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Family process
12, 2020;59 (4): 1737-1754.

South African International Migration and its Impact on Older Family Members.

Maria C Marchetti-Mercer, Leslie Swartz, Vinitha Jithoo, Nthopele Mabandla, Alessandra Briguglio, Maxine Wolfe
Author Information
  1. Maria C Marchetti-Mercer: Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. ORCID
  2. Leslie Swartz: Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa. ORCID
  3. Vinitha Jithoo: Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. ORCID
  4. Nthopele Mabandla: Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  5. Alessandra Briguglio: Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
  6. Maxine Wolfe: Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
PMID: 31544236 DOI: 10.1111/famp.12493

Abstract

In this article, we explore the impact of South African families' emigration on parents/grandparents who must renegotiate their lives in their loved ones' physical absence. We adopted a transnational perspective in a bigger qualitative project to consider both sides of the migratory spectrum. Here we focus on elderly family members who remain behind-a group largely neglected in prior research. Our findings illustrate the complex emotions and relational changes experienced by elderly people whose families emigrate. New technologies bridge distances, allowing new ways to connect and take care of each other, and of re-imagining transnational relationships and what constitutes family life, but these bridges cannot negate the loss experienced by those remaining. People have to make sense of the emigration and forge new relational bonds with remaining family members. Our findings stress grandparents' meaningful role in a family system and highlight some gendered and racial differences in families' experiences.

Keywords

Emigration Technology Those Left Behind Transnationalism emigración los que se quedan tecnología transnacionalismo 技术 留守的家庭成员 移民 跨国主义

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MeSH Term

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Emigrants and Immigrants
Emigration and Immigration
Family
Family Relations
Family Separation
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Parents
Qualitative Research
South Africa
Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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