TL Network e-Working Paper Series
Nº 5/2014
Fathering and Conjugality in Transnational Patchwork
Families: the Angola/Portugal case
Marzia Grassi and Jeanne Vivet
TL Network e-Working Papers
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Abstract: This paper explores long-distance fatherhood and the father-child relationships in
transnational families between Angola and Portugal. Using evidence for the Portugal/Angola
case in the second work package of the TCRAf-Eu project, we discuss the division of parental
duties based on established gender roles (mother as caregiver and father as bread-winner) and
how they are reconstructed in the long-distance context in which there are very few mothers
living abroad: in our sample, the overwhelming majority of parents living in Portugal with
children in Angola are fathers. Relational reconfigurations induced by absence are not always
expected or controlled as changing roles within the family. We argue that besides the
economic situation, conjugality and family gendered dynamics are crucial to an understanding
of long-distance fatherhood practices and the long-distance father/child relationship.
Key words: fatherhood, transnationalism, patchwork family, conjugality, gender.
Authors:
Marzia Grassi is a senior researcher fellow at Institute of Social Sciences - University of
Lisbon in Portugal. Phd in Development Economics, Master in African Studies. Since 2013
Portuguese coordinator of the project GENDERCIT (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES/318960),
funded by People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) – IRSES. Since 2012 P.I. of the project
"Places and belongings: circular conjugalities between Angola and Portugal"
(PTDC/AFR/119149/2010) on the emergence of new forms of conjugality among
heterosexual couples living apart (one in Portugal, the other in Angola). Between 2009 and
2012 P.I. of the project “Transnational child-raising arrangements between Angola and
Portugal”. The project is part of the NORFACE funded European comparative project,
TCRAf-Eu: Effects of transnational child-raising arrangements (TCRAs) on the life-chances
of children, migrant parents and caregivers between Africa and Europe. Between 2008-2011
she was P.I. of the Project “Migratory Trajectories from Africa, Illegality and Gender
(PIHM/GC/0046/2008 and ICS-UL/524/2008), which aimed to rethink the notion of illegal
immigration in Portugal and Italy. She is author of several articles in international reviews,
edited book and monographies, and the coordinator of the Transnational Lives, Mobility and
Gender network.
Jeanne Vivet is a French geographer, lecturer and researcher at University Bordeaux 3
(Laboratory LAM "Les Afriques dans le monde"). PhD in geography by University of Paris
Ouest Nanterre. Team member in the ongoing project "Places and belongings: circular
conjugalities between Angola and Portugal" (PTDC/AFR/119149/2010), coordinated by
Marzia Grassi at ICS-UL. Between 2010 and 2012, post-doc researcher in the project
Transnational child-raising arrangements between Angola and Portugal, NORFACE funded
European comparative project, TCRAf-Eu: Effects of transnational child-raising arrangements
(TCRAs). Her main research interests are: City, urbanity, forced mobility, displaced persons,
transnational families.
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Introduction
This paper explores long-distance fatherhood and the father-child relationships in
transnational families between Angola and Portugal. Using evidence for the Portugal/Angola
case in the second work package of the TCRAf-Eu project1, we discuss the division of
parental duties based on established gender roles (mother as caregiver and father as breadwinner) and how they are reconstructed in the long-distance context in which there are very
few mothers living abroad: in our sample, the overwhelming majority of parents living in
Portugal with children in Angola are fathers. Relational reconfigurations induced by absence
are not always expected or controlled as changing roles within the family (Marinho, 2010,
Nobles, 1999, 2011). We argue that besides the economic situation, conjugality and family
gendered dynamics are crucial to an understanding of long-distance fatherhood practices and
the long-distance father/child relationship.
In the analysis of transnational families, there has been research on the separation between
children and parents (Parrenas 2008; Suarez-Orozco, and Suarez-Orozco 2001), but fathers
are often neglected. Researches on parenthood focused mostly on motherhood, and most of
the authors in this area (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Ernestine, 1997; Parrenas, Salazar, 2001;
Schmalzbauer, 2004; Zontini, 2004 and 2010; Tolstokorova, 2010) assume the primacy of the
ethnocentric representations of gender roles inside the family.
The picture of the transnational Angolan families that emerges from the survey is
particularly complex. Contrary to the picture of a family in which the “breadwinner” father
working in a European country supports his wife and children (Barou, 2001), we find very
few couples involved in Transnational Child-Raising Arrangements (TCRAs). On the
contrary, we find high proportions of transnational families in which the father who migrated
to Portugal has children in both Angola and Portugal, and is no longer in a relationship with
the mother of the child in Angola. Most of them are involved in another relationship in
Portugal and have children from this partner. In these cases there are consequences on
transnational child care arrangements.
1
This paper is based on quantitative data collected in the second work package of the Transnational ChildRaising Arrangements between Africa and Europe - TCRAf-Eu project - (interviews with 300 Angolan migrant
parents living in Portugal- 150 are living in a transnational child raising arrangements and the other half are
living in Portugal with their children), and in the first work package (2250 students interviewed in Angolan
secondary schools – 260 of which having at least one parent living abroad). We used and crossed data from both
work-package surveys. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics (on care giving arrangements, frequency of
contacts, relationships with the children and the caregiver, remittances, feelings and emotional well-being, etc.)
taking into account the family situation and the conjugality of the father-respondents,.
3
To look closer at transnational families dynamics we think it is crucial to understand the
causes of migration in our migration flow, aside from the Angolan civil war (ended in 2002)
and the post-colonial framework We consider that the high proportion of migrant fathers and
low proportion of migrant mothers can be related to gender established roles in the Angolan
family and society. Gender established responsibilities, including the mothering and fathering
representations in Angolan society (Grassi 1998) and among Angolan migrants are important
for understanding transnational care arrangements and transnational families.
On the other hand, in Portugal, we witness a decline of the “father as breadwinner” role in
the family as an emerging change that is much more prevalent in comparison to other
European countries (Wall et al. 2010:40).
In this article, to understand how parents’ rights and responsibilities are negotiated in
these transnational families and how gendered roles (mother as caregiver and father as breadwinner) are reconstructed (Grassi 2007), we go beyond the structure and agency factors. We
emphasize the difficulty of capturing the social change at the level of the family or the
household, as it is very problematic to identify the migrants’ households when one of the
parents has a new conjugal and/or parental relationship (Akesson 2012).
More specifically, we will consider different dimensions; first the family and parents’
expectations in transnational Angolan families (Bryceson and Vuorela 2002), considering that
expectations are not the same in a mother-migrant family as in a father-migrant one (Parreñas
2005). Secondly, we pay special attention to gender expectations. Indeed, gender expectations
are socially constructed and sustained by socialization, interactional expectations, and
institutional arrangements, and we must bear in mind that when individuals change
socialization, the gender structure also changes (Risman 1999). Thirdly, considering that
parental migration and parental conjugality are substantively distinct experiences (Nobles
2011), we must wonder if in our case conjugality is a crucial element for understanding the
consequences of fatherhood at distance. In an insightful article, J. Nobles argues that nonresident father involvement with children is different if the separation occurs because of the
parent’s separation or because of the migration. Can the same be said in our case study and
can we capture such differences considering the circumstance of the existence of others´
experience of conjugalities in Angolan fathers of our sample?
We first review some literature on fatherhood and transnational families addressing how
gender as a social structure affects individuals, organizes expectations attached to social
positions, and becomes an integral part of social institutions. We then clarify the migration
context of our flow between Angola and Portugal, the data collection methods, and their
4
epistemological consequences in our context. Finally, we present and discuss the forms taken
by transnational families in our sample, introducing the notion of patchwork families to
characterize them.
As the child and adolescent psychotherapist (Gestalt therapy) Marguerite Dunitz-Scheer (n.
d: 2-5) recalls, the word “patchwork” designates carpets made up of different pieces of fabric.
The term has been adapted to describe the reorganization of families, following a separation.
Although this is a growing phenomenon in our western societies, it is not a new one and
“patchwork families” indicates family systems coming together in ways that are not originally
planned. In the transnational Angolan families included in our sample most of the migrant
fathers have children from different partners. The complexity of these families, their
specificities, and the longstanding relationship of sharing cultures and history between
Portugal and Angola, point to the appropriateness of this term in referring to transnational
Angolan families. The different “pieces of fabric” point to different ways, and periods, and
circumstances in which people of these countries have been sharing values and negotiating
complexity grounded in their common history. Our conclusion points to the emergence of a
specific transnational family, a patchwork family, in which conjugality seems to be a crucial
framework to understand parental relationships at a distance. Following a transnational
approach, the gender structures and cultures of both Angolan and Portuguese societies must
be considered in the understanding of family in this specific migratory context. Finally, we
question if this specificity can also include the contemporary Angolan family if one member
lives apart from her/his children but in the same country or city, as the context seems to
suggest.
Fatherhood at distance and family roles
The term “parenthood” arose in the 1950s in the United States (Erikson 1950) in the
context of the studies on severe psychiatric pathologies, “puerperal psychosis”, in order to
emphasize that the concept of parenting refers to a complex process that involves conscious
and unconscious levels of mental functioning. The term was not very common until the 1980s
when many researchers started to study the process of transition toward parenting - mainly
with regard to women. Only recently, and mostly in Western societies in the context of the
juridical institutionalization of the parental responsibility in the case of separation or divorce
of the parents, have there been studies on fatherhood.
5
When one of the parents is geographically separated from his/her children because of
migration to another country or another city, it seems important to reflect on the difference
between the subjective experience of parenthood, the exercise of parental power, and its
practices.
According to Palkovitz, Marks, Appleby, and Holmes (2012), “people who become parents
and are involved in the raising of children are transformed and follow a different
developmental trajectory from people who do not engage in parenting roles. Erikson (1950)
suggested that positive adult development reflects care for the next generation, or
“generativity,” and that parenthood is “the first, and for many, the prime generative
encounter” (Erikson, 1964, p. 130). More recently, parenthood has been described as a
necessary but not sufficient condition for the achievement of generativity (Snarey, Son,
Kuehne, Hauser, and Vaillant, 1987). At the same time, sociologists and psychologists have
considered forms of child-rearing (Frankel, 1991) and the ways that these forms profoundly
affect the lives of parents at many levels. Using ethnographic analysis, anthropologists reveal
the subtle dynamics that shape childrens' socialization to advance understanding of how
cultural ideologies guide mothers’ behaviours, reconsidering existing developmental theory
on discipline (see Heather Rae-Espinoza, 2010, on mothering, children, socialization, and
practices in Ecuador).
In migration studies most authors have also focused on motherhood (see for example,
Gervais, Cristine and Montigny, 2009; Battaglini, 2002). Transnational migration studies
focus on the separation of children and parents (Parrenas 2008; Suarez-Orozco, and SuarezOrozco 2001), but earlier research on parenthood is mostly focused on motherhood, . On the
other hand, recent research on non-resident fathers and fathering at distance (Nobles, 2011
and Parrenas, 2008) also adress the father’s role and involvement in the children’s education.
These studies reveal a growing interest in the father-focused perspective.
The first of the three axes of the concept of parenting (Erikson 1950) (exercise of
parenthood; experience and practice) refers to the exercise of a right in its legal sense, a
domain that transcends individual subjectivity and its behaviours. The rights and duties reside
in each individual kinship tie. The definition of kinship exists in all societies precisely to
individualize the organized groups to which each member belongs and by which he/she is
governed by rules of transmission (p. 48). The rules (membership, alliance affiliation) imply
rights and obligations and provide a social space in which each person may develop, but at the
price of some constraint. In the structuralist perspective of Levi Strauss, the elementary
structures of kinship in traditional societies determine marriage choices. In modern societies
6
legal aspects of kinship and affiliation determine the exercise of parenthood. It seems that we
are witnessing a weakening of the evolution of symbolic legislation that loses its founding
role to organize society.
Parenthood in Angolan society has a very strong symbolic weight for both women and
men. This remains true even while recognizing that the father is not in a conjugal relationship
with the child’s mother, and lives in another place. However, this symbolic weight does not
imply a genuine fatherhood experience in terms of practices, and to understand the emotional
distress related to parents living at distance we have to consider this context . Other scholars
working on parenting and care at distance believe that maintaining intimate relationships in
transnational families depends on various care practices that involve the circulation of objects,
values, and persons, and that care practices are structured by geographic distance, in which
the distinction between overseas and overland separation is significant (Leifsen and Tymczuk,
2012). In this case, the most important difference can be the type of care that the transnational
migrant male parent uses to cultivate the relationship(s) with children (care at distance moves
through formal and less-formal market channels, such as international communication
technologies, remittances companies, and transport facilitators, at least in the case of medium
and high class families).
Taking into account the actual situation of the child and the family partners, as well as the
symbolic dimension of parenting and affiliation to which the child adheres whenever there is
failure on the part of parents, we can affirm that families continue to be the place of enrolment
of the child in a genealogy and filiation, the place where identity is constructed, and the place
of confrontation of differences arising from otherness gender and generation.
Looking to transnational families, and given the geographic separation between parents
and children, we should consider that kinship in Angola and sub-Saharan Africa is not
synonymous with consanguinity. Kinship in Angola reflects a broader concept than in Europe,
and migrant parents have to negotiate their parental role considering that fatherhood and
motherhood do not have the same meaning in Angola as in Portugal. This process of
negotiation can be very hard to manage for migrants parenting from abroad in the new
immigration flows in contemporary Europe.
7
Cultural expectations and gender issues: fatherhood in the Angola/Portugal context
Angolan fathers and mothers are active subjects and both identify challenges regarding the
exercise of their parental roles. The roles of women and men are culturally expected and are
constructed in both the society to which they migrate and in Angola. In this sense,
transnational fathers who have their children cared for by their mothers in the country of
origin, “appear less focused on challenges related to the care of their children and problems
back home, and were more focused on work and wages” (Hernandez Avila 2008: 169).
Furthermore, as in other contexts studied by many authors, long separations between
biological mothers or fathers and young children are socially constructed as a normal aspect
of transnational lives: “they are a painful necessity, but are not automatically assumed to be
traumatic. In an ideal situation, when the mother is the migrant parent, the biological mother
and the foster mother play complementary roles in what some authors describe as the
transnational fostering triangle” (Akesson et al. 2012). The parent–child separation in
Angola is also socially accepted not only because of the common practice of children
fostering but also because of the instability and family destructuration caused by the long
period of armed conflict (Nzatuzola, 2005). The organization and structure of families has
been strongly disrupted by almost 30 years of war (1975-2002) and by recent and accelerated
urbanization. Millions of Angolans had to flee their homes to avoid the effects of hostilities
and generalized violence. Many women and children were left on their own as the male
family members were recruited to the army. Estimates indicated that almost 42% of the
Angolan population had been displaced by 2002. As a result, families and entire communities
were disrupted. In urban areas around 14% of the children are not living with their biological
parents, even though they are alive, and 19% live only with their mothers (INE, 2010). At the
national scale, only 66% of children under the age of 17 are living with their biological
parents.
Constructions of masculinity are fluid and changing and have to be renegotiated and
redefined in transnational conjugal relationships. African sub-Saharan countries are specific
in terms of gender role organization in the family and society (Grassi 2003). In African
studies, patriarchalizing interpretations of African societies are common and gender power
relations are often taken for granted. At the same time, hierarchies of age are often mentioned
as being more important than hierarchies of gender. According to some authors, when the
focus is on marriage, ”The woman of feminist theory is a wife” (e.g., Oyéwùmi 2003). As this
author stresses, the hierarchies of insiders / outsiders to given lineage are also often more
8
important than hierarchies of gender (the meaning of ”wife” in the Youruba language and
”Consanguinity” are more important than ”conjugality”) (Arnfred 2005).
In the transnational approach of male studies between Africa and Europe, there is a lack of
research on constructions of masculinity. Masculinity norms differ according to the contexts,
depending on negotiations about those definitions between individuals or groups (Amadiume
1987). Looking at the changes inside the conjugal relationship helps to understand how the
construction process of masculinity is renegotiated between men and women in a context of
transnational migration and how the social reproduction “in motion” (Appadurai 1996, Koser
2002, Korac 2009) works in the context of our analysis.
There is no study on either gender-male dynamics in Angolan society or on the role of men
in the family. Traditionally, women have the important role of ensuring food and household
maintenance. Even if their access to the formal labour market is subordinate to that of men, in
Angola, as in many parts of southern and central Africa, women have been independent in
economic affairs, being active in the informal sector. There is no routine control between men
and women, on how much and how they spend each others’ earnings. Both participate, but
differently, in managing the household. Throughout the West African coast there are many
women working as traders (Grassi, 2010, Lopes 2006,). Their trading activity allows them to
earn money outside the agriculture sector.
Many of the major ethnic groups in Angola are matrilineal groups (e.g., the Ambundo and
Bakongos), and this influences gender relations because, in a matrilineal society (in which
descent is traced through women) the woman holds a higher social status than in patrilineal
societies.
The reproductive role of women in Angola, as in many other African countries, is dignified
and culturally considered as the most important. In recent decades the importance of women’s
roles in the struggle for independence has been also recognized. The war, which resulted in
the recruitment of an increasing number of men, led to the increasing access of women to
positions of power in the urban sector.
Moreover, the traditional ways of life are based on kinship relationships, which determine
the lifestyles, norms, and values passed down from generation to generation. Traditional
values affect women, positively or negatively, about the possibility of participating actively in
development. If, on the one hand, the woman is considered as the depository of the national
culture and the soul of the reproduction, on the other hand, it is the same culture that often
inhibits their full involvement in modern society.
9
An important cultural aspect of Angolan society is polygamy (marriage/relationship of a
man with more than one partner). Socio-economic reasons usually lead a man to have more
than one wife. In rural areas, the number of women determines the wealth of a man. Having
more women corresponds to greater well-being. The same can be said for the number of
children. In Angola there are more women than men, especially in rural areas, and as a result
some women accept these situations as it is the only way for them to reach the socially
accepted status of “married woman”. Having children confers an additional social status to
women and thus many, even unmarried, have children. Having children is also very important
for men, as it confers an important social status. In urban areas, instead of the traditional
practice of polygamy, men often maintain several relationships with women living in different
houses. This is a current phenomenon in the largest Angolan cities, such as Luanda, Benguela,
and Huambo.
It is generally accepted that colonialism, forced displacements during the war, and
accelerated urbanization strongly affected traditional values and caused changes in household
lifestyles.
At the same time, women generally demonstrate submission, adopting attitudes that are
expected of them, therelay bestowing upon themselves the image that they are socially
adjusted. This submission is not driven by the same motivation for all women and seems to
exist side by side with their spirit of independence in all the issues related to establishing the
household. Women have respect for their traditions, which is internalized as inherent to the
natural order of things. For example, when the man is absent from the household, women
organize themselves and take on certain social behaviours and economic management of the
household. These behaviours range from developing their work in the informal sector,
establishing women’s associations, searching for modern financial integration, or even raising
their level of training - all in search of economic independence and self-reliance. (Grassi
1998:87-90).
In the scope of the TCRA project, we gather data information on mothering and fathering
representations and roles. We asked all of the interviewees their opinion about international
migration of mothers and fathers. International mother migration is normally not well
accepted, by either mothers or fathers, but more so by fathers. The overwhelming majority of
men (more than 80%) responded that it is bad or very bad that mothers migrate abroad.
Women’s responses are a bit more contrasted or nuanced, with larger proportions responding
that it is neither bad nor good. On the contrary, the majority of the respondents indicated that
10
it is neither bad nor good that fathers migrate internationally, 30% reporting that it is bad or
very bad and a considerable proportion of men responding that it is good or very good (more
than 15%). Responses from students show the same overall results: mothers’ migration is less
well considered than fathers’ migration, which is not very surprising given that mothers in the
Angolan society are regarded as the most important caregivers – taking care of the children
from birth, as they are expected to do. These results help us to understand the common
cultural values linked to the international migration amongst Angolan migrants and the gender
division of parenting and household responsibilities, at least in the opinions and responses of
our interviewees.
Angolan immigration to Portugal: A post-colonial context
In Portugal, migrants coming from former Portuguese colonies accounted for 31% of the
foreigners in 2007 (SEF, 2007). The intensification of migration from former African colonies
started with Portugal’s entry into the European Community in 1986, and was driven in large
part by Portugal's increasing demand for labour linked with several infrastructure projects. It
explains that an important proportion of Angolan migrants working in Portugal were
employed in the civil construction sector.
Flows from Angola were not based on economic motivations alone, but were also
motivated by the war. The most intensive period of Angolan migration is reported during the
1990s and early 2000, a result of continuing hostilities following the breakdown in the
Bicesse and Lusaka peace processes. This is the general pattern that fits the migration of our
respondents. The majority of them arrived between 1999 and 2001 (12 to 14 years ago) and
only 12% (n = 35) are recent migrants, arriving during the last five years. They were still
young adults when arriving in Portugal and they were admitted under tourist visas, most of
them subsequently becoming permanent residents. The conflict in Angola had a major impact
on emigration decisions, but it must not be seen as the single driver of emigration. The
combination of violence, instability, limited labour and education opportunities, and the
decline of living standards may have influenced the emigration choices. Cultural and
linguistic proximity, family support, and the existence of social networks in Portugal (friends
and relatives in Lisbon) made this country an attractive destination for many Angolans, even
more so than the labour opportunities (IOM, 2009). Most of these migrants received some
assistance from the members of their family or their social networks in Portugal. Some were
11
the children of the elite and middle classes, who fled compulsory military service and
continued their education in Portugal, but the majority are unqualified immigrants and work
in civil construction, cleaning, and other similar positions. The majority of the respondents
continue to hold low-wage jobs in the services sector, at the bottom of the occupational
hierarchy of the Portuguese labour market (cleaning services for women and construction for
men). The household income of 75% of our target group is less than 1,000 Euros per month
and 20% earn less than 500 Euros per month, with unemployment at19% and youth
unemployment at about 38% (Pordata 2012)
Most of the migrant fathers (70%) were already separated from their child’s mother before
leaving Angola, and the migration was thus not a couple’s decision to improve the household
conditions. This distinguishes our case study from others in which the migration was driven
by the breadwinning role of the father. Most of the migrant fathers in our sample seem to have
migrated for concerns about their academic training or because of the war, and this may
explain why remittances are very low in our case.
FIGURE 1. Evolution of legally resident Angolans in Portugal by gender (1986-2012)
Source: udpated from Grassi, 2010, INE and SEF (1986-2012).
*2012 provisional data
Although there used to be more Angolan men than women in Portugal, this trend has
recently reversed. The share of female migrants amongst Angolan residents has been rising
steadily. In 1999, 59% were men and 41% were women, but in 2010 there were more women
than men registered (49% vs. 51%). (Figure 1). This evolution can be explained by the
process of family reunification. According to a recent study from the OIM, the primary
12
reasons for emigration amongst women were to join a relative, search for new opportunities,
and to study (2009: 49).
In the last decade we observe the decline of immigrants’ numbers because of the economic
recession.. Many foreign migrants have returned to their country or migrated to other
European countries. Large proportions of Angolan migrants with poor qualifications faced
difficult situations, characterized by precariousness and economic vulnerability. We will also
consider this economic situation to explain and analyse the flow of remittances from Portugal
to Angola, which are quite low.
SAMPLING STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY
This article draws from the larger TCRAs project, which analyses forms of relationships
between fathers and children in transnational families between Angola and Portugal. Our
reflections are mostly grounded on data collected from the two surveys of the TCRA project
mentioned above. Data coming from the parents’ survey allow us to define some specificity
of Angolan transnational families, independently of the country of immigration.
We interviewed 300 Angolan migrant parents living in Greater Lisbon. The sampling
strategy was designed to interview three categories of migrants to be compared:
- Parents with all children living in Angola (23%, n= 68), called “full TCRA”,
- Parents with children living in Portugal and Angola (25.% n= 76), designated “mixed
TCRA”
- and parents with all children living in Portugal (52%, n= 152): as our control group
Whatever TCRA situation we are considering, 80% of the interviewees are men and an
overwhelming majority of the caregivers in Angola are the children’s mothers, who are
separated from the migrant father. Furthermore, we stress that the transnational care
arrangements in our case are not recent, since the migration duration is around 10 years. We
say that it is not a new care arrangement as the vast majority of children were younger than 10
years old when their mother or father migrated to another country. A large proportion of
parents have been away for a long period (more than 11 years), especially fathers (40%). In
addition to that, most of the children whose father is away are living with their mother in
Angola (75%, n=161) and for a large majority (70%, n=144) their parents are no longer in a
relationship.
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Besides the data from the migrant parent’s survey we refer in this paper to data from the
children’s survey. In this case we distinguish fathers absent nationally and fathers absent
internationally. In the children’s survey, 2250 children in secondary schools in Luanda,
Benguela, and Lobito were interviewed, 260 children having at least one parent abroad.
Considering the gender balance, we can confirm that an overwhelming majority of the
migrant parents living abroad are also men, and few students have their mother living abroad.
We can also emphasize the importance of Portugal as a destination country (28%), and
Europe in general (60%). African countries (Namibia, SA, RDC) represent about 28%.
Fatherhood in Angolan transnational patchwork families
Looking inside parenting roles from the perspective of children and parents we can find not
only differences between mixed and full-TCRAs but also interesting gender differences.
As mentioned above, 80% of our interviewees in a TCRA situation are men and an
overwhelming majority of the caregivers in Angola are the children’s mothers, who are
separated from the migrant father. Many families in our sample have the form of what we call
in this paper patchwork families. Because 94% of the TCRA fathers (full or mix) are
separated from the mother living in Angola and 70% have been separated before the
migration. TCRA fathers have 2.8 children on average, 82% have children from different
partners and one third of their current partners have children from another relationship.
When we asked the fathers about the quality, nature, and frequency of the relationship with
their children to understand the extent to which fathers can be regarded as long-distance
caregivers we found different forms according to the social category of the family. When we
asked them about their financial contribution to the children’s upbringing we unlighted their
role as long-distance breadwinners but what kind of emotional proximity is possible in such
case? Let see finally something about the transnational emotional challenges for fathers and
children.
Ways not to lose contact
Communication across long distances is a defining element in the everyday practices of
transnational fatherhood. As Carling et al. (2012) show, in a sense these practices are shaped
by the intersection of technological, economic, and psychological factors. To what extent and
14
in what ways do migrant parents remain connected to their children while abroad? There are
different types of situations, with some parents maintaining closer contacts with their children
than do others. Most parents say that they are the ones to initiate the contact with their
children, and this is especially evident for full-TCRAs fathers (96% and mixed-TCRAs:
88%). When fathers do not take the initiative to contact children, it is the caregiver that takes
on that responsibility, and there are no differences between mixed- (4.4%) and full-TCRAs
(4.3%).
Generally, both children and fathers consider the frequency of contact to be rather low.
Concerning the fathers’ perspective, this was the case for both mixed- and full-TCRAs.
Interestingly, gender differences emerged showing that mothers characterize the contact with
their children as more frequent compared to fathers. As to the question of whether parents can
be regarded as long-distance caregivers, the results suggest that they can be, especially
mothers and migrant fathers who do not have children living with them in Portugal. Landline
or mobile phones are used to stay in touch (results showing that the majority of children use
their mobile phone to stay in touch with the father, regardless of whether the father is absent
nationally or internationally). However, children with the father absent internationally are
more likely to use a landline phone or e-mail compared to children with their father absent
nationally. When fathers are asked about what means they use to stay in touch with their
children, the majority report using the mobile phone and about one third say they use a
landline phone.
Younger children have more contact with their father compared to older ones: 43% of
those younger than 14 years-old report several contacts in a week, while this is true for only
28% aged between 15 and 17. The percentage of those with “no contact” is greatest for the
oldest (36. % for those older than 18 years, and 24.% for those younger). Thirty-five percent
of the children younger than 14 years old report having always had a warm and open
relationship with their non-resident father, and this percentage falls to 32% for those above 18
years old. Differently, older children are more likely to have had a distant relationship with
their non-resident father than are the younger children.
Regarding children, the results show that those with their fathers absent nationally or
internationally consider that their contact with the father was fairly sporadic over the past
month. However, when children were asked to think about the last time they had seen their
father, a considerable difference emerged between the two kinds of geographic separations:
when the separation was within the country children said they saw their father more often
compared to when the father was away in a different country.
15
As for fathers, these often reported that they had not seen their children living in Angola in
the last month, and this was the case for fathers both with and without children living in
Portugal. Similar results were also found when fathers were asked about the last time they
saw their child in person. As for gender differences, it is interesting to note that compared to
fathers, both mixed- and full-TCRA mothers reported relatively more contact with their
children living in Angola
As for what fathers talk about with their children, mixed-TCRAs say that they talk about
school (80%), other subjects (7%), health (6%), money/gifts (4%), and family (3%), while
full-TCRAs say that they talk about school (53%), family (21%), health (11%), money/gifts
(11%), and presents (4%). It therefore seems that mixed-TCRAs invest less in subjects related
to the family compared to full-TCRAs. Finally, the large majority of parents say that they are
the ones to initiate the contact with their children, and this is especially evident for fullTCRAs father (96%; mixed-TCRAs: 88%). When fathers do not take the initiative to contact
children, it is the caregiver that does, and there are no differences between mixed and fullTCRAs.
According to Parreñas, distance in time and space between migrant parent and their
children weakens intergenerational relationships by losing the day-to-day life (2005: 67). If
we focus on the relationship between TCRA children and fathers as perceived by children and
fathers, our data suggest that, overall, children living in Angola and migrant fathers see their
relationship as positive. In the fathers’ perspective, this is especially evident for those who do
not have children living with them in Portugal (n= 50). Fathers with children living both in
Portugal and Angola evaluated the relationship with children living in Angola less positively
compared to full-TCRA fathers. Mixed-TCRA fathers rated more positively the relationship
with children living in the same house compared to the relationship with children living in
Portugal in a different house or in Angola). This shows us that distance impacts negatively the
relationship with their children regardless of the geographic distance. Fathers do not have a
better relationship with their children who are living in another house because of a separation
with the mother, and we can suppose that this may be linked to a tense or more difficult
relationship with the other progenitor.
The results also reveal gender differences, showing that mothers living abroad look at their
relationship with children as more positive compared to fathers, and this is evident for both
mixed and full-TCRAs. Fathers who also have children in Portugal (from another partner)
seem to invest less in subjects related to the family, and although they take the initiative to
16
contact their children, they call their children less often than fathers whose children are all
living in Angola.
Breadwinner fathers?
A related question concerns the extent to which fathers are breadwinners by contributing
financially with money or goods to the upbringing of their children living in Angola. To what
extent can migrant fathers be regarded as long-distance caregivers?
As mentioned above, contrary to the picture of a transnational family with the
“breadwinner” father working in a Western country to support his wife and children (Barou,
2001, Bash, 1994), there are very few couples involved in TCRAs. On the contrary, there are
many families in which the father migrated to Portugal, has children in both Angola and
Portugal, and is no longer in a relationship with the mother of his first child. Most of these are
involved in another relationship in Portugal, even if a considerable proportion (38%) of the
full TCRA are single. Mixed TCRA fathers usually have other children from this partner,
which has consequences on transnational child care arrangements.
In our context, if we consider both the war as an important motivation to migrate, and the
fact that the fathers were already separated from the mother’s child, we can assume that their
migration was not motivated by the single factor of wishing to sustain their family. Moreover,
the breadwinner role attributed to the father is easily challenged by the fact of the
contemporary economic crisis in Portugal.
The responses from children indicate that approximately 5 out of 10 fathers send their
children goods or money, and for those that do send something, they do this several times a
year. No differences were found between whether the father was absent nationally or
internationally, and the majority of fathers reported that it was the caregiver (and not the
child) who received the money or goods that were sent.
The results from the children’s survey disagree somewhat, indicatingthat 8 out of 10
fathers say they send their children goods or money. Notably, these figures are a bit lower for
fathers that have children also in Portugal, and it is also for them that the differences with
mothers in a similar condition become more evident. In sum, the results suggest that fathers
help the caregivers sporadically; but they do not send money monthly, but help the mothers to
17
pay special expenses or send a present for Christmas or birthday. In all cases, caregivers
cannot count on regular help, and it seems that mothers pay for most of the expenses. The
results suggest that some fathers can be, to some extent, regarded as long distance
breadwinners.
In our sample, around 20% of TCRA fathers are unemployed. This high rate reflects the
current economic recession in Portugal, growing poverty, and the crisis in the construction
industry, in which many Angolans where working (Pereira, Vasconcelos 2007; Pereira, 2010).
More than half think it is likely that they will be unemployed in the next year and the majority
consider that they have insufficient money for their daily expenses.
For those reporting that they do send goods or money, in line with children’s answers, they
reported to doing this several times per year. Nonetheless, it should be noted that this was
more evident for full-TCRAs. For these issues no gender differences are detected.
Sending or not sending remittances is not necessarily related with the working situation in
the host country of the migrant father. As Pribilsky (2004) shows in the case of Ecuadorians
in New York city, the construction of masculinity also depends on new ways to balance the
constitution of the expected masculinity and the use of money: looking for a balance between
consumption and their gender identities. In this space, the model of fatherhood shapes new
forms of the breadwinner role. In our case study, migrants’ masculinity seems to be
constructed more by conjugal relationship than by fatherhood, even if the symbolic weight of
having children is very important for migrant fathers. The role as breadwinner is not so
important to affirm masculinity (Grassi 2007).
For the mother and children in Angola, migrant fathers in Portugal transmit affectivity as
well as instrumental purposes by purchasing gifts for the children and family left behind
(Pribilsky 2004: 340-341). This is the expected way to make sense of the newly imposed role
as father breadwinner according to the European expected roles in a family.
Feelings about living apart (fathers and children)
We query children and fathers about their feelings about living apart and what they would
like to do. Both migrant parent and children related a sense of discomfort and emotional
distance toward their father/child. These statistics show us that fathers whose children are all
living in Angola are more emotionally engaged and more in contact with them than fathers
who also have children in Portugal. We specify here (as above) that these children living with
them in Portugal are from another partner.
18
Most children feel sad (approximately 6 out of 10). When the father is absent
internationally 4 out of 10 report that they would like him to come back, and 2 out of 10 say
that they would like to leave the country and join him.
For full-TCRA father, the results replicate those of children regarding their feelings toward
the separation, while for mixed-TCRAs a different picture emerges. For the latter, the
percentage of those that feel sad is substantially lower (1 out of 3). These results provide a
hint about what fathers would like to do about living apart from their children. While for fullTCRAs the majority would like the child to come and live with the parent in Portugal (and no
significant differences amongst mothers were found), for mixed-TCRAs “only” 3 out of 10
would like their children to come and live with them, in clear contrast with what mothers said,
where 8 out of 10 would like to reunite with their children in Portugal.
This addresses the issue of how children and fathers feel about living apart and what they
would like to do in that regard, namely to what extent they would like to reunite with each
other. Overall the results suggest that both children and parents feel sad about living apart.
However, there are some differences. The vast majority of children feel sad for not living with
their father, and this is the case regardless of the father being away in the same or in a
different country. The second most chosen response option is that they feel nothing, followed
by the option that they have mixed feelings, that is, that they feel both sad and happy. As for
the fathers, the results seem to depend on whether they have children living in both Portugal
and Angola or only children living in Angola. Fathers with children in both countries are
almost evenly split between feeling sad, neutral, or feeling that being apart is the best
solution. On the other hand, the majority of fathers with children only in Angola feel sad or
neutral with a minority expressing that they feel that the arrangement is the best option.
A question that emerges from these findings is “why do fathers having children in both
Portugal and Angola seem to be more distant from their children living in Angola, in terms of
both the father’s role as caregiver and breadwinner, and their motivation to reunite with the
children?”
It seems that there are strong differences between mother-absent and father-absent
transnational families’ emotional wellbeing. When the mother migrates children complain
more frequently about feelings of abandonment. At the same time and in our case study there
are migrant fathers who frequently complain about the lack of day-to-day life with their
children.
19
Conclusion
The migratory process is not neutral, but highly “gendered”, meaning that gender
constitutes a core organizational principle for social relationships. Migrant experiences in
destination countries also derive from differentiation revolving around the gender function,
producing differing propensities to migration as well as different results between men and
women. The majority of studies on migrations and development seem to reflect the
conceptual point of view that attributes to women the status of subject following male patterns
of behaviour (Carling and Akesson 2009:4). Asymmetries in power between men and women
produce differences in the organization of migrant lives and permeate through social
institutions, the family, economy, and politics. Studies on migrant women from PALOP
countries carried out thus far in Portugal (Grassi 2003, Wall and São José 2004; Hellerman,
2005; Grassi and Evora, 2007) have found that women bring with them the responsibility –
with which they self-identify – for maintaining bonds with the country of origin, influencing
the ways in which they process their social relationships in Portugal and in the country of
origin. Engendering development processes requires more than a focus on women. The
origins of migration lie in an experience which in the majority of cases emerges out the
developmental level of the country as well as the family history context. Correspondingly,
there are increasing numbers of women and men deciding to emigrate alone but who rarely
depart without first gaining the consent of the conjugal partner that they leave behind. In their
memories and wishes, such feelings remain present – to a greater or lesser extent depending
on the reproductive role that the respective culture attributes to women – in the life plan of the
person left behind.
Men and women are capable of changing gendered ways of being throughout their lives. In
the analysis of transnational families in the Angolan/Portuguese context we find that gender
expectations can be overcome if couples are willing to flout society in its gender
representations. In the end, however, both caregiver and breadwinner roles become the
mother´s responsibility.
Every society has a gender structure and according to authors such as Risman Most
children of traditional and modern families “adopt their parents’ beliefs about gender, but
they do struggle with the contradictions between parental ideology and knowledge and
expectations in peer relationships” (Risman 1999).
Are children in patchwork families at higher risk for their well-being, education, and
happiness? We stress that it is very important to ask this question. In our migratory context
20
we can say that our data and their analysis are insufficient to conclude if these family systems
produce more specific disorders compared to families in which children grow up in the
presence of the two biological parents. We are certainly looking at particular forms of families
in which the risk of conflicts arising from the organization of caring at a distance seems more
related with the established gender and conjugal role in parenthood practices in the society of
origin, Angola in this case. But other circumstances are also central, including the migrant
parent’s migratory condition and legality in the host country (see Grassi 2012).
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