NORMA
International Journal for Masculinity Studies
ISSN: 1890-2138 (Print) 1890-2146 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rnor20
Where have all the fathers gone? Remarks on
feminist research on transnational fatherhood
Adéla Souralová & Hana Fialová
To cite this article: Adéla Souralová & Hana Fialová (2017): Where have all the fathers
gone? Remarks on feminist research on transnational fatherhood, NORMA, DOI:
10.1080/18902138.2017.1341461
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2017.1341461
Published online: 22 Jun 2017.
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Date: 22 June 2017, At: 15:06
NORMA: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR MASCULINITY STUDIES, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2017.1341461
Where have all the fathers gone? Remarks on feminist
research on transnational fatherhood
Adéla Souralová and Hana Fialová
Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
ABSTRACT
ARTICLE HISTORY
Research on transnational relations has been increasing over the last
two decades. Since 1997, when the notion of ‘transnational
motherhood’ was investigated by Avila and Hondagneu-Sotelo,
many scholars have considered how parents arrange their
parenthood across borders. This article explores how social scientists
examine male migrants as fathers. We review empirical work on the
migration of men and explore how transnational fatherhood has
been examined, understood, and utilized in feminist research. We
ask ‘Where have all the fathers gone?’ and evaluate feminist
conceptualizations of transnational fatherhood over the last two
decades. We organize our discussion around three stages of
feminist research on transnational migrant fatherhood. These stages
are: (1) discovery of unseen transnational fatherhood, (2)
conceptualization of breadwinning transnational fatherhood, and (3)
shift to conceptualization of caring transnational fatherhood. These
three stages depict the changing content of the notions of
transnational fatherhood. The article contributes to current research
on transnational families and feminist research on migrant men. We
show how gendered norms and stereotypes prevail in migration
research and the ways in which they are inscripted in how scholars
approach the male migration experience.
Received 8 February 2017
Accepted 9 June 2017
KEYWORDS
Transnational fatherhood;
breadwinning; caregiving
Introduction
In 1997, Avila and Hondagneu-Sotelo published their ground-breaking article on mothering practices among Latina migrant mothers in the USA and presented the concept of
transnational motherhood. As of November 2016, their article had been cited 1394
times according to the Google Scholar database; the Web of Science database reports
393 citations. Also in 1997, in his overview on how anthropologists understand the category of masculinity, Gutmann wrote that ‘anthropology has always involved men
talking to men about men, yet until fairly recently very few within the discipline had
truly examined men as men’ (p. 385). This was also true for feminist research on male
migration. While women as gendered subjects entered the scene in the 1990s (Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2000; Boyd & Grieco, 2003; Mahler & Pessar 2003; etc.), engendering the
male experience with migration took much more time. Hibbins and Pease (2009, p. 5)
comment on the research on migration and masculinity as follows:
CONTACT Adéla Souralová
asouralo@fss.muni.cz
© 2017 The Nordic Association for Research on Men and Masculinities
2
A. SOURALOVÁ AND H. FIALOVÁ
it is understandable that the feminist literature is concerned with women’s experiences of
migration, which gender-neutral models of migration have neglected. However, gender neutrality has meant that both genders’ experiences have been ignored. While traditional immigration research has predominantly focused on men, it has done so by examining men as
non-gendered humans and it too has ignored gendered dimensions of men’s experiences.
Feminist research literature is now increasingly concerned with men’s experience of
migration, and scholars have started to examine the experience of men as men. For
example, particularly in the last few years, sociologists and anthropologists have focused
on the issue of male domestic workers (Gallo & Scrinzi, 2016; Kilkey, 2010a, 2010b;
Kilkey, Perrons, & Plomien, 2013; Näre, 2010; Ramirez, 2011; Scrinzi, 2010). This body
of research has provided an intriguing analysis of the constitution of masculinity in
migratory contexts. The examination of how the gendered subjectivities of migrant men
and the gendered relations between them and their employers (both male and female)
are negotiated when men perform domestic tasks that are coded as being within the
female domain has importantly contributed to our comprehension of what masculinity
is and how it is performed and displayed in everyday life.
Although we are now witnessing increasing research interest in male migrant experiences, one important aspect of male migrants’ lives has been given less attention: the practices, strategies, and meanings of transnational fatherhood. Transnational fatherhood is far
less studied as a sociocultural phenomenon than transnational motherhood is. In a context
in which transnational caregiving strategies are the norm and reality for an increasing
number of people around the world, and the analysis of these strategies holds a strong position in migration research (Baldassar, 2007; Baldassar & Merla, 2014; Carling, Menjívar,
& Schmalzbauer, 2012; Kilkey & Merla, 2014; Madianou & Miller, 2012), transnational
fathering practices are still marginalized. Researchers have shown little interest in how
men perform their fathering roles when they are separated from their families due to
migration. Kilkey, Perron, and Plomien (2014, p. 178) argue that ‘such neglect is increasingly problematic in the context of rising social, political and academic interest in the significance of fathering in European (and other) societies’. More and more scholars,
consequently, have called for systematic and intensive enquiry into the relation between
migration, transnational families, and masculinities (Dreby, 2006; Gutmann, 1996;
Hobson & Fahlén, 2009; Hondagneu-Sotelo & Messner, 1994; Kilkey et al., 2014;
Mahler & Pessar, 2006; Pribilsky, 2007, 2012; Shield, 2002; Sinatti, 2014; Zentgraf &
Chinchilla, 2012).
The first complex ethnographic work on this topic was published in 2007 (Pribilsky,
2007).1 In his book, La Chulla Vida, Pribilsky focuses on the Ecuadorian male migrants’
experiences with trans-border maintenance of family relations and the ways these experiences are negotiated in daily lives. Pribilsky adds the gendered perspective of male
migrants to feminist migration research; his book is both a rich empirical study on fatherhood and masculinity reproduction across borders and a critique of contemporary
research perspectives. One year later, Parreñas (2008) reported the continued lack of
focus on fathering at a distance. Parreñas explains this gap in research by referring to
gender-ideological norms: transnational fatherhood does not reconstruct but rather
abides by the ‘normative gender behaviour’ in which males are breadwinners earning
money abroad. In the context of these norms and normative gendered expectations,
mothers and fathers caring at a distance face radically different obstacles, challenges,
NORMA: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR MASCULINITY STUDIES
3
and dilemmas (Avila, 2008; Dreby, 2006; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2000; Hondagneu-Sotelo &
Messner, 1994; Mahler & Pessar, 2001; Mummert, 2005; Schmalzbauer, 2015; Shield, 2002;
Zentgraf & Chinchilla, 2012). How has the research on transnational families and parenthood changed since 1997? What gaps have been filled and what new perspectives have
emerged?
This article explores how social scientists have examined male migrants as fathers.
We review empirical work on the migration of men and consider how transnational
fatherhood has been examined, understood, and utilized in feminist research.2 What
has happened in the research field on migrant fatherhood in the two decades since
the notion of transnational motherhood was developed? We observe the changes in
the conceptualization of the transnational father and the shift from research interest
in the breadwinning activity of migrant men to interest in their caregiving role. Our
overview takes a diachronic perspective. For this purpose, our discussion is organized
around three stages of feminist research on transnational migrant fatherhood. These
are (1) discovery of unseen transnational fatherhood; (2) conceptualization of breadwinning transnational fatherhood; and (3) shift to conception of caring transnational fatherhood. These three stages depict the changing content of the notion of transnational
fatherhood.
This article is meant to be more than just a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the
initial publication of the text by Avila and Hondagneu-Sotelo and of the 10th anniversary
of the release of Pribilsky’s book. Above all, we aim to contribute to ongoing discussions of
transnational families. We show how gendered norms and stereotypes prevail in migration
research and its epistemology and the ways in which they are inscripted in how scholars
approach the male migration experience.
Unseen transnational fatherhood: discovering the new or making the
traditional visible?
The first stage of the development of the notion of transnational fatherhood which we
identify in our overview is characterized by intensive research interest in transnational
motherhood practices and disregard of the fathering experience of migrant men. When
the male migrants’ experience is addressed, it is only with the stress on their role as
breadwinners.
The emergence of the notion of transnational motherhood did not go hand in hand
with the development of the concept of transnational fatherhood. Feminist scholars extensively criticized the stereotyped representations of human migration and the androcentric
research on migration that did not include the experience of women and additionally portrayed a biased image of men in migration (Boyd & Grieco, 2003; Hondagneu-Sotelo,
2000; Kofman, 1999; Sinon & Brettell, 1986). For example, Mahler and Pessar (2003,
p. 822) describe a prevailing picture of migration in which the (stereo)typical migrant
was ‘the lone, rugged male who left his family behind in the homeland as he ventured
across seas to seek his fortune, hoping to return to them after achieving success’. In the
late 1980s, Stahl (1988, p. 153) described the dominant model of migration as: ‘adventuresome male seeking new opportunities abroad joined later by wife and family or returning
to hearth and home with cash in hand’. What these studies show when looking back at
how (male) migration was researched is that breadwinning of male migrants had
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A. SOURALOVÁ AND H. FIALOVÁ
always been a matter of scholarly interest; however, it was not gendered or analysed as a
part of a fathering role.
The late 1990s brought the feminist reconceptualization of migration: migration is gendered and gender roles and subjectivities are affected by migration (Hondagneu-Sotelo,
2003). At the core of this reconceptualization, the notion of transnational motherhood
found a strong position in the literature and rapidly became an important tool for capturing the new lived experience of many women living abroad separated from their children.
In stressing the proliferation of the term, Pribilsky (2012, p. 324) notes that research of
transnational motherhood has even become ‘something of a migration sub-speciality’.
He goes on to ask if the same can be said of male migrants and their role as fathers,
answering that the questions regarding the male migrant experience with fatherhood
are absent from the literature on transnational families. Transnational fatherhood,
which has existed for years, in which men migrate and leave their families behind, has suffered from the ‘taken for granted syndrome’ in social science research on men’s gendered
experience (Gilmore, 1990; Pribilsky, 2004, 2012). In other words, researchers intensively
focused on men in migration and on their (breadwinning) responsibilities as men (and
fathers); however, they did not conceptualize these responsibilities as part of parenthood
or fatherhood.
Why does transnational parenthood still seem to be equated only with transnational
motherhood? Ten years after the notion of transnational motherhood came to light, Pribilsky remarked on the neglect of the fathering experience of migrant men, asking why
‘researchers speak of transnational families only when looking at women’s role’ (2007,
p. 278). The literature offers several answers to this question. One answer builds upon
the biased assumption about two divided gendered worlds and spheres – as Pribilsky
(2007) observes, men are seen to tend to the public sphere, while women are supposed
to be attracted to private households (Pribilsky, 2007). Another answer in the research
on transnational motherhood addresses the differences between male and female experiences of migration and the cross-border maintenance of family relations. In such comparisons, the male experience of parenthood is side-lined, while the female experience of
parenthood becomes a prominent issue. The distinction in consequences that distant parenthood has on men’s and women’s lives and gender identities is, at the same time, used as
the explanation for the necessity of addressing transnational motherhood. Avila and Hondagneu-Sotelo (1997, p. 552) argue:
When men come north and leave their families in Mexico (…) they are fulfilling familial obligations defined as breadwinning for the family. When women do so, they are embarking not
only on an immigration journey but on a more radical gender-transformative odyssey.
What this short quotation clearly shows is that the male migrants’ breadwinning is not
seen as gender transformative. While the women who leave their families behind and dedicate their lives to breadwinning reconstruct the gender order, men’s participation in this
(or similar) reconstruction is absent or not seen as worth examining and exploring. Why is
this so, and what are the consequences for the research on transnational parenthood?
The research focus on migrant families in which transnational parenthood is equated
with transnational motherhood unintentionally reproduces gender essentialism. The
fact that only the mothering role is addressed when the researchers talk about transnational parenthood has two outcomes. The first outcome is that male breadwinning is
NORMA: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR MASCULINITY STUDIES
5
rarely or never seen as part of the performance of parenthood – if men are included in
research on migration, they are discussed almost exclusively in terms of work and
economy, and often in gender-neutral terms. The second outcome is that the female
migration experience is almost always linked with motherhood. This strategy is understandable because the gendered norms in most societies subject women and men to distinct expectations regarding their roles. These expectations, among other things, shape
how mothers and fathers go through with family separation. While men are more at
ease with family separation because they do not suffer from the stigma of failing as
fathers (Avila, 2008), transnational mothers are subjected to a much more critical
viewing, which evaluates and judges their mothering and seeks (self-)expressions of
failure and guilt (Dreby, 2006; Mummert, 2005; Parreñas, 2005). Mothers and fathers
also encounter different attitudes from their children, who miss their mothers more
than their fathers and reproach their mothers more than their fathers (Dreby, 2010).
When the concept of transnational motherhood entered the literature on migration,
researchers did not rush to include the notion of transnational fatherhood. They could
functionally continue in their research on the gendered migration of men with the established frameworks and tools. These tools included the focus on migrant men’s breadwinning and the way that migration (and the new breadwinning opportunities) shapes
masculinity (Ahmad, 2008; Boehm, 2012; Broughton, 2008; Donaldson & Howson,
2009; Elmhirst, 2007; Hondagneu-Sotelo & Messner, 1994; Monsetti, 2007; Osella & Caroline, 2000; Sinatti, 2014). The narrow link between migration and masculinity led several
researchers to describe the male experience with migration as a rite of passage (Boehm,
2012; Kandel & Massey, 2002; Monsetti, 2007). In his research on Afghan men migrating
to Iran, Monsetti (2007) convincingly argues that migration is not a rupture but a male
coming of age, a way of entering adulthood. In another geographical context, Kandel
and Massey (2002, p. 982) similarly describe the culture of Mexican migration to the USA:
For young men, especially, migration becomes a rite of passage, and those who do not
attempt it are seen as lazy, unenterprising, and undesirable as potential mates. In communities where international labor becomes fully integrated into the local culture, young men
seeking to become adults literally do not consider other options: they assume they will
migrate in preparation for marriage and that they will go abroad frequently in the course
of their lives as family needs and personal circumstances change.
This short excerpt reveals some typical aspects of male migrant representations which can
be summarized with the following statement, which is also a chapter title in Boehm’s book
(2012): ‘If you do not go to the United States, you are not a man’. These contributions to
our understanding of male migration indicate that migration and the breadwinning
abroad is in many contexts a condition of male maturation and a necessity for future
or current family life – the breadwinning activity of male migrants, of course, cannot
be seen as separated from their family roles as husbands and fathers.
In sum, maybe paradoxically, the first stage that we identify in the research of transnational fatherhood is marked by the failure to address migrant fatherhood at all. This
happens in the same period in which the migration experience of women is quite often
researched in terms of their experience with transnational motherhood. Breadwinning
is seen as an explicit part of transnational parenthood only when migrant mothers are concerned. The breadwinning role of migrant men is not yet interpreted as a performance of
6
A. SOURALOVÁ AND H. FIALOVÁ
transnational parenthood. The person of a migrant man, homo economicus, stays imprisoned in his role as a provider – he is described as a man (even as macho), a breadwinner,
but rarely as a father. With their focus on breadwinning and the creation of masculinity
through breadwinning, scholars laid the groundwork for the development of the concept
of transnational fatherhood.
Breadwinning transnational fatherhood: making migrant men into
transnational fathers?
The first stage of feminist research on transnational fathers is characterized by gender
essentialism and the unseen fathering roles of migrant men. The second stage is
marked by the shift in the conceptualization of masculinity as it starts including the fathering role of (migrant) men (Gilmore, 1990; Gutmann, 1996; Hobson, 2002). Fatherhood
becomes a part of masculinity; simultaneously, research begins to expand into transnational fatherhood. What this stage brings to migration research that is new is the elaboration of the concept of transnational fatherhood itself. However, as this section of the
article will show, this shift does not lead to the abandonment of gender essentialism.
Rather, in some sense, gender essentialism is strengthened by the polarization and conflict
between transnational motherhood and transnational fatherhood, where the latter is
defined as distinctively different from or even the opposite of the former. What was the
main content of this new concept? It is quite common in the social sciences as well as
in everyday life that phenomena are defined through contradictions. Thus, one way to
define masculinity and fatherhood is through the specification of what masculinity and
fatherhood are not (Gutmann, 1997). Our reading of the literature suggests that a recurring characteristic of the definition of transnational fatherhood is that it is based on a supposed conflict between transnational motherhood and transnational fatherhood.
This stage of research on transnational fatherhood is marked by inquiries into the
differences between transnational motherhood and transnational fatherhood (Carling
et al., 2012; Dreby, 2006, 2010; Mummert, 2005; Parreñas, 2008; Zentgraf & Chinchilla,
2012). On the one hand, this strategy might be useful for integrating the term into the literature and putting it alongside the much more ‘useful’ and more often employed concept
of transnational motherhood. On the other hand, however, we argue that this strategy
leads to a reduction of both mothers’ and fathers’ experiences with transnational parenting. Before we turn to this point, we will examine how the conflict is presented in the
research. In order to do so, we distinguish two sets of contradictions in the conceptualization of transnational fatherhood: the polarization in gender roles and in the division of
labour between (mothers’) caregiving and (fathers’) breadwinning, and the distinction
in defining parental roles in the lives of children as emotional exchanges (with
mothers) and authority and emotional distance maintenance (of fathers).
To illustrate the projection of the binarity into transnational migrant research, we use
some examples in which the emphasis on the conflict of migrant parental practises is explicitly noticeable (Carling et al., 2012; Dreby, 2006, 2010; Mummert, 2005; Parreñas, 2008;
Zentgraf & Chinchilla, 2012). Our argumentation is focused on three levels at which the
gender binarity operates. The first level concerns the gender expectations, norms, and
ideologies that exist in particular sociocultural contexts and that shape the behaviour of
male and female migrants. The second level is the actual behaviour of transnational
NORMA: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR MASCULINITY STUDIES
7
mothers and transnational fathers, which is always influenced by the expectations surrounding the gendered notions of good motherhood and good fatherhood. The interpretations of such behaviour are reported in the research. The third level at which the gender
binarity operates is the biased research process itself, in which the gender norms influence
the selection of research topics, questions, and strategies. It is important to carefully distinguish between how the gender ideologies form the actual daily lives of migrants and
how they a priori shape the scholarly interest of researcher.
The first conflict appears in the gendered division of labour in parenthood. The existing
literature presents recurring linkages between motherhood and caregiving, and between
fatherhood and breadwinning. The basic dilemma of transnational mothers is how to
manage caregiving at distance; the main topic in transnational fatherhood research is connected with men’s breadwinning role. Carling et al. (2012, p. 194) depict this distinction as
follows:
The different experiences of mothers and fathers stem from gender ideologies that sacralise
mothers but sustain fathers’ roles as breadwinners and financial providers.
To extend what has already been delineated, migration allows a father to better provide for
his family, as far as he has access to potentially higher incomes in Western countries. This
enables him to successfully meet expectations as a father breadwinner (Parreñas, 2008;
Sinatti, 2014). While migration is a way to fulfil the ideal of good fatherhood, it is a
barrier to accomplishing the ideal of good motherhood, as Dreby (2006, p. 54) argues:
Fathers believe that an honorable way to provide for their families is to migrate to the USA
where they earn more for their labor. Mexican mother’s morality is tied to how well they care
for their children.
The second conflict lies in how the mothering and fathering roles and responsibilities are
conceptualized with regard to relations with children and children’s needs. A number of
studies have focused on transnational childhood and children left behind by their migrant
parents (Parreñas, 2005; Peng & Odalia Wong, 2015; Widding Isaksen, Uma Devi, &
Hochschild, 2008). These studies reveal how mothers’ migration impacts children’s lives
and follow the assumption that an absent mother is missed more in the family than an
absent father. This difference in missing the parents is caused by more than the separated
gender roles. It is also an outcome of gendered definitions of the behaviour that children
expect from mothers and from fathers. Zentgraf and Chinchilla (2012, p. 353) describe this
distinction in their study about transnational family separation, in which they highlight
the importance of context in understanding the impact of the mother’s or father’s separation on their role in family and on their relationship with their children.
Migrant fathers’ relationships to their children in Mexico are typically shaped by their economic success and a desire to maintain some degree of authority, while those of migrant
mothers are focused on demonstrating emotional intimacy from a distance.
What these studies clearly show is how the emotional closeness and distance in transnational families are described in gendered terms and how gender binarity is perpetuated.
Two issues, in particular, are striking in this short quotation from Zentgraf’s and Chinchilla’s study. The first issue is that the father’s economic ability and his capacity to provide
for the family are part of his relationship with his children. Dreby (2006, p. 56) similarly
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A. SOURALOVÁ AND H. FIALOVÁ
observed that ‘when fathers are successful economically as migrants, they tend to maintain
stable and regular relationships with their children’.
The second important issue raised is the role of authority in a transnational father’s
relationship with his children. The father’s emotional distance resembles a negation of
the mother’s affective approach to parenting. Dreby (2006) argues that:
Even though Mexican mothers migrate to work like fathers, their relationships with children
once abroad depend on their ability to demonstrate emotional intimacy from a distance.
This illustrates the essential differences in how ‘good transnational motherhood’ and ‘good
transnational fatherhood’ are understood. While a ‘good mother’ must be able to sustain
close relations with her children and provide them with emotional connection despite
their separation, a ‘good father’ must maintain his dominance and authority (Parreñas,
2001). To accomplish these roles, the father must maintain his emotional distance from
his children, while the mother must do everything to overcome the geographical distance
and stay close with the children. From this perspective, transnational fatherhood is much
more easily accomplished than transnational motherhood – authority can be preserved
without face-to-face daily contact and it is even achieved through successful breadwinning
activity.
In her research on Filipino transnational families, Parreñas (2008) provides a very rich
insight into how father–child relations are negotiated, creating the term ‘emotional gap’ to
describe the everydayness of these ties. With her extensive research, Parreñas (2001, 2005,
2008) contributes to the reflection on different expectations of transnational mothers and
fathers, who form ties with their children in diverse modes.
By projecting authority, physically distant fathers can project the role of a disciplining ‘father
figure’. (…) Transnational fathers not only maintain gender conventions but also hold onto
their identity as ‘fathers’, which is threatened by their distance from the family. (…) One that
follows the ideology of separate spheres; keeps expressions of emotional ties between children
and their fathers to a minimum. (2008, p. 1058)
Parreñas’ study on transnational fatherhood illuminates how the meanings of transnational parenthood reproduce and are reproduced by the traditional divisions of the
father’s and the mother’s roles. On the one hand, men are supported in the decision to
migrate in order to provide for their families economically which detracts from their
relationship with their children. On the other hand, as Parreñas argues,
Migration removes fathers from daily interactions in the family and consequently in their
absence, even if only inadvertently, further reaffirms the traditional division of labour of a
male breadwinner and female homemaker. (2008, p. 1058)
There are several rather problematic aspects to this way of conceptualizing transnational
fatherhood in opposition to transnational motherhood. Classifying the roles of mothers
and fathers as opposites, as either-or, imprisons both mothers and fathers in the binarity
of gender essentialism, which operates with separated spheres for motherhood and fatherhood, neither sphere admitting overlap in their roles. It is not our intention to say that
breadwinning is not an important or even the most important aspect of transnational
fatherhood and the daily lives of transnational fathers. The current research provides dramatic evidence that breadwinning activities are indeed an essential part of the notion of
NORMA: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR MASCULINITY STUDIES
9
masculinity and fatherhood. However, breadwinning is not the sole important aspect of
fathering experience.
We would suggest that transnational parents (mothers and fathers) can have much
more in common because of their transnationality than they have differences because
of their genders. To uncover these similarities, we must move beyond the conflict.
Kilkey et al. (2013, p. 176) propose that, ‘In many cases the performance of a breadwinning
masculine role was only possible at the expense of an alternative, nurturing identity.’ The
nurturing identity and breadwinning identity are two sides of one coin, two aspects of an
identity of fatherhood which is increasingly fluid in contemporary societies.
As Zentgraf and Chinchilla remarked, globalization is an especially significant initiator
of change, and it functions as a facilitator to new forms of transnational parenting (2012,
p. 347). Addressing these new forms, scholars take an important step toward discussing
the emotional involvement of (transnational) fathers (Schmalzbauer, 2015). Several observations now support the necessity for a new perspective on fathering. For example,
Hobson and Fahlén (2009, p. 217) state:
One can view fatherhood and fathering as being in transition across different societies, with
the male-breadwinner norm declining and a movement towards fathering with more involvement with care-taking.
Similarly, Shield argues that the emotional dimensions of fatherhood have been underplayed by researchers. She suggests that moving the discussions about gender and
emotions from a point of considering only differences to an intersectional understanding
of gender will help in the development of more sophisticated theories and better understandings of gender and emotions (2002, p. 25). How do these new approaches influence
the conceptualizations of transnational fatherhood? The answer to this question will be
provided in the next section, which tracks the shift from a dichotomic view toward
more open approaches to fathering at a distance.
Caring transnational fatherhood: moving from cash to care
In the third part of this article, we suggest that research of transnational fatherhood has
moved from being viewed in opposition to transnational motherhood and has started
to be discovered as phenomenon thriving in its own complexity. The gender identity of
migrant fathers has started to be perceived as a dynamic and flexible model that can be
examined from various perspectives (Avila, 2008; Baldassar & Merla, 2014; Kilkey et al.,
2014; Parreñas, 2008; Pribilsky, 2007; Schmalzbauer, 2015; Sinatti, 2014).
The recent theoretical reconfiguration of transnational fatherhood was influenced by
contemporary notions of fatherhood in Western countries. These notions consider men
as not just an earning, safeguarding, and authoritative element. To paraphrase one
ground-breaking study on this topic (Hobson, 2002), we can say that (migrant) men
are made into (transnational) fathers. Kilkey et al. (2013) noted that the highly promoted
modern discourse of care-taking fatherhood in Western countries has presumably also
influenced migrant fathers in terms of their reflection on performing their own roles.
Modern fathering has become an inseparable component of western masculinity,
opening new ways for migrant fathers to perform their parenting role and rethink their
involvement in child-rearing (see the concept of ‘caring masculinities’: Elliott, 2016).
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A. SOURALOVÁ AND H. FIALOVÁ
Consequently, new inquiries have commenced exploring previously concealed features of
transnational fatherhood (see Dreby, 2010; Kilkey et al., 2014; Parreñas, 2008; Pribilsky,
2007; Ramirez & Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2009; Schmalzbauer, 2015; Sinatti, 2014; Waters,
2010). Men’s roles as fathers start to be reflected in a distinct perspective that does not
limit the role strictly to breadwinning, but includes other more diverse practises and
aspects of fatherhood.
Schmalzbauer’s (2015) research on Mexican fathers temporarily working in the USA in
many regards symbolizes the move from the reductionist definition of transnational
fatherhood and the shift to a definition which may include those aspects of parenting
which were traditionally assigned to mothers. Her research explored transnational fatherhood narratives from new unconventional perspectives and opened new horizons in this
area. We find her research revolutionary because it focuses explicitly on the emotions of
fathers.
The expectations surrounding the emotional labour of transnational fathers are less clear.
Because fatherhood tends to be constructed around provision and authority, there is no cultural script for how fathers should maintain an emotional connection with children in the
context of family separation. It is thus not surprising that transnational family researchers
have found experiences of fatherhood to be more varied than those of motherhood. (2015,
p. 214)
Schmalzbauer’s rich empirical study provides many examples of the complexity of fathering practices, meanings, and experiences. The following quotation from her research is
evidence of this complexity. The quotation appears in the context in which the author
explores a father’s feeling about the expectation that is attached to his role. Schmalzbauer
examines whether migrants feel that it is their ‘responsibility’ to migrate, as a sacrifice for
the family. Two interviewees she spoke with say:
The work is not the problem. We are used to working hard and here we have machines
instead of machetes. What is hard is being away from our families. This is the greatest sacrifice we make. But we do what we have to do.
The price of separation is very expensive, it is very high. Because you miss the special
moments. You’re not there to say happy birthday or happy Mother’s Day. (2015, p. 219)
These interview excerpts poignantly show the intersection of two roles – the role of breadwinner and the role of caregiver. The first respondent refers to the breadwinning responsibility, assuming his duty as a natural obligation for a migrant father. The second respondent
highlights the quite intense wish of the migrant father to fulfil the caregiving role, which
recalls the statements of transnational mothers. The feelings of mothers and fathers can
clearly be similar and their roles can in reality overlap. The content of the caregiving role
includes a closer emotional relationship of the father with his children, embracing
expressions of feelings, spending time together, and sharing physical contact like hugs.
The separation of fathers from their children can be a painful issue, causing suffering,
frustration, and feelings of loss. These feelings were (stereo)typically linked with the
experience of transnational motherhood, not transnational fatherhood. We are still discovering that social norms anticipate that migrant fathers who are prevented from fulfilling
their caregiving roles are less frustrated than migrant mothers who are not present as caregivers. If researchers had not started to survey migrant father frustrations, we might not
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11
have known that fathers felt depressed in not accomplishing a caregiving role and not
being there for their children. The importance of the scrutiny into the feelings of
fathers was also pointed out in a study by Carling et al. (2012, p. 95):
While the emotions of father are not commonly broached, we know that migrant fathers
suffer too, and that they are often more self-destructive in their coping strategies that transnational mothers.
The following testimony of another father interviewed by Schmalzbauer (2015) illustrates
an issue which until recently was taboo in research on fatherhood and masculinity, as men
avoid compassion, weakness, fear, or the appearance of vulnerability in order not to be
associated with women (Anderson, 2009).
‘Yes, it’s like a depression’. Jesús detailed how when he has to say goodbye to his little boy at
the end of his stay in Mexico he is overwhelmed with sadness: ‘I suppose some would call me
a coward … there are nights when I cry and cry’. (Schmalzbauer, 2015, p. 220)
The transnational father’s experiences with separation can be reported only in research
that opens the space for possible reconceptualizations of transnational fatherhood. The
words used by Jesús can be uttered only when he has the chance to talk about topics
other than breadwinning. Then, the newly emergent views come out, and they can
serve as starting points for examining new, attractive, and stimulating aspects of transnational parenthood. The practices of migrant fathers who are separated from their families
and cannot care for their children personally, practices that they employ to balance their
involvement in the family despite the distance, are still an unexplored field. How can they
get involved in the family? How can they break the ‘emotional gap’ between themselves
and their children? Due to prevailing gendered expectations and norms, fathers are precluded from building a close relationship with their children. There is still no existing
pattern to serve as a guideline for migrant fathers on how to express their affection and
share it with their children, on how to make a connection when they are geographically
separated, on how to be at least ‘emotionally present’, and how to prove that they care
(Schmalzbauer, 2015). Zentgraf and Chinchilla (2012, p. 348) praise research on transnationalism for being an arena where new forms of ties, relations, and roles can be observed.
They say that:
Recent transnationalism research has begun to highlight the creative ways that parents and
family members carry out their traditional roles and responsibilities even while separated, as
well as the resilience of substitute carers and children left behind in adapting.
The research on transnational fatherhood opens the space for exploration of ‘new, alternative masculinities in different spheres’ (Sinatti, 2014, p. 223). It can provide a lot to feminist research, migration research, and, of course, feminist research on migration. As long
as migrant fathers feel unrestricted in performing other variations of masculinity and
fatherhood, more patterns and practices may come to the surface and thus provide new
dimensions to explore.
Concluding remarks and discussion
This article analysed how the phenomenon of transnational fatherhood has been
researched over the last two decades. The aim was to provide a critical review of the
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A. SOURALOVÁ AND H. FIALOVÁ
approaches applied and concepts used in research on transnational fatherhood. The focus
on the father’s migration as a mean of providing needed money for the family has prevailed within the research paradigm and the phenomenon is perceived from this
narrow view, which follows stereotypical gendered norms in society. These norms
shape the behaviour of the migrants themselves and are also inscripted in the biased representation of transnational fatherhood. We observe that this approach is changing and
being replaced by a new one which argues for seeing the complexity of fatherhood. As
Gutmann (1996, p. 57) argues, ‘fatherhood and masculinity are experienced and practised
in more diverse ways than stereotypes suggest’.
At the beginning of our work, we asked the following question: What has been happening in research on migrant fatherhood in the two decades since the notion of transnational
motherhood was developed? Here we can reply that the conceptualization of transnational
fatherhood went through shifts and moved from being unseen, through becoming an
expression of male breadwinning, to the inclusion of the emotional side of parenting.
Despite many rich empirical studies which explicitly deal with this issue, transnational
fatherhood is still overshadowed by the prominent research interest in transnational
motherhood.
The research on transnational parenthood plays an ambivalent role in the reconceptualization of gender and family relations. On the one hand, it helps to de-biologize and deessentialize motherhood by shedding light on diversities in mothering strategies. On the
other hand, it reproduces the gendered status quo by paying less attention to transnational
fatherhood or by only equating it with breadwinning. This article proposes that even
gender-sensitive studies may unintentionally reproduce gender essentialism, conflict,
and rigid views of parenthood and gender roles in transnational families. Most research
on transnational fatherhood still locks the phenomenon into a stereotypical portrayal,
concealing its variety and diversity. We suggest that transnational fatherhood should be
exempt from social restrictive norms and be explored more sensitively with an emphasis
on the father’s experiences, feelings, and concerns.
We do not argue in this article that previous inquiries failed to approach the issue
through a gender-sensitive lens; nor do we criticize what has been explored so far.
Rather, we point out what has not yet been discovered and demonstrate that there is an
unexplored space that deserves to be investigated. Several steps can be taken to show
this phenomenon in its full range. We may argue for more research interest in fathers’ caregiving roles and emotional exchanges with their children. We can advance the abandonment of false contradictions between transnational motherhood and transnational
fatherhood and call for the recognition of the overlap between these two concepts and
lived realities. We can call for careful comparisons between fatherhood practices at a distance and in person. These options and many others can shift the research on transnational fatherhood toward its discovery to the extent that it deserves.
Transnational parenting is still a quite new and rarely examined phenomenon in contemporary research; the process of understanding the term and the notion is dynamic,
developing, and changing. Considering the exciting changes in the field that have taken
place in the last two decades, we can expect increasing research interest in this topic in
the coming years. We would argue for researching the diversity of roles which men and
women play while being breadwinners and caregivers, economic and emotional providers
at the same time.
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13
Notes
1. This was exactly 10 years after the concept of transnational motherhood was introduced. In
2007, this article already had 300 citations in Google Scholar Database and 80 citations in
Web of Science.
2. Our review is limited to English-language publications due to our language knowledge. Our
analytical procedure was as follows: we collected a set of articles after searching for the keywords ‘transnational fatherhood’ or ‘transnationalism and fatherhood’ (in both cases, the
keywords were entered first with quotation marks and then without them) in selected databases (Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar); then we analysed the ways that the term
transnational fatherhood and its content are conceptualized by researchers. Our set of articles
included studies written about migrants in Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia. We
are aware that practices of transnational parenthood differ in various geographical, historical,
and sociocultural contexts. We expect differences in fathering among fathers of different
classes, races, religions, ages, etc. However, the current limited research on transnational
fatherhood does not make it possible to answer the questions of how and why fathering practices differ among men of different backgrounds.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This research was financially supported by student research project ‘Society and its dynamics: qualitative and quantitative perspective’, project num. MUNI/A/1182/2016.
Notes on contributors
Adéla Souralová is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and the Office for Population Studies at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. She specialises in research on paid care
and migration and, in particular, on the family relationships of Vietnamese immigrants in the
Czech Republic. The findings of her research on Vietnamese immigrant families that hire native
Czech nannies were published in a book titled New perspectives on mutual dependency in caregiving by Ashgate (2015).
Hana Fialová is taking the MA programme in Sociology at the Department of Sociology at Masaryk
University in the Czech Republic.
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