Tracing the History and Intergenerational Relations of Immigrant Families

A special issue of Genealogy (ISSN 2313-5778). This special issue belongs to the section "Genealogical Communities: Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Racial, and Multi-National Genealogies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2024) | Viewed by 3360

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Humanities Media and Creative Communication, Massey University, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
Interests: migrant transnationalism; human movement mobility; migrants’ integration issues and sexuality and interaction with host country societies; migration policy; ethnic relations; cultural diversity; globalisation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Immigrant families and their family relations and dynamics have long been a subject of interest for scholars in the area of Migration Studies. This broad theme related to migration embodies a diverse range of narratives, including but not limited to migration incentives, adaptation, and identity formation. This Special Issue aims to deepen our understanding of immigrant family histories and intergenerational dynamics, shedding light on the experiences, emotions, challenges, and resilience of immigrant communities across different generations even including those who are not immigrants themselves.

We invite contributions that explore various aspects of immigrant family life, including but not limited to the following:

  • The historical analyses of immigrant family trajectories and migration patterns;
  • Intergenerational relationships within immigrant families and their evolution over family arrangements and collaborations over time;
  • Transnational family practices and their impacts on family members’ wellbeing, identity formation, and cultural preservation;
  • The role of education, lifestyle choice, religion, language, and cultural heritage in shaping immigrant family experiences;
  • Immigration and emigration policy implications and interventions aimed at supporting or hindering immigrant families’ unification, overall family wellbeing, and integration into the host societies;
  • Intersectional perspectives on gender, race, class, and sexuality within immigrant family contexts.

We welcome interdisciplinary approaches and encourage submissions from scholars working in fields such as sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, education, social work, and cultural studies.

Dr. Liangni Sally Liu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • transnational family
  • intergenerational dynamics
  • identity formation

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 1258 KiB  
Article
When Distance Keeps Families Apart: The Complexities of Visiting Emigrant Children
by Sulette Ferreira
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010017 - 12 Feb 2025
Viewed by 1387
Abstract
Migration has become an inescapable reality affecting South African families, extending its impact far beyond the immigrant to those staying behind. The geographical separation of parents from their adult children and grandchildren significantly alters family dynamics, creating logistical and emotional challenges. Participants in [...] Read more.
Migration has become an inescapable reality affecting South African families, extending its impact far beyond the immigrant to those staying behind. The geographical separation of parents from their adult children and grandchildren significantly alters family dynamics, creating logistical and emotional challenges. Participants in this study reveal a deeply felt need to physically reconnect with their loved ones, emphasizing the emotional solace derived from in-person interactions. The enduring parent-child bond motivates family members to find meaningful ways to maintain their connections across vast distances and differing time zones. Transnational visits serve as a crucial lifeline, enabling parents to experience their children’s new environments and strengthen bonds with their grandchildren. This article draws upon ongoing qualitative research exploring the lived experiences of South African parents with emigrant children and grandchildren, focusing on the barriers that hinder these transnational visits. It focusses on parents’ unique experiences travelling to visit their emigrant children, rather than return visits. While they are essential for sustaining familial bonds, visits are deeply layered experiences, shaped by financial constraints, the logistical complexities of long-distance travel and the emotional weight of farewells. These factors have the potential to render visits infrequent and emotionally complex. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

46 pages, 18436 KiB  
Article
Analyzing Multi-Generational Gathering and Dispersion to and from Ten 19th-Century American Cities
by Samuel M. Otterstrom, Jane Selander and Rafael Deo
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040148 - 17 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1256
Abstract
Genealogy, with its tying of people to places, allows for the study of migration over multiple generations. In this paper we use family history data from FamilySearch.org to analyze the migration of the ancestors of those born between 1865 and 1875 in ten [...] Read more.
Genealogy, with its tying of people to places, allows for the study of migration over multiple generations. In this paper we use family history data from FamilySearch.org to analyze the migration of the ancestors of those born between 1865 and 1875 in ten United States cities followed by the migration of descendants of people born in the same city during that same decade. Other work has followed the ancestors for multiple generations, and we have added in an examination of the migration of descendants from city origins. We calculate a number of statistics and indices and use maps to illustrate the main spatial themes of these migrations and how they vary among the cities. We find that cities have their own unique mixes of migrants that lead to differences in how often the generations were stable in a community; that descendants of those born in our study cities tended to stay close to the city for some time; that the ancestors of migration funneling into a city were more spread out than the descendants of those born in the city; that migration generally proceeded from east to west from the great-great-grandparents to the children, but that the center of migration was more random for the descendants; and that the distance of migration between ancestral generations was highly affected by the share of European ancestors and the regional location of the city. The value of this approach is that genealogical migration research can examine a large number of historical migration questions within one unified framework, which has not been carried out in other studies. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop