the adolescents made positive meaning of their parents’ migration by focusing on the migration-related benefits and maintaining goal commitment. Participants’ perceptions of left-behind life varied at different stages of their parental migration and their ability to make positive sense of migration increased with age. The role of culture was crucial in their meaning-making formulation. The results have application potential for psychosocial interventions targeting adolescents facing a prolonged left-behind period.
... As we have found that divorce leads to worse outcomes for children in transnational families, studies arguing that mothers' migration is worse for children may be conflating the two issues of divorce/separation and mother migration. In an investigation of prevalence of divorce among Ghanaian migrants in the Netherlands and the UK, Caarls and Mazzucato (2015) find that divorce is not more prevalent among couples who migrate except when women migrate alone. These results taken together with our findings indicate that poorer child well-being in motheraway families may actually be a reflection of the fact that mothers' migration more often takes place under conditions of spousal separation as compared with fathers' migration. ...
This study is one of the first large-scale analyses on child psychological well-being in the context of parental migration when children remain in an African country. As such, it contributes to the literature by investigating some of the insights gained from in-depth transnational family studies, and it also provides evidence from Africa where normative contexts around family life differ from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and East Asia where most studies have been conducted to date. A survey was conducted in 2010/2011 with 2,760 secondary school children and youths in high out-migration areas of Ghana. Using multiple regression analysis, we find that being in a transnational family is associated with lower levels of psychological well-being, yet only in families where parents are divorced or separated. Furthermore, when parents are in a relationship, specific characteristics of transnational family arrangements are associated with lower levels of child psychological well-being, while others are not. In particular, whether a parent migrates internally or internationally, who the caregiver is, and having a good relationship with the migrant parent are not associated with poorer well-being outcomes. Instead, if a father migrates, if the child changes caregivers more than once, and if the child has a bad relationship with his or her migrant father are associated with lower levels of well-being. This study adds nuance to a field of research that has emphasised negative outcomes and helps identify policy areas to improve the well-being of children in transnational families. Copyright
This study explores migration-specific heterogeneities and dynamics in the relationship satisfaction of couples with at least one internationally mobile partner. We are specifically interested in the association of post-migration relationship satisfaction with migration-related characteristics, such as the direction of migration (emigration vs. remigration), the ‘synchronicity’ of partners’ migration, migration intentions and motives, or time since migration. Longitudinal data from Waves 2–5 of the German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS) provide us with the opportunity to identify predictors of relationship satisfaction at post-migration ‘baseline’ as well as dynamics therein over a period of two years, estimating fixed-effects regression models. Two main findings emerged from our analysis: First, migrants’ relationship satisfaction is associated with the circumstances of the migration process as well as the situation in the destination country. And, second, whether or how migration-specific characteristics are associated with relationship satisfaction are partly gendered. We conclude that social circumstances, but not economic conditions, constitute the primary stressors shaping relationship satisfaction in the context of international migration.
Pembangunan ekonomi adalah salah satu pilar penting untuk mencapai peningkatan kesejahteraan rakyat. Indonesia merupakan salah satu negara penyumbang pekerja migran terbesar di asia tenggara. Provinsi Jawa Timur termasuk salah satu provinsi pemasok TKI paling banyak di Indonesia. Namun demikian Tingginya jumlah pekerja migran dan semakin baiknya kondisi perekoniomian di Jawa Timur juga diikuti dengan adanya peningkatan jumlah perceraian yang terjadi. Adanya kasus perceraian pada keluarga pekerja migran ini menjadi menarik untuk diteleti lebih lanjut. Sebab seperti telah disepakati bahwa dorongan untuk menjadi pekerja migran adalah mendapatkan kesempatan ekonomi yang lebih baik namun setalah itu justru menimbulkan guncangan terhadap hubungan berumah tangga dengan adanya perceraian. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh migrasi keluar negeri dan sosial demografi terhadap perceraian dan tingkat ekonomi di jawa timur. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah metode analisis regresi linier berganda dan analisis probit. Hasil yang diperoleh yaitu migrasi keluar negeri berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap perceraian di Jawa Timur, Migrasi keluar negeri tidak berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap status ekonomi migran di Jawa Timur, Perceraian berpengaruh terhadap pendapatan ekonomi migran di Jawa Timur dalam jangka pendek, dan Kondisi social demografi migran yang berusia lebih tua, laki-laki, memiliki pendidikan lebih baik berpengaruh terhadap peningkatan pendapatan pekerja migran di Jawa Timur.
Economic development is one of the essential pillars for the attainment of people’s wellbeing. Indonesia is one of the largest migrant worker contributors in southeast Asia, where East Java is its biggest supplier. However, the high number of migrant workers and the improving economic condition in the province are followed by the increasing number of divorce cases, which are interesting to study further. It has been widely believed that the driver for people to become migrant workers is the hope of having better economic opportunities. In fact, following the attainment, they have problems with their marriage, which lead to divorce. The objective of his research is to identify the effect of emigration and socio-demographic condition on divorce rate and economic level in East Java. The multiple linear regression and probit model analyses have led to findings that emigration positively and significantly affect divorce cases in East Java, that emigration does not significantly influence the economic status of the migrant workers, that divorce does not influence the economic gains of the workers in the short run, and that migrant workers who are older, male, and better in education have a significant influence on the income increase of migrant workers in East Java.
Drawing on 10‐year ethnographic fieldwork in France and China with Northern Chinese migrants in Paris, this paper analyses the imbrication of divorce and migration. Most women had divorced before leaving China, a smaller group divorced after arriving in France, many of them try to remarry abroad, while men respondents were almost all married in China. Relying on an intersectional approach and a transnational perspective, this paper unveils how married or divorcee status have influenced their choices to move or to remain in China, to stay abroad or return. More generally, it examines how the gendered social norms on family, marriage and divorce shape migrants' agency and how it may vary according to social class, gender, age, marital and migration status. The paper questions the transnational power of gender norms and observes how the scripts on family and divorce in China traverse state borders and continue to structure migrants' transnational experiences.
This study analyses the linkage between spousal absence and the well‐being and health of married individuals who are “left‐behind” by a spouse who has migrated away from home for work purposes. As the influence of spousal absence on individual well‐being is underinvestigated, this study contributes to the existing literature by examining the effects for men and women in both rural and urban areas and further explores which group of population may be the most disadvantaged. The analysis is based on data from a nationally representative household‐based survey in China. The sample includes 26,355 married individuals, and 1,066 individuals are the left‐behind spouses. The empirical results show that spousal absence is significantly and negatively associated with well‐being of the left‐behind married men and women. An investigation into the interaction effects reveals that the negative influence of spousal absence is particularly problematic for individuals who have not received education.
By the end of 2019, 4.8 million refugees and migrants had left Venezuela – making it the largest external displacement crisis in the region’s recent history. Of these, 1 in 4 was a child.
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, since November 2020, 137 million girls and boys are missing out on their education due to the prolonged closure of schools during COVID-19. The implications are troubling, especially for migrant and refugee children, for whom access to inclusive and equitable education remains a major challenge.
This study collates evidence from Latin America, the Caribbean and across the world to gain a better understanding of the multifaceted linkages between education and migration. It estimates gaps in educational outcomes; identifies structural barriers to education; and highlights promising practices to inform policy.
Scholars can rarely make causal claims about migration probabilities and outcomes. Leveraging a natural experiment based on the randomness of offspring sex, this paper uses the German SOEP Migration Sample to examine the effect of having a first‐born son or daughter on parents’ likelihood to migrate and integrate. It shows that (non‐Christian) parents of sons are more likely to migrate to Germany, but parents of daughters fare better after migration in terms of language acquisition, feeling at home and overall satisfied with their lives. The first finding is explained through gendered differences in parental investment, risk aversion, and household decision‐making. The second finding is explained through girls’ greater ability to act as brokers between their parents and the host society. For migration scholarship, the study provides a rare causal argument about family migration. For research on offspring sex effects, it provides further evidence of a socialization from child to parent, expands the possibility of offspring sex effects from parental attitudes to behaviors, and cautions against assuming that offspring sex is random in all populations.
We propose a transactional model of risk and resilience and ambiguous loss as theoretical guides to understanding transnational fathering. We also examine the risk and buffering conditions associated with each temporal aspect of the migrant journey of transnational fathers beginning with the initial decision to leave their country of origin to their process of resettlement in a destination country. In addition, we examine the effects of the absence of transnational fathers from their family on the fathers themselves, their partners, and their children. We critically explore the buffering effects of communication at a distance as a strategy for reducing the risks associated with the migration experience of transnational fathers and examine the buffering role of substitute caregivers in the home country as a means of reducing the risk associated with the absence of fathers on children. New directions for future work in this area are noted.
Studies indicated differences between transnational family life for migrant mothers and fathers and that the effects on their “left‐behind” children differ according to who migrates. Yet little is known about why these differences exist. This paper aims to fill this gap by comparing transnational and nontransnational African families with parents living in Europe to understand their different family structures. We analyse three datasets with information on migrants from five African origin countries in eight European countries. Our analyses reveal important differences between transnational and nontransnational families and between transnational mothers and fathers. Transnational mothers are more often single, have children from multiple relationships, and start family life earlier than transnational fathers and nontransnational parents. This corresponds closely to what family sociologists have found make “fragile families” among nonmigrants. Our work thus indicates that policies aiming to improve migrants' lives need to consider the disadvantages that particularly migrant women experience in maintaining their family life.
Despite the linked nature of life events, the existing literature mainly analyses union formation, living arrangements, and international migration separately. In this paper we explore how Ghanaian couples' relationship trajectories are related to international migration. Data come from the Migration between Africa and Europe‐Ghana survey ( n = 868) and capture unique retrospective life histories of Ghanaians between age 21 and 35 (migrants and non‐migrants), enabling us to analyse relationship histories and their development over time in a context of international migration while taking the socio‐cultural practice of non‐residential unions into account. We applied sequence analyses to describe trajectories and optimal matching to identify clusters of typical trajectories. Using multinomial logit models, we investigated the association between migration and the four identified relationship paths.
Our results show that relationships and living arrangements evolve in a wide variety of ways, underlining the importance of a dynamic approach. The complexity in relationship trajectories is reflected in the four typical clusters that captured this diversity in a more simplified way: (1) co‐residential marriages; (2) singles; (3) mixed trajectories; and (4) non‐residential marriages. Our results further suggest that socialisation and disruption of family behaviours are both occurring among migrants. We also found that non‐residential unions are commonplace among migrants and non‐migrants alike, demonstrating that this living arrangement is not necessarily related to international migration. However, non‐residential relationships are most common among migrants, and migrant women in particular. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Background: The ability of couples to migrate together or to reunify in the destination country is increasingly limited because family reunification laws are becoming more stringent, especially for those moving from the Global South to the North. However, little is known regarding migrants' reunification behavior. Objective: We examine the prevalence of couples living-apart-together-across-borders (LATAB), the duration of their separation, and under which conditions they remain transnational or reunify in the destination country. Methods: Using data from the MAFE-Ghana project, we focus on LATAB couples among Ghanaian migrants living in the Netherlands and the UK (n=291). Event history analyses are used to examine the probability of reunification. We consider characteristics of the migrant, the left-behind spouse, their relationship, and the receiving country context. Results: Couples remain separated for extended periods of time. Just over half of the couples in the Netherlands and the UK reunified: approximately half did not. Reunification is less likely in the Netherlands than the U.K. and is less likely since 2004, when reunification policies became stricter. Spouse's education is a significant factor in explaining reunification, but, surprisingly, legal status is not. Being able to maintain transnational ties through short return visits increases the likelihood of LATAB. Conclusions: Findings reveal that LATAB relationships are a common, long-term arrangement among Ghanaian migrants. Comments: These results emphasize the relevance of including partner characteristics at both origin and destination. Furthermore, comparing two destination countries shows that destination country context is important in understanding migrants' decisions to live transnationally or reunify.
During anthropological research into birth control beliefs and practices in a rural Ghanaian community, a coincidental event revealed the lies that informants had told the interviewers about sensitive aspects of their lives. The author argues that the informants had good reason to lie, but that demographers have no reason to believe them.
This article, based on fieldwork in the Pakistani Punjab and with predominantly Punjabi families in Bristol, is concerned with the common practice of British Pakistanis marrying Pakistani nationals. Informants stress the risks that such marriages hold for women, but this research highlights the social, cultural, and economic difficulties faced by migrant husbands, comparing their position to that of the ghar damad (house son-in-law). Whilst women are instructed from a young age on the adjustments the move to their husband's household will entail, male migrants are often unprepared for this situation. A lack of local kin support can combine with the culturally unusual proximity of the wife's family to restructure gendered household relations of power. Frustrations experienced by such men may help to explain instances where such marriages have ended in the husband's violence, desertion, or taking a second wife, but the model of the unhappy ghar damad is also significant in understanding the experiences of many other migrant men and their British wives.
Although previous work has attributed the instability of African marriages to the diffusion of Western norms and values in the region, fewer attempts have been made to empirically assess how Africa's internal institutional structures, such as extended kinship ties, impact marital outcomes. Guided by rational choice and exchange theories, we argue that the strong bonds that exist among matrilineal family members in particular, rather than within the conjugal unit, may be important to understanding the dynamics of marital processes in the region, and particularly divorce processes. We test our hypothesis with data from the 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys. Consistent with our hypothesis, the results indicate a significantly higher risk of divorce among matrilineal than nonmatrilineal women. The matrilineal effect persisted even after we controlled for sociocultural and demographic characteristics.
Over the years, feminist scholarship has illuminated the ways in which genders are differentiated and gender hierarchies are constituted as part of the way women and men learn to identify with a nation‐state. Much less has been said about the social reproduction of gender in transnational spaces. These spaces are created as people emigrate, settle far from their homelands, and yet develop networks of connection that maintain familial, economic, religious, and political ties to those homelands. The task of this paper is to begin to explore the ways in which gender and nation are mutually constituted within the transnational social fields that link homeland and new land. This paper is exploratory, using a case study of Haitian transnational connections as a catalyst for future investigation.
In transnational contexts, and particularly in situations where people have physically migrated across international borders and may be separated by other barriers as well, communication cannot be presumed and should be problematized. To date, however, research focusing on transnational migration has emphasized the kinds of ties people maintain despite corporal separation, such as negotiating transnational households and community associations and conducting business ventures and political movements. How people accomplish these tasks across borders has been less developed in the literature, although authors do acknowledge that modern telecommunications technologies have facilitated communication, particularly in comparison to the tools available to earlier generations of migrants. In contrast, this paper focuses on the ways migrants from a very rural area of El Salvador communicate across borders, identifying the roles that gender and power play, with particular attention to the dynamics between spouses.
Examines the incidence of love (in the sense of a strong emotional and erotic attachment) within marriage among the Akan matrilineal elite of Ghana, and the extent to which the social context of marriage is conducive to such love. Research is presented to support the theory that a person is more able to enjoy love within marriage when the social system does not compel spouses to remain married (e.g., for economic or social reasons). The traditional Akan system provided such support, but modernization (social and spatial mobility) is weakening it. Consequently, a slow but perceptible change in Akan marriage is evident among certain subgroups. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Abstract Immigration from South Asia to Italy is a recent phenomenon and novel in that the pioneer migrants are often married or single women rather than men. In this article I explore the relationship between a ‘feminization of migration’ and the construction of masculine identities among Malayali migrants from Kerala, South India, who experience migration directly or indirectly through marriages with Malayali women living and working in Rome. The interest in focusing on the relation between women's pioneer role as migrants and their husbands' experiences of migration is to show how men's identity is represented through their conjugal bond with migrant women working in the domestic sector and to understand how masculinity is constructed and contested within and with reference to different places.
A number of studies show that premarital cohabitation is associated with an increased risk of subsequent marital dissolution. Some argue that this is a consequence of selection effects and that once these are controlled for premarital cohabitation has no effect on dissolution. We examine the effect of premarital cohabitation on subsequent marital dissolution by using rich retrospective life-history data from Austria. We model union formation and dissolution jointly to control for unobserved selectivity of cohabiters and non-cohabiters. Our results show that those who cohabit prior to marriage have a higher risk of marital dissolution. However, once observed and unobserved characteristics are controlled for, the risks of marital dissolution for those who cohabit prior to marriage are significantly lower than for those who marry directly. The finding that premarital cohabitation decreases the risk of marital separation provides support for the "trial marriage" theory.
Las mujeres jóvenes de México y Centroamérica han incrementado su participación en el flujo de migrantes a Estados Unidos. Un análisis retrospectivo de las historias maritales que se encuentran en las muestras de la Current Population Survey de 1990 y 1995 revela una fuerte conexión temporal de la migración internacional de mujeres con otros sucesos a lo largo de su vida, principalmente matrimonio y divorcio. Para las mujeres mexicanas y centroamericanas solteras, la estimación de riesgo proporcional muestra que hay más altas probabilidades de que contraigan un primer matrimonio durante los primeros años de la migración que antes de migrar. La probabilidad del total de las mujeres migrantes de experimentar un primer divorcio durante el tiempo de la migración es mayor que en cualquier otra ocasión. Estos resultados indican que la decisión de formar una familia (y de disolverla) puede ser una parte integral de la decisión de migrar y establecerse en Estados Unidos.
In the course of the 1970s, one of the principal focuses of the emerging feminist anthropology was the reassessment of issues of gender inequality. Drawing their inspiration from Marxist theory going back to Engels, some works historicized female oppression and analyzed its political and economic determinants. To demonstrate that gender inequality was the product of specific historical formations, the observable gender relations were, at times, opposed to a prior egalitarian social order in which value differentiation was not attached to the gendered labor division (e.g., Leacock 1981). The approach was criticized by those who believed that female subordination characterized present and past societies on which solid documentary evidence was available (e.g., Rosaldo 1974). The idea that gender realtions in some non-western societies were marked by parity prior to the degradation produced by colonization was not abandoned, however, and influenced neighboring disciplines.
Recent studies concerned with the transformations of gender relations in sub-Saharan Africa over the twentieth century tend to stress the decline in social and economic position of women. Ethnographic, economic, and historical studies state that the traditional value attached to being female is threatened by the economic and political developments of the last century. Women are said increasingly to lose their previous independence, to have to cater for children and elderly by themselves, and to lose ground in productive activities (Robertson and Berger 1986; Mikell 1997a; Baerends 1998).
This paper examines the effect of migration and residential mobility on union dissolution among married and cohabiting couples. Moving is a stressful life event, and a large, multidisciplinary literature has shown that family migration often benefits one partner (usually the man) more than the other Even so, no study to date has examined the possible impact of within-nation geographical mobility on union dissolution. We base our longitudinal analysis on retrospective event-history data from Austria. Our results show that couples who move frequently have a significantly higher risk of union dissolution, and we suggest a variety of mechanisms that may explain this.
This study examines the relationship between migration and union dissolution among Puerto Ricans, a Latino subgroup characterized by recurrent migration between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland. Based on pooled life-history data from comparable surveys undertaken in Puerto Rico and the United States, we find that: 1) Puerto Rican women who have lived on the U.S. mainland have markedly higher rates of union disruption than those with no U.S. experience; and 2) even net of a wide variety of possible explanatory factors, the relatively high rates of union instability among first and second generation U.S. residents and return migrants are strongly related to recent and lifetime migration experience. The results suggest that the weak social ties of migrants provide limited social support for their unions and few barriers to union disruption.
From about seven children per woman in 1960, the fertility rate in Mexico has dropped to about 2.6. Such changes are part of a larger transformation explored in this book, a richly detailed ethnographic study of generational and migration-related redefinitions of gender, marriage, and sexuality in rural Mexico and among Mexicans in Atlanta.
Survey data on which this report is based were collected from a sample of 180 married men, employed as senior civil servants, in government institutions in Accra during 1967-68. Following the findings of Blood and Wolfe (1960) and subsequent writers, there were found to be statistically significant differences in modes of decision-making reported, according to the relative ages, educational levels and occupations of the spouses. A syncratic power relationship was found to be most common among couples similar in education and age and jointly providing for household needs. Not only did the wife's earning of an income tend to enhance her power role, as elsewhere, but also her use of her earnings to supplement financial provision for the thousehold. A more traditional autonomic pattern was most common among couples with the lowest levels of education.
This study examines the relationship between migration and union dissolution among Puerto Ricans, a Latino subgroup characterized by recurrent migration between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland. Based on pooled life-history data from comparable surveys undertaken in Puerto Rico and the United States, we find that: 1) Puerto Rican women who have lived on the U.S. mainland have markedly higher rates of union disruption than those with no U.S. experience; and 2) even net of a wide variety of possible explanatory factors, the relatively high rates of union instability among first and second generation U.S. residents and return migrants are strongly related to recent and lifetime migration experience. The results suggest that the weak social ties of migrants provide limited social support for their unions and few barriers to union disruption.
Traditionally marriage in Kwahu (Ghana) was characterized by segregation of conjugal roles and deference behavior on the part of the wife. School pupils, however, are overwhelmingly in favor of more jointness and companionship among partners in marriage. Interviews with adult men and women in a rural town suggest that although at present role segregation has decreased, it still plays an important role. The expectation that jointness will increase among the young and those who have been to school finds very little statistical support. Data were collected through tests involving uncompleted sentences among school pupils and interviews with adults.
This article examines how processes of socioeconomic and cultural incorporation affect marital-disruption patterns among Mexican-origin
persons in the U.S. in comparison to non-Hispanic whites and African Americans. The results, which are based mainly on recent
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data, indicate that, once other variables are controlled, the correlation of level of
education with marital disruption among U.S. native Mexican Americans is negative and similar in level to that of non-Hispanic
whites. However, the correlation of educational level with marital disruption among Mexican immigrants is both positive and
lower than that of other groups. It is argued that these results do not support the idea that cultural familism explains Mexican-origin
marital-disruption patterns, nor the idea that segmented assimilation processes exert influence on marital disruption, but
rather the idea that socioeconomic and cultural incorporation interact in their effects on marital variables.
This study examines the relationship between gendered family roles and divorce in The Netherlands. Cultural and economic aspects of this relationship are distinguished. Economic hypotheses argue that the likelihood of divorce is increased if women work for pay and have attractive labor market resources. Cultural hypotheses argue that divorce chances are increased if women adhere to emancipatory norms, independent of their labor market positions. An event-history analysis of a life-history survey among 1,289 Dutch women reveals evidence for both hypotheses. Interaction effects are found as well: The protective effect of a traditional division of paid labor is only present among couples in which wives have traditional gender attitudes. Hence, the validity of economic explanations of divorce is conditional on cultural values.
Family researchers and policy makers are giving increasing attention to the consequences of immigration for families. Immigration affects the lives of family members who migrate as well as those who remain behind and has important consequences for family formation, kinship ties, living arrangements, and children's outcomes. We present a selective review of the literature on immigrant families in the United States, focusing on key research themes and needs. A summary of secondary data sets that can be used to study immigrant families is presented as well as suggestions for future research in this increasingly important area of family research and policy.
Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well-being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative longitudinal samples, genetically informed designs, and statistical models that control for time-invariant sources of unobserved heterogeneity. Emerging perspectives, such as a focus on the number of family transitions rather than on divorce as a single event, are promising. Nevertheless, gaps remain in the research literature, and the review concludes with suggestions for new studies.
Building on the burgeoning literature on gender and transnationalism, this article considers how Filipina women's labor and marriage migrations are intertwined in complex and paradoxical ways with global, local, and personal factors. Central to the article are the stories of two women, one a Filipina overseas contract worker in Hong Kong and the other a Filipina in the Philippines who sought to meet a foreign marriage partner through correspondence. These stories illustrate how, because of the absence of divorce in the Philippines, women creatively maneuver across transnational terrain in order to realize their desired marital subjectivities. These stories point to women's agency and to the importance of structural factors-particularly legal ones-that both constrain women and yet simultaneously allow them to creatively utilize legal inconsistencies across transnational spaces to redefine themselves as wives and to reclaim a "respectable" marital status. In contrast to the common assumption that women marry foreign men in order to migrate or primarily for material gain, this article argues that-in at least some cases-migration can also serve as a means to attain the valued goal of (re)marriage.
This introduction to the special issue entitled 'AfricaEurope: Transnational Linkages, Multi-Sited Lives' outlines the history of the African migrant presence in Europe, gives an account of the contexts which shape contemporary migration, and surveys the approaches to international migration from Africa which have influenced researchers since the 1960s. Linking the contributions to the special issue is the theme of migrants' transnational 'double engagement' with both Africa and Europe. The paper examines this theme across three domains of the lived experience of African migrants and refugees in Europe: 'Livelihoods', 'Families', and 'Identities'. We conclude with an assessment of what can be learned (theoretically and methodologically) from the study of African transmigration, and suggest future lines of research.
This review encompasses work published in the 1980s that concerns the causes of divorce. Substantive findings are reviewed under three broad headings: macrostructure, demographics and the life course, and family process. Trends in methods, samples, and theory are also reviewed. This decade's research on divorce is characterized by bigger and better data sets, more sophisticated research techniques, and a growing body of conclusive empirical findings in the areas of demographic and life course factors. Relatively neglected areas include theory and family process. The review ends with recommendations for future research.
This article provides an empirical test of the widely accepted assumption that migration contributes to union instability. The data come from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) data base MMP93. We use multilevel discrete time event history analysis to specify the odds of union dissolution for male household heads by individual- and community-level U.S. migration experience. In the context of the U.S.-Mexico migration flow, we find that U.S. migration significantly increases the odds of union dissolution for individuals with extensive migration experience as well as for residents in communities with medium international migration levels. We conclude that changes in normative values and social control levels, for both individuals and communities, are partial contributors to this relationship.
Most scholarship on the effects of transnational migration on family life has argued that such migration results in profound shifts and dislocations in family practices and gender ideologies. Much of this work, however, has overlooked processes of internal migration: How different is transnational migration from internal migration in its impact on family life? By comparing families of transnational migrants with those of internal migrants in a small town in Ghana, I explore the effect of place and distance—as generated by human activity—on the maintenance of parent–child and spousal relations. I conclude that transnational migration exacerbates conflicts that exist in families unaffected by transnational migrations.
This review examines research on immigrant families in the United States from the past decade from multiple disciplinary perspectives. This work has used variations on assimilation and acculturation perspectives. In the case of the assimilation perspectives, the focus has largely been on family formation, whereas research using acculturation perspectives has focused more on intrafamily relationships. But, over the course of the decade, an interesting integrative model has emerged to address interactions of attitudes and values with structural conditions in the receiving and sending communities. Some of this effort to integrate perspectives can be found in studies of transnational families. The review concludes with some suggestions for continuing this integration and expanding studies to include dynamics of migration and family processes simultaneously.
Large racial and ethnic differentials in the risk of marital disruption are observed in the United States, with Blacks exhibiting higher rates of disruption than many other groups. We use data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth to investigate whether racial/ethnic differences in exposure to risk factors for disruption can explain variation in levels of marital instability across groups. We consider a wide array of risk factors for disruption and offer one of the few recent analyses of marital instability among Mexican American women. Our results suggest that, if differences in population composition between groups were removed, the White–Black and Black–Mexican differentials in disruption would be reduced by approximately 30% and 50%, respectively. The story regarding the White–Mexican differential is more complicated, however, and hinges on nativity status of Mexican women. Finally, in light of large differences in marital instability between US-born and foreign-born Mexican women, we also explore the possibility that compositional differences might contribute to differentials in marital instability between these two groups.
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