Family members may be separated for shorter or longer periods of time. In some cases, this can even amount to decades. Little is known about the differences in costs and opportunities involved in the separation of families across different regions, or the differences between situations where the father rather than the mother migrates, or vice versa (for recent quantitative research on this see, for instance, Parreñas, 2008; Caarls et al., 2018; DeWaard, Nobles and Donato, 2018; Mazzucato and Dito, 2018). However, it is clear that transnationalism and family separation have implications for how families order and negotiate their lives, keep in contact with each other and circulate and exchange care (Baldassar and Merla, 2014). In particular, family separation has been found to have lasting and strongly adverse economic, social, psychological and health-related consequences on the affected families, which can extend even over multiple generations (Spitzer, 2018). In general, family separation:
- Can bring about economic hardships (Zentgraf and Stoltz Chinchilla, 2012);
- Disrupts household structure, gender roles and relationships, because infrequent contact can result in difficult and tense relationships between migrants and their family members. Relationships between spouses or parent–child relationships can be difficult to restore or to adjust to after family reunification (Spitzer, 2018; see further information in Child migration);
- Contributes to reducing family networks, which may not function any more as means of support (Spitzer, 2018);
- Usually causes immense stress which can translate into health problems;
- Can give rise to return migration, often irregular, especially in the case of the refugee population (Al-Jablawi, 2018).
For migrants in countries of destination, family separation can also have gendered impacts. For instance, mother can often feel guilt at leaving children behind in line with socio-cultural approaches to motherhood (IOM, 2015; Zentgraf and Stoltz Chinchilla, 2012). Care responsibilities have strong gender implications, especially for women who are mothers at a distance and may also have care duties towards other family members (further details in Gender norms, drivers and discrimination in Gender and migration).
Impacts on families remaining in the country of origin include:
- Negative impacts on children, including on their health, psychosocial, educational and emotional development. This is especially likely in families where both parents are migrant workers and the children left behind are cared for, on a long-term basis, by caregivers such as grandparents, siblings or other relatives. Issues such as neglect (when they are deprived of food, fed too little, fed the wrong type of food or fed irregularly), acute poverty or stigmatization within the community can increase the risks of unsafe and irregular migration by these children, with a view to being reunified with a parent, or to improve their professional or education outlook.
- Challenges to caregivers, as they may themselves also be in need of care and face psychological problems due to separation and/or the burden of caregiving. Given that women are often the main caregivers, they can be particularly affected (see example below.)
- Negative impacts for the elderly and persons with disabilities who are also particularly at risk when relatives caring for them leave and are limited in their ability to care for their own extended families. Again, given that women are often the main caregivers, this risk is particularly high when women migrate (WHO, 2017; Wickramage et al., 2015).
- Negative impacts on communities in contexts where there are many emigrants leaving relatives behind. The multiplier effect of so many ‘‘absentee’’ family members can have a devastating impact on social cohesion and the psychosocial fabric of a community (Siriwardhana et al., 2015).
- Difficulty coping with loss when families left behind lose contact with relatives who migrated and have no way to learn about their whereabouts and well-being, especially if relatives migrated through irregular and dangerous channels. This can bring intense stress and difficulty with coping with a loss (Missing migrants project).
Family separation has become a key social feature of countries with large numbers of emigrants whose families remain at home. Increasingly, more governments are recognizing the need to address this issue. Despite being a common phenomenon, the types and degrees of interventions to address family separation vary considerably from country to country.
