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Abstract
Whilst a large number of parents from Romania migrate for work, the surrogate-parenting role of grandmothers remains overlooked both in policies and in research. This article explores, through 24 in-depth interviews, the often-invisible experiences of grandmothers, for a more complete understanding of the process of migration and the necessary development of social services. The fieldwork was located in the northern countryside, which has an established culture of migration and in urban and rural areas from Transylvania, where migration is more isolated. Existing policies are mainly aimed at assisting (the often victimised) children ‘left behind’ and fail to address the needs of the grandmothers. A recent law requiring migrant parents to register a guardian is highly ineffective, as families find their private ways to navigate the process of migration. Grandmothers develop their own coping strategies for managing childcare and for understanding the current process of migration. The article asserts the need for cultural sensitive interventions aimed at increasing grandmothers’ individual wellbeing. Their situation has to be contextualised simultaneously in terms of the global dynamic of migration and in terms of the more traditional expectations for reciprocity of care at later age.
In conditiile in care un numar mare de parinti din Romania migreaza pentru munca, rolul de parinte-surogat al bunicilor ramene neglijat atat in politicile sociale, cat si in cercetare. Acest articol exploreza prin 24 interviuri de adancime, experienta adesea invizibila a bunicilor, pentru o intelegere mai completa a procesului de migratie si pentru dezvoltarea serviciilor sociale. Cercetarea a fost desfasurata in zonele rurale din nordul tarii, caracterizate de o cultura inradacinata a migratiei si in zonele urbane si rurale din Transilvania, unde practica migratiei e mai izolata. Politicile existente tind spre asistarea preoponderenta a copiilor, ramasi acasa’ si esueaza in a aborda nevoile bunicilor. O lege recenta care solicita parintilor sa inregistreze oficial un tutore este mai curand ineficienta, intrucat familiile gasesc propriile lor cai pentru a traversa procesul migratiei. Bunicile dezvolta strategii de coping proprii, atat pentru cresterea copiilor, cat si pentru a intelege procesul de migratie. Articolul sustine nevoia de interventii sensibile cultural pentru a creste gradul de bunastare al bunicilor. Situatia lor trebuie sa fie contextualiata simultan in termeni de dinamica globala, dar si in ceea ce priveste expectantele traditionale de grija pentru persoanele in varsta.
Cuvintecheie:
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank editors Susan Lawrence and Sandra Torres and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that greatly improved the manuscript. Special thanks are also due to Daniel Brett, Rosa Drown and Donald Davis for carefully proofreading the manuscript.
Notes
1. This affirmation refers to the temporary and seasonal migrants and does not include situations of highly qualified persons who emigrate permanently together with their families. The concept of migration inside EU is questionable, and officially to be replaced with intra-European mobility. However, this research will use the concept of migration in its non-technical and rather broader meaning of mobility.
2. European Parliament resolution of 12 March 2009 on migrant children left behind in the country of origin.
3. In approximately 25% of the cases when the mother only is migrating, children remain in the care of grandparents. This situation has been documented in other countries, as well (e.g. a double percentage reported for South America by Parrenas, Citation2001, Citation2005).
4. There are 3500 children in this last situation, accounting for 3% of all children with both parents abroad (UNICEF & AAS, Citation2008).
5. The average salary of €332.924 in 2009 (National Institute of Statistics) is associated with purchasing prices at European standards.
6. The same scholarship argues that children do not always subscribe to parents’ notion of better childhood, and depending on age, develop strategies to counter their actions (Dreby, Citation2005; Boehm, Citation2008; Horton, Citation2008; Lutz, Citation2008).
7. Hochschild's position, although influential, has been challenged as being rather dichotomous (Lutz, Citation2008). The binary of ‘care surplus’ and ‘care drain’ was required to add the complexities of negotiation.
8. This research is particularly interested in grandmothers, as they appear to undertake the care giving role most often. Nevertheless, the roles and the views of the grandfathers, largely underestimated in research and policy, require future consideration.
9. In the paper, the reference in using the terminology is children. So ‘grandparents’ and ‘parents’ are in relation to children.
10. The social characteristic of the grandmothers who were reluctant to disclose personal experiences may differ from those who did (in terms of autonomy as related to other family members, previous relations with authorities and community).
11. There is, however, a process of accelerating ageing in the countryside, which makes a large part of the countryside severely isolated.
12. In small towns or the cities, parents may migrate following the collapse of local industry. Multigenerational living arrangements are very rare. The changes following migration are limited to improved household amenities, payment of university fees for children and, at very best, purchase of a decent house.
13. The names of caregivers have been changed.
14. In Roma families, where the age at first birth is lower, grandparents are younger and occasionally migrate themselves for the common good of the extended family.
15. Temporary migration. For the permanent migration, grandparents’ expectations are different.
16. This distance may be rather practical (children are living in the house of the other grandmother and expectations for mutual care are transferred there), or emotional (in the case of a mother who apparently would have been in the position to undertake the care, but chose not to).