Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first book to capture the poignant stories of transnational African families and their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in mediating their experiences of migration and caring across distance. Transnational Families in Africa analyses the highs and lows of family separation as a result of migration in three contexts: migration within South Africa from rural to urban areas; migration from other African countries into South Africa; and middle-class South Africans emigrating to non-African countries.
The book foregrounds the importance of kinship and support from extended family as well as both the responsibilities migatory family members feel and the experience of loss by those left behind.
Across the diverse circumstances explored in the book are similarities in migrants’ strategies for keeping in touch, but also large differences in relation to access to ICTs and ease-of-use that highlight the digital divide and generational gaps. As elsewhere in the world, and in spite of the varied experiences in these kinship circles, the phenomenon that is the transnational family is showing no signs of receding. This book provides a groundbreaking contribution to global debates on migration from the Global South.
Table of Contents
- Foreword – Gonzalo Bacigalupe
- Acknowledgments
- Part 1 Theoretical Context
- Chapter 1 Setting the Scene – Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer, Leslie Swartz and Loretta Baldassar
- Chapter 2 Methodological Challenges and Opportunities: Our Work, Our Selves – Daniella Rafaely, Loretta Baldassar, Leslie Swartz and Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer
- Part 2 Participants’ Stories of African Migration, Family Relations and ICTs
- Chapter 3 ‘Ah! Do I Know What Data Is, My Child?’ Rural–Urban Migration and the Struggle to Stay in Touch – Lactricia Maja, Risuna Mathebula, Sonto Madonsela and Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer
- Chapter 4 ‘They Will Be Yearning’: Zimbabwean Migration to South Africa and Keeping the Family Connected – Siko Moyo, Sonto Madonsela and Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer
- Chapter 5 ‘You Do Not Finish All Stories’: Malawian Families and the Struggle to Stay Connected – Esther Price and Glory Kabaghe
- Chapter 6 (Dis)connections: The Paradox of Intergenerational WhatsApp Communication in Transnational Kenyan Families – Ajwang’ Warria
- Chapter 7 Making a World of Care: DRC Refugees’ Barber Shop Stories – Thembelihle Coka and Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer
- Chapter 8 The Luxury of Longing: Experiences of ICTs by South African Emigrants to Non-African Countries and Their Families – Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer and Leslie Swartz
- Part 3 Final Considerations
- Chapter 9 Analysis of Important Data Emerging from the Study – Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer, Leslie Swartz and Loretta Baldassar
- Chapter 10 Looking Ahead: Paradox, Criticality and a Way Forward – Daniella Rafaely, Maria C. Marchetti-Mercer, Leslie Swartz and Loretta Baldassar
- Contributors
- Index
