Transnational family and educational trajectories

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of transnational family networks for migration and educational trajectories between Brazil and Germany. The affiliation network and migration chain of a transnational family was reconstructed in order to analyze the influence of bonds and social networks within the extended family. Analysis and comparison of individual educational and migration trajectories provide insights into the support and influence of the transnational family network, as well as into orientations and reasons for migration. In most of the cases analyzed here, educational opportunities were an important element of the motivation to migrate. The discussion of the results illustrates how they could contribute to a concept of transnational education.

Keywords:

• Transnational Migration
• Transnational Education
• Transnational Family
• Educational Careers
• Brazilian Migration
• Genealogical Method

Notes

1. The title of the study is Transnational education and social positioning between Brazil and Europe. It is being conducted together with Sara Fürstenau (University of Hamburg) and is funded by the German Research Foundation.

2. This is not only due to the generally lower quality of the public schools, especially in the teaching of foreign languages, but also to the prestige and credibility associated with certificates of international schools (like the German Schools Abroad) and of educational institutions in other countries.

3. An important part of the continuous, multi-sited research has been made possible through field trips and cooperation with Joana Bahia (State University of Rio de Janeiro).

4. Names have been changed to protect the participants’ identities.

5. There was one further dimension which we were not able to analyze in this paper: Education can be seen as a means of individual change and self-development (as in the German “Bildung”, see Laros, Fuhr, & Taylor, 2017). The analysis revealed that education in this sense clearly figured among the motives for migration as well as among the criteria by which the interviewees evaluate their own migration. Gaining new experiences, learning new languages and discovering other cultures were often mentioned as reasons for migrating (even if not the most important), not only among the most privileged migrants.

6. The Studienkolleg is a two-semester-long course that prepares and enables foreign students without a recognized high school diploma to study at a university in Germany.

7. This is discussed in more detail by Fürstenau (2015).