Family and Migration

This paper examines the effects of international migration on internal family structure, as well as the adaptation and integration of families into receiving countries. The importance of the role and function of the family in migration research can be examined from 3 angles: theoretical, methodological, and empirical (that is, the societal relevance of family in migration). A renewed theoretical perspective views the family in the sending country instead of the individual as the focus of attention, and reveals that 1) migration patterns are not exclusively among the poor or unemployed; 2) migration is not always for the benefit of the immigrant; and 3) migration should be studied as a process, not as a result. Recent studies show that 1) family or kinship migration is increasingly important and that families help new migrants adapt to the receiving country, both emotionally and financially; 2) family and kinship ties tend to become consolidated in the receiving country; and 3) the family helps migrants cope with stress caused by the migration experience. Studies on families' preservation of culture and adaptation of culture and behavior have gone from 1) descriptive to analytical and, 2) focusing on the receiving society to focusing on the strategies used by immigrants (from value-conformity to an individualistic-situation approach). Migration also causes changes in family organization and functioning, which should be studied as an internal process inside the family and as complex group. Within the family are 3 sets of substructures which change during the process of adaptation and/or assimilation to/into the receiving society: 1) the husband-wife relationship, 2) the parent-child relationship, and 3) the relationship among siblings.