Family Life in an Age of Migration and Mobility: Global Perspectives through the Life Course

by Majella Kilkey (Editor), Ewa Palenga-Mïllenbeck (Editor)

Overview

In an age of migration and mobility many aspects of contemporary family life – from biological reproduction to marriage, from child-rearing to care of the elderly - take place against a backdrop of intensified movement across a range of spatial scales from the global to the local. This insightful book analyzes the opportunities and challenges this poses for families and for academic, empirical and policy understandings of ‘the family’ on a global level, including case studies from Europe, India, the Philippines, South Korea, the United States and Australia. With chapters on international reproductive tourism, transnational parenting, ‘mail-order brides’ and ‘sunset migration’, it examines the implications of migration and mobility for families at different stages of the life course. Moreover, it brings together leading international scholars to connect a fragmented field of research, and in so doing enables an interdisciplinary exchange, generating new insights for theory, policy and empirical analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137520975
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Series:	Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Majella Kilkey is Reader in Social Policy at the University of Sheffield, UK. Her current research centers on migration and families.

Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Gender Studies Department at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. Her research interests include migration, transnationalism, gender studies and care work.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Family life in an age of migration and mobility: introducing a global and family life course perspective; Majella Kilkey and Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck

1. Mobilities and communication technologies: transforming care in family life; Loretta Baldassar

2. Everyday practices of living in multiple places and mobilities: transnational, transregional and intra-communal multi-local families; Michaela Schier

3. Polymedia communication among transnational families: what are the long-term consequences for migration?; Mirca Madianou

4. Travelling to the United States for fertility services: push and pull factors; Lauren Jade Martin

5. Transnational surrogacy and ‘kinning’ rituals in India; Amrita Pande

6. Marriage migration policy as a social reproduction system: The South Korean experience; Gyuchan Kim and Majella Kilkey

7. Strangers in Paradise? Migrant Italian mothers in Norway; Lise Widding Isaksen

8. Transnational mothering and the law: Ghanaian women’s pathways to family reunion and consequences for family life; Miranda Poeze and Valentina Mazzucato

9. Fatherhood and masculinities in post socialist Europe: the challenges of transnational migration; Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck and Helma Lutz

10. Swedish retirement migrants in Spain: mobility and eldercare in an ageing Europe; Anna Gavanas and Ines Calzada

11. Contrasts in ageing and agency in family migratory contexts: a comparison of Albanian and Latvian older migrants; Russell King, Julie Vullnetari, Aija Lulle and Eralba Cela

12. Defamilialization of whom? Re-thinking defamilialization in the light of global care chains and the transnational circulation of care; Florence Degavre and Laura Merla

13.The contested meaning of care in migration law; Sarah van Walsum

Conclusions; Majella Kilkey and Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This excellent and fascinating collection throws new light on contemporary family practices in a global context. By connecting the fields of migration, mobilities, and the life course, its contributions enhance our understanding of the temporal and spatial paradoxes between social and biological reproduction, cultural practices, and geopolitical privileges and inequalities.” (Fiona Williams, University of Leeds, UK)

“This timely book makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of how contemporary family life is being re-shaped by migration and mobility. The commitment of the authors to empirical depth and theoretical innovation, combined with wide-ranging and topical case studies, make it essential reading for migration and family researchers.” (Mary Gilmartin, Maynooth University, Ireland)

“This highly topical collection elucidates the varied effects of mobility on families. Addressing a variety of issues that have so far been invisible or overlooked in scholarly and public discourse, it is essential reading for everyone wanting to better understand the implications of mobility for power relations and vice versa.” (Krystyna Slany, Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland)

“This important new collection uses a migration and mobilities, globalization, and life-course perspective to fundamentally challenge how we understand family life in this age of heightened mobility. By including cases from across the world, elucidating impacts on parents as well as children, and looking carefully at the effect of policy, the authors rewrite the book on family life in revealing and valuable ways.” (Peggy Levitt, Harvard University, USA)