The aim of this paper is to illustrate the growing interdependence between household
strategies in Europe and those stemming from developing countries where
international migration has become a main resource. In an attempt to reveal the forces
underlying the match between the realities and expectations of an increasingly
connected world population, I will compare the way that different families and
individuals secure care and welfare for themselves and for their dependants.
Drawing from a case study on Peruvians in Spain I will demonstrate, immigration is
only a partial, and in the best of cases, non-global remedy for the need to care for
dependants and to secure old-age pensions. Most Peruvians soon naturalize after
settling in the country and eventually reunify their families who, in turn, hope to
obtain the same social benefits for themselves. At the same time, the gap between
dependants from migrant and non-migrant families are clearly widening both here and
in their country of origin. Given the current dynamics, the process of externalizing
care and welfare will result in people being replaced at whim, provided that other
social arrangements, including a revision of gender roles, are not sought
transnationally to resolve these issues.