“Family means everything, together or not!”

“Family means everything, together or not!”: A study on transnational families in the context of Turkey-Japan Immigration

Guest: Esra Demirkol Colosio, Department of Sociology. Çankırı Karatekin University. Çankırı, Turkey

This study investigates the impact of transnational migration on family life and parenting practices in the case of labour migration from Turkey to Japan. It gives an account of how immigrants and family members, particularly their wives who stayed behind, experienced the separation and how their relationships as a couple, parenting practices and emotional connections were maintained and redefined in the construction of transnational family webs while living apart for an undefined and extended period. This investigation is based on a qualitative methodological framework that includes multi-sited fieldwork with in-depth formal and informal interviews. Fieldwork was carried out in Japan and Turkey in ten months, including 40 in-depth interviews in 2015.