Families and Informal Support Networks in Portugal: The Reproduction of Inequality

Abstract

This article analyses informal support networks in Portugal. Using data from a national survey on families with children (1999), it explores the dynamics of support, in terms of the characteristics of, and variations in, families' experience of support. The analysis underlines the importance of social factors, such as the position of families in social and educational structures, and family variables, such as position in the life course, in determining the extent of support received by families. The results show that many families have a low level of support and that extended kinship does not play a significant role in providing support. As in other European countries, assistance flows mainly from parents, from the wife's family and from women rather than men; it is also strongly related to families' position in social structure, with low educational levels and less favourable occupational categories determining lower levels of support over the course of married life. Thus welfare provision stemming from informal relationships reinforces existing social inequalities rather than compensating for them, and the idea of a strong pre- and post-modern welfare society must be challenged.

Transnational Archipelago : Perspectives on Cape Verdean Migration and Diaspora

“…However, although most labour migrant communities have important social networks which provide support in some situations, interviews show that these informal networks often fail to provide support for child care. This is because time is scarce for all of the labour migrant families involved, and also because grandparents, the main child care providers (see Wall et al 2001), are often absent. As a result, work/care strategies in Cape-Verdean first-generation immigrant families fall systematically into three main categories: informal extensive delegation to paid childminders (usually cheaper and offering more flexible hours but not always reliable), extensive delegation to formal day care services, providing it is affordable and available, and care strategies that rely on older children to care or on self-care (leaving children below age ten alone), usually before and after school hours or on Saturdays when parents are both working overtime.…”

Social support networks in impoverished European neighbourhoods

“…. (Respondent Am, Aurora) However, it must be recognised that children offer these women opportunities to create local social networks, a phenomenon which is described in the literature (Fischer 1982;Ishii-Kuntz and Seccombe 1989;Wall et al 2001). Having children increases adult women's concern with safety, recreational opportunities and local school and although many women complain of feeling isolated when they are first married, after the children are born the situation improves, as there are opportunities to meet other mothers.…”

Marriage and gender inequality: work–family arrangements of Portuguese and British highly qualified women

“…The nanny even takes him to school and picks him up from school, and during school terms she does the shopping and the cooking. This 'extensive delegation' (Wall, Aboim, Cunha, & Vasconcelos, 2001) of childcare allows both to continue working 40-45 hours per week.…”