Family over borders. Transnational experiences of family’s community

Contemporary mobility in the world is usually temporary, circulatory. Due to this fact a transnational social space has been formed. The space is a composition of constantly sustained contacts of social and symbolic type. According to Thomas Faist concepts such as transnational social spaces, transnational social fields or transnational social formations refer to the ties between geographically mobile people, nets and organizations placed across the borders of many countries. Within it, relations and transnational family ties occur – though not in place, but in space. Transnational social space goes beyond geographical boundaries, between which people migrate. Within this space there are to be found the families which are geographically separated because of foreign migration of their members. I consider transnationality to be a process, in which immigrants create and maintain diversified contacts, while they function in at least two countries. In such families one or both parents, adult children as well as other members of extended families work abroad, while the remaining members of a family realize its functions and consume in their country of origin. A lot of families, consequently, function “beyond geographical boundaries”. I consider such families – physically separated – an example of one of the forms of family life in the postmodern world. In the thesis, I focused my attention on families with school-age children. I did that to identify family experiences which result from foreign migrations, as well as to recognize the factors conditioning these experiences. Empirical part of the thesis focuses on two complementary areas. The first one concerns types of spatially separated families – both recognized and suggested by me – it is also an attempt to describe experiences which condition the way such families come into being. The main criterion for naming five types of families were features defining family as a community. They are the following families: – Family in a structural breakdown – Family in an emotional breakdown – Family where the community aspect is disordered – Family as a community separated spatially – Family as an emotional community In the second area of the analysis, I discuss transnational experiences of the examined families. Their description extends – in my opinion – the perspective of evaluation of family experiences that stem from foreign migrations of its members. I introduce the term “transnational families”, i.e. those families which function as a family community despite spatial remoteness of its members. Some of them develop mechanisms of conduct which allow them to function in harmony, even while separated. I distinguish two types of families, i.e. transnational families as a form of life, and transnational families as an emotional community. They prove that migration became a part of lives of said families as their permanent element which organizes family life; an element they themselves created and accepted. I believe transnational perspective allows for a broader consideration of individual and family experiences arising from international transfers. It most certainly cannot be ignored that there are negative consequences of family separation, concerning individual children and spouses, as well as – in terms of community – whole families. Presented research shows that some of them break down – either emotionally or formally. It also happens that children brought up in such families tend to be unhappy or experience life difficulties. Undoubtedly, the phenomenon of transnationality is still going to affect more and more migrants. It is beyond doubt that for a great number of them, as well as their families, separation has a price of both longing and grief that follow it. However, selected examples presented here, of how to prevent a family community from disintegration prove that spatial separation contributes to creation of new types of families and a new family identity. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is also to show how necessary it is to support families in their quest to maintain their community. I believe creating different forms of social support for families plays a significant role. I also think preventive actions are of great importance, as offering to take specific actions which would support children and parents may – where needed – neutralize negative effects of family separation. Apart from diagnostic activities concerning the phenomenon of family separation – already performed in Polish schools – educational personnel should acquire the knowledge of how to support individual families in specific situations. Educationalists should have a wide knowledge of legal and social consequences of the parents’ mobility.Wydział Pedagogiki i Psychologii Uniwersytetu w BiałymstokuWydział Pedagogiki i Psychologii Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku44