Family Process
2019

South African International Migration and its Impact on Older Family Members (Article)

Marchetti-Mercer M.C.* , Swartz L. , Jithoo V. , Mabandla N. , Briguglio A. , Wolfe M.
  • a Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • b Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
  • c Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • d Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • e Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
  • f Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Abstract

In this article, we explore the impact of South African families’ emigration on parents/grandparents who must renegotiate their lives in their loved ones’ physical absence. We adopted a transnational perspective in a bigger qualitative project to consider both sides of the migratory spectrum. Here we focus on elderly family members who remain behind—a group largely neglected in prior research. Our findings illustrate the complex emotions and relational changes experienced by elderly people whose families emigrate. New technologies bridge distances, allowing new ways to connect and take care of each other, and of re-imagining transnational relationships and what constitutes family life, but these bridges cannot negate the loss experienced by those remaining. People have to make sense of the emigration and forge new relational bonds with remaining family members. Our findings stress grandparents’ meaningful role in a family system and highlight some gendered and racial differences in families’ experiences. © 2019 Family Process Institute

Author Keywords

Transnationalism Those Left Behind Technology Emigration

Index Keywords

male female stress Aged South African grandparent Article race difference human human experiment family life
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85073945395&doi=10.1111%2ffamp.12493&partnerID=40&md5=3412ce66a268e01f73eda8fcb2ddb9bf
DOI: 10.1111/famp.12493
ISSN: 00147370
Original Language: English