The Development of The Outline For Migrant Family Research: The Case of Lithuania

Abstract

The de-bordering of Europe and the development of intra-European mobility is seen as one of the main factors of recent wave of the mass emigration from Lithuania giving rise of the family changes. The article aims to trace the development of the outline for migrant family research by discussing the social, empirical and theoretical premises that has lead the author for further research of families touched by migration through the lens of changes, resources, definitions of the situations and impact management practices. An innovative methodological and theoretical approach to study migrant families is introduced with the focus on pragmatic approach and integrative methodology, combination of theories, methods, and data for the purpose of analytic density. The author theorizes family change and coping with hardships by means of ideas of symbolic interactionism, theoretical constructs of intergenerational solidarity, kin networks, personal networks and conceptions of family practices: doing and displaying family.

Making Lithuanian Families Across Borders

“…The experience gained in the research projects outlined earlier convinced me to pursue the studies of transnational families further by focusing on new areas of family life, on the one hand, and integrating emerging theoretical ideas on the other (see Juozeliūnienė, 2013). The research studies I have conducted in the context of the project 'Emigration and Family: Challenges, Family Resources, and Ways of Coping with Difficulties' , financed by the Lithuanian Research Council in 2012-2014 5 drew on Smart's toolbox of analytical concepts, namely, on the four of her five concepts: 'imaginary' , 'embeddedness' , 'relationality' , and 'memory' to form a new mode of analyzing transnational family relations and their conceptualizations.…”

Migrant solidarities and the politics of place

“…A pre-modern – or Counter-Enlightenment (Kapeller and Wolkenstein, 2013) – interpretation of solidarity focuses on loyalty based on reciprocity and trust. Migration research published in diverse interdisciplinary and disciplinary journals, ranging from history to sociology, has observed this type of solidarity within faith-based communities (Janssen, 2017; Yoon, 2013), diasporas (Sheffer, 2002) and families (McGovern and Devine, 2016; Juozeliunienë, 2013). When this bond of solidarity is associated with an imagined national community (Anderson, 1983), it can imply the rejection rather than inclusion of international migrants and refugees who may not represent a nation’s ethnic and religious imagination.…”

“…The concept of solidarity has occupied a prominent position in research on international migration and refugees. It has been linked to a variety of contexts and themes, such as migrant activism (Martínez López, 2017; Stierl, 2016), migrants and labour organizing (Basok and López-Sala, 2016), migrant settlement networks and institutions (Ross, 2019) and migrant families (Juozeliunienë, 2013). Generally, the concept has positive connotations, referring to people coming together to solve problems and overcome barriers.…”