Transnational narratives: father-child separation from the perspective of migrant men’s children in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

Multiple studies have explored the impact of international migration on family members. Nonetheless, scant attention has been given to the experiences of children who stay in the home country. This paper addresses this gap in the transnational family life literature by exploring father-child separation from the viewpoints of children in the country of origin. This is key to understanding the implications that separation has on the family’s well-being, thus providing a broader assessment of the effects of international migration. Through a qualitative study based on interviews and field observations, we seek to obtain a wider vision of the context in which the transnational father-child relationship evolves and understand how the children’s perception of the separation varies according to it. We can accomplish this by choosing three locations that are home to pioneer migrants in Ecuador, which have the highest rates of international migration. Qualitative data was collected from migrant men’s children in Biblián, Sígsig, and Calderón. Most of the migrant fathers, except for one, were undocumented at the time of fieldwork. Overall, we argue that although transnational fatherhood and experiences should not be assumed to be fixed but influenced by context, father-child separation does have implications, particularly, for boys.

KEYWORDS:

• Father-child separation
• transnational children
• left-behind children
• transnational parenting
• Ecuador

Acknowledgements

The authors of this study acknowledge the logistic support provided by the ‘International Migration and Local Development’ Project at the Universidad of Cuenca in Ecuador during fieldwork, and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO, by its acronym in Spanish) that kindly made its facilities available for the researchers while writing this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by the University of Antwerp as part of a joint Ph.D. program.

Notes on contributors

Jesenia Verdezoto

Jesenia Verdezoto is a researcher at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, and at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Maastricht. Her field of research is migration and development, and her PhD program focuses on transnational families from the perspective of the women and children left-behind. She has been actively involved the interuniversity research cooperation between IOB and the University of Cuenca in Ecuador, through the VLIR-IUC Project on International Migration and Local Development.

Veronica Llanes

Veronica Llanes is a public policy and development specialist (both a researcher and practitioner). Previous experience entails international work experience in the academia as well as the private, nonprofit, and public sectors in Ecuador, Asia, and the United States. She obtained a BA in Economics and International Development from Clark University (U.S.) and a Master in Public Policy, with a specialization in Management and Leadership, from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.