SOC214H1 Chapter : Notes on Reading about "Transnational Families" from Servants of Globalization
Document Summary
Difference between transnational households in the past and present. While split-households in earlier migrant communities were homogeneous and composed primarily of a male income-producer living apart from female and young dependents in the sending country, contemporary split-households include income-producing women migrants. Advancements in technology, information about family members can be received instantaneously and money can be transferred to urban centers of third world countries within twenty-four hours. Migrants are only able to form transnational households because of cultural resources that instill collectivism in the family. Migrant parents rely on extended family networks for the care of the children whom they send back or leave behind. The maintenance of transnational households ensures the maximization of income and the accumulation of savings and property and, through the transfer of childcare, promotes and strengthens extended kin ties. Suggests the reconfiguration of gender division of labor in families. The contradiction of caring for someone else s children while not caring for your own.
