Selected ties and reinforced transnational intimacies: family building among 1.5-generation Filipinos in France

The dynamic parental migration towards developed countries often results in parent-child separation. When family reunification happens in a migrant parent’s receiving country, his or her “left-behind” children suddenly become “1.5-generation immigrants”, that is, migrants’ children who experience successively schooling in their parents’ countries of origin and of immigration. How do these migrants cope with their separation from caregivers and friends back “home” while adjusting to their receiving society? What forms of personal ties do they maintain or suppress with their country of origin? How does migration shape their perspectives about family? This paper addresses these questions by examining the process of transnational family building of 1.5-generation Filipinos in France. Results of ethnographic fieldwork in France and in the Philippines show that these migrants engage in transnational caring, but only with selected individuals. While most of their old friendships falter, kin linkages persist, suggesting that family continues to play a central role in their life. When asked about their future prospects, these transmigrants emphasize their will to carry on their “linked lives” by starting a family of their own “here” in their country of immigration while reinforcing certain ties “there” in their country of origin