Viorela Ducu

Experiences from “Home” – Belonging to a Transnational Family

Viorela Ducu

Article information

Abstract

This paper will make the voice of transnational families’ representatives heard who have remained at home, in villages in Romania. Their experiences show that departure of some family members redefines the life of those remaining at home and that migration cannot be viewed as belonging to the departed: it is a common experience of the whole family. The dichotomy “departed” and “remaining” loses its meaning and a new approach emerges towards the phenomenon of migration as a shared, not an individual, experience. The way in which the worlds of those at home are intertwined with the worlds of those departed is the central node of this paper and starting from there we shall show that transnational families are types of families that present a real challenge for their members.

Keywords: co-presence, co-absence, transnational contact, transnational lives

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