Beyond breadwinning: Ghanaian transnational fathering in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article probes how gender norms and male migrants' legal and socioeconomic position shape transnational fathering amongst Ghanaian-born fathers, residing in the Netherlands, who have one or more children living in Ghana. Drawing on ethnographic research with Ghanaian transnational fathers, this article compares fathers' attitudes and actual practices. In conformity with cultural expectations of fatherhood in Ghana, the men in this study primarily addressed their paternal role in terms of financial support for their families as 'breadwinners'. Alongside breadwinning responsibilities, however, over three-quarters of the Ghanaian fathers espoused more 'engaged' parenting ideals, challenging stereotypes of the uncaring and distant migrant father who neglects his 'stay-behind' children's emotional needs. Our analysis shows that fathers' legal and socioeconomic status largely determines men's possibilities to perform their material and 'emotionally engaged' paternal ideals across borders. The emotional distance was particularly pronounced for undocumented and low-income migrants who were legally or financially incapable of bridging the emotional gulf arising from physical distance.

Parental migration and disruptions in everyday life: reactions of left-behind children in Southeast Asia

“…The estrangement reached a point where the migrant had to threaten withholding gifts if Sira continued refusing her calls. Migration can both alienate children from parents (Poeze 2019) and amplify existing tensions in the pre-existing web of care.…”

Transnational families negotiating migration and care life cycles across nation-state borders

“…Similarly, the absence of migrant fathers can result in children feeling estranged despite their fathers' efforts to retain regular communications and the presence of grandparents and/or siblings. Poeze (2019) notes that undocumented Ghanaian fathers, unable to make trips back and forth to Ghana to visit their left behind families, worried about failing to fulfil their social role as fathers. Their predicament dramatises the trade-off between the economic benefits of migrants' remittances aimed at children's improved education and living standards, as opposed to the disbenefits of emotional barriers to spontaneously interacting face-to-face with their children.…”

“…Brittle borders, surfacing in times of economic crisis and political stress, are illustrated by Bianchera et al's (2019) documentation of the internment of Welsh Italian men during World War II in Great Britain, as well as European Union border controls on the nonnational Asians, Africans and Latin Americans described by Poeze (2019), Martínez-Buján (2019) and Fernandez (2019).…”

Parenting Styles as a Gateway for Girls Education Accomplishment: A Case Study of Female African and Asian Students in a Chinese University

“…Studies conducted in African countries (South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Cameroon) to investigate their parenting styles and findings indicated that, mothers are the mostly relied as children's caretaker whilst fathers are addressed as bread-winners, whose responsibilities are to provide for their families [9,[25][26][27]. In Baumrind's [13] typologies of parenting, mothers personify both authoritative and permissive style of parenting; adopt a more liberal approach to the upbringing of children whilst, fathers are authoritarian.…”

“…Given that education is a human right; regrettably, women do not always have access to this ultimate right hence reduces their chance to accomplish educational pursuits. In much Africa and Asia women still carry a large liability of the domestic, social, and community development culpabilities [7][8][9]. Women from both continents have been perceived as housekeepers henceforth challenge their education accomplishments.…”