Fractured Families, Connected Community: Emotional Engagement in a Transnational Social Network
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12514 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
Fractured Families, Connected Community:
Emotional Engagement in a Transnational
Social Network
Alexis M. Silver*, Heather Edelblute**, Ted Mouw*** and Sergio Ch
avez****
ABSTRACT
Family separation due to international migration is an emotional hardship endured by millions
in both origin and destination countries. In spite of substantial barriers impeding reunification,
families often continue to centre their lives emotionally around their loved ones. Yet they also
rely on proximate and cross-border network ties for support. Social networks impact the ways
in which families experience separation, but studies about transnational families have been
slow to incorporate social network data. We address this gap by examining family separation
within the context of a binational social network. Our findings suggest that both local and
transnational social networks affect the experience of family separation for individuals in the
countries of origin and destination. Moreover, our findings demonstrate the complexities asso-
ciated with return migration, as this movement often initiates a new familial separation.
INTRODUCTION
International migration stretches families and communities across borders. Numerous studies have
captured the pain and trauma of family separation due to migration, but they have also illustrated
the resilience of transnational families in the face of great distance and uncertain reunification
(Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila, 1997; Parre~
nas, 2005; Schmalzbauer, 2005; Dreby, 2010; Abrego,
2014; Baldassar et al., 2017). As individuals adapt to transnational family arrangements, they reach
out to friends and extended family members for material and emotional assistance (N€
are et al.,
2017). Most of our knowledge about transnational family life comes from qualitative studies that
have intimately detailed the experience of family separation across borders (Schmalzbauer, 2004,
2005; Dreby, 2010; Abrego, 2014). Though incredibly powerful, these small-scale studies cannot
capture the breadth of a social network or measure its impact on family separation. Meanwhile,
quantitative studies, though better suited to measure social networks, have been slow to incorporate
transnational data into analyses of family separation.
Aiming to address the existing gaps in the literature, we rely on the 2010 Network Survey of Immi-
gration and Transnationalism (NSIT, N =607) to examine how family separation and engagement in
a binational network spanning the United States and Mexico affect emotional well-being. Heeding
calls to avoid “methodological nationalism”(Levitt and Schiller, 2004), and incorporate multi sited
* State University of New York –Purchase College, Purchase
** West Chester University, West Chester
*** University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill
**** Rice University, Houston
doi: 10.1111/imig.12514
©2018 The Authors
International Migration ©2018 IOM
International Migration Vol. 56 (6) 2018
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
social network analysis and mixed methods in research about transnational families (Bernardi, 2011;
Mazzucato and Schans, 2011), we examine both quantitative and qualitative data emerging from a
migrant sending community in Guanajuato, Mexico and two destination communities in the U.S.
Because the NSIT has data on the number of ties nominated by each individual within the net-
work, the density of ties within the network and the frequency of contact among cross-border social
ties, the data provide a unique view of the ways in which social networks can affect the experi-
ences of family separation. Previous research with a nationally bounded social network has stressed
that social network density or closeness, as well as frequent engagement with social ties, tends to
enhance reported life satisfaction and happiness (Huang et al., 2018). In contrast, other studies with
nationally bounded social networks have found that people only peripherally tied to social networks
have a higher propensity for loneliness (Cacioppo et al., 2009) and depression (Rosenquist et al.,
2010). Thus, while research has linked emotions to social networks, it is unclear if the patterns evi-
denced in local social network analysis apply to individuals in transnational social networks.
Broadening the lens to a transnational network, we hypothesise that individuals with the most
social ties in their country of residence will have the most social support to help them cope with
family separation. In contrast, we expect that having multiple family members across the border
will be correlated with more emotional distress as a result of family separation. We acknowledge
that gender and family roles affect how individuals experience and express emotions (Hochschild,
1983), and we expect women, and people separated from children, spouses and parents, to report
higher levels of distress. However, we also recognize that families rely on cross-border communica-
tion to express love, offer care, and maintain relationships with expansive social networks across
borders (Baldassar et al., 2017; N€
are et al., 2017). Thus, we expect that individuals most actively
engaged in communication with their social network ties across the border will feel more connected
to their loved ones in spite of the distance between them. Finally, we acknowledge that individuals’
emotions are intimately tied to their social interactions and social ties, and we therefore expect
emotional distress to concentrate among linked individuals within the network.
In addition to these direct measures of social network influence, we also examine how individuals’
responses to family separation differ based on their migration histories and social network interac-
tions via cross-border movements. As border fortification and immigration enforcement have
increased, lengthy periods of family separation have become commonplace. We test if longer resi-
dence in the U.S. allows families time to adapt to transnational family arrangements, thereby lessen-
ing their emotional distress. We also examine if visits to Mexico help mitigate the pain of separation
for immigrants in the U.S. Finally, we focus on return migrants as key agents within the binational
social network due to their experience on both sides of the border. We anticipate that the longer
return migrants lived in the U.S., the more they will suffer from the pain of multiple experiences of
family separation and connections to disjointed social networks. As family separation becomes
increasingly common due to punitive immigration policies, it is increasingly important that we better
understand how separation affects individuals in both origin and destination communities.
EMOTIONS ACROSS BORDERS: TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES
In spite of the emotional costs, transnational family arrangements remain a prominent strategy for
family survival, in the face of harsh economic climates which offer few labour opportunities in
migrant sending communities. While most quantitative explorations of transnational families have
stressed the economic benefits of migration (Massey and Parrado, 1994; Durand et al., 1996), qual-
itative research suggests that the emotional costs of family separation may not justify the economic
gains (Schmalzbauer, 2004; Parre~
nas, 2005; Abrego, 2014). Indeed, family separation often incites
emotional hardships that threaten the quality of life both for immigrants (Hondagneu-Sotelo and
154 Silver, Edelblute, Mouw and Ch
avez
©2018 The Authors. International Migration ©2018 IOM
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