Families and Mobilities

The decision to be mobile deeply influences one’s life trajectory. Moreover, family and social networks affect and are conversely affected by one’s decision to live abroad. Our blog series on Families + Mobilities has highlighted the plurality of families, nudging us to look beyond the concept of a nuclear family located in one specific place. In this context, the COVID-19 pandemic has substantially influenced the quality of life and organization of these mobile families.

The classical sociological concept of family describes a group of individuals related to each other by blood or marriage, usually living as a domestic unit (i.e., living in the same household) (Barry et al. 2000). Therefore, traditionally, the notion of family is strongly linked to a specific place and space (Olivier-Mensah & Scholl-Schneider 2016). Nevertheless, with our currently globalized modern world, a plurality of family forms has emerged showing different ways of “doing family.”

The Plurality of Families

From a strictly statistical and demographic perspective, based on national registers, the definition of family is often restricted to the « co-habiting family, » in other words, a family whose members all live within the same household (Beaugendre et al. 2016). However, members of the nuclear family may also live separately from each other. Some surveys tackle this point, such as the Migration-Mobility Survey (MMS). According to this survey, among migrants, who are in a relationship and moved to Switzerland in 2018, about 8% are still living long-distance relationships with their partner who stayed abroad two years after their arrival. They may either be waiting to be reunited through family reunification or family formation, or they have chosen geographical distance as a way of living. These physically separated families are called transnational families, who keep close ties even living long distances apart (Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002).

Looking Beyond the Nuclear Family

Family needs to be considered beyond the household composition, but also beyond nuclear families, which only include the eventual partner and/or children. According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, 73% of the migrant population living in Switzerland have close family members living abroad. On the one hand, the share of those with nuclear family members abroad is rather low (3.3% have a partner living abroad, 2.6% children under 18 years old, 6.4% children of 18 years old and above). This is in line with what Koreana Ko’s blog post showed, i.e., that the place where children live plays an important role in choosing their settlement location for migrants, and that being separated from children is rather an unusual situation. On the other hand, the proportion of those who have brothers and sisters abroad (49.0%) or grandparents (26.6%) living in another country than Switzerland is significant. Broader family members may also influence migrants’ choice of location, however probably to a lesser extent.

Looking beyond the nuclear family allows us to understand a larger system, as is the case in caring arrangements. As Ana-Maria Cîrstea explained in her blog post, Romanian migrant families depend on external childcare provided by family members. One of her participants relied for instance on grandparents living in Romania for a temporary period. Furthermore, as Livia Tomàs and Liliana Azevedo underlined in their blog post, family may not be limited to relatives but also to close friends. Taking into account the social network as a whole is necessary to observe the family links and dynamics, and is not only relevant to the migrant population.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Quality of Life and (Im)mobility of Families

Since the beginning of 2020, uncertainty, social distancing and insecurity have been part of our daily lives. Studies show that the mental health of the population has been severely impacted. The Swiss Corona Stress Study published by the University of Basel showed that time spent with family plays a significant role in stress reduction. Kuhn et al. (2021) observed a significant decrease in the level of life satisfaction among individuals without a partner. Furthermore, families living with children in the same household overcame this difficult time with significantly less stress than those without children. However, the decrease in life satisfaction was stronger among women than men, probably due to the care burden related to schools and childcare infrastructure closures. The COVID-19 pandemic turned upside down the organization of their daily lives within each household as demonstrated by Ana-Maria Cîrstea.

Due to administrative, political, cultural and social barriers or disruptive events, migrants and their families adopt different coping strategies. This is the case nowadays with the long-lasting COVID-19 pandemic and its related mobility restrictions that exacerbated administrative obstacles. Mobility restrictions during the pandemic were and still are mostly set up at national levels. While being able to be with their family is a basic human right, some family members were, and still are in the case of some countries, impeded to be reunited without, or at least fewer means of, mobility. According to the Migration-Mobility Survey (MMS), in Switzerland, the share of recently arrived migrants who reported not visiting their country of origin in the last 12 months increased from 14% in 2018 to 33% in 2020.

Laura Ravazzini’s blog post showed the particularly strong impact on family contacts for individuals with a migration background, as their family network expands over national borders. Despite the physical distance, family members could however keep in touch by using digital tools and the quality of family relationships was barely affected. This, therefore, shows that the definition of a family is more related to « the degree of social and emotional closeness » rather than physical separation (Schiefer & Nowicka 2021).

Conclusion

All in all, families are no longer a stable entity whose members necessarily live together in the same household over time. With the individualization and the complication of life trajectories, we assist in the desynchronization of life stages at the family and residential levels among other areas of life. Therefore, the plurality of mobility forms and ways of “doing family” leads to a gradual shift from the “migrant family model” to more complex family configurations that may change over time. This evolution is linked to facilitated mobility made possible with easier and cheaper transportation and communication means, and also to the increasing empowerment of women through education and labor market activity. Family can therefore nowadays be apprehended more by the closeness of the social connections established between members (including broad family members and friends), rather than by its structure at a given place and point of time.

Roxane Gerber is a doctoral student at the University of Geneva, Institute of Demography and Socioeconomics, associated to the nccr- on the move in the project on “Explaining and Interpreting Migration Flows and Stocks” and focuses on the interaction between migration and family trajectories.

References

-Barry, L.S. et al. (2000). Glossaire de la parenté. L’Homme. No. 154/155, EHESS. pp. 721-732. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40661802

-Beaugendre, C., Breton, D. Marie C.-V. (2016). « Faire famille à distance » chez les natifs des Antilles et de la Réunion. Union nationale des associations familiales | « Recherches familiales ». 13, p.35-52. https://www.cairn.info/revue-recherches-familiales-2016-1-page-35.htm

-Bryceson, D.F., & Vuorela, U. (2002).  The Transnational Family: New European Frontiers and Global Networks, Oxford: Berg Publishers, pp. 3-30.

-Kuhn, U. et al. (2021). Who is most affected by the Corona crisis? An analysis of changes in stress and well-being in Switzerland. EUROPEAN SOCIETIES, vol. 23, No. S1, 942-956.

-Olivier-Mensah, C. & Scholl-Schneider, S. (2016). Transnational return? On the interrelation of family, remigration, and transnationality – An introduction, Transnational Social Review, 6:1-2, 2-9, DOI: 10.1080/21931674.2016.1186371

-Schiefer, D. & Nowicka , M. (2021). What does it take to be a transnational family? A review and empirical evaluation. Presentation at the 18th IMISCOE Annual Conference, 9th of July 2021.