Family, migration, and intergenerational solidarity

Migration and cultural diversity are key issues for many European countries today, and family relations are becoming increasingly important in this context. Intergenerational solidarity can have different forms and may differ across as well as within cultures. In fact, different patterns
of support have been found comparing migrant with non-migrant families. In general, parents
represent an important resource of support even for adult children; the other way round, offspring in migrant families have been found to provide substantial practical support for their parents such as help with administrative tasks or translations already at younger ages, and
family support can become more important with increasing age when older migrants need help or care. Families migrating from more collectivist, family-oriented to more individualistic cultural contexts might find it difficult to adapt to prevalent values and practices regarding intergenerational support in the receiving society, and adult children might experience strain and difficulties in meeting their parents’ expectations. Further, the question of how families arrange intergenerational solidarity in the light of multilocality becomes pertinent as migrants are confronted with the task to regulate their relations with family members who stay in their countries of origin. The present symposium deals with these questions by use of both
quantitative and qualitative methods, bringing together researchers from four European
countries (Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, and Portugal) which are characterized by
high numbers of immigrants resp. emigrants.
First, Bettina Isengard, Ronny König and Marc Szydlik explore patterns of intergenerational family solidarity all over Europe, concentrating on differences between migrant and non-migrant families as well as geographical distance between family members. Second, Heike Buhl, Sabrina Sommer and Christian Hoellger have a closer look at felt obligations to support parents in a sample from Germany, thereby examining in how far migrants and non-migrants differ with regard to their adherence to family values and how these are related to other aspects of intergenerational solidarity. Stephanie Barros and Isabelle Albert focus then on intergenerational support exchange in Portuguese migrant compared to Luxembourgish families with young adult children. Finally, Carlos Barros, Luana Cunha Ferreira and Carla Crespo analyse the relationship between emigrated family members and those who stay in the country of origin, namely Portugal, focusing in particular on aspects of intergenerational support to foster well-being and cohesion. The contributions will be discussed by Elke Murdock taking into account aspects of multicultural identity and integration and their roles for the regulation of family relations.