Ireland’s IBC/05 Administrative Scheme for Immigrant Residency,the Separation of Families and the Creation of a Transnational Familial Imaginary

This paper reports on the experiences of one particular group of immigrants to Ireland ‐‐ the parents of Irish citizen children, whose residency is dependent on an ongoing, renewable form of residential status called IBC/05. This residency status was instituted in response to the constitutional changes that arose in the aftermath of Ireland’s 2004 citizenship referendum. While this status category is valued in the short‐term, we contend that immigrants whose residence in Ireland is dependent on this status are effectively living in‐between their countries of origin and Ireland as a result of legislative specificities that separate their families and create an air of uncertainty about the continuance of the status category in the longer term. Immigrants with IBC/05 status operate across a number of transnational familial fields. Transnational economic fields are reinforced by immigrants’ need to finance the lives of family members still resident in their country of origin but a range of hybridised personal and familial identity spaces are created outside this economic pattern and the experience of life in Ireland is anchored in the imaginaries that spring from such transnationalised experiences. Importantly, however, we find that this transnationalism is not operationalised “from below” in this instance but “from above” by the Irish state through the emphasis it places on this form of long‐term temporary residency.     

Rethinking integration and identity: Chinese migrants in the Republic of Ireland

Using historical narratives and a qualitative research approach, this paper analyses the social, cultural and cognitive causes of differentiation and stratification among Chinese migrants in the Republic of Ireland. It discusses individuals’ diversified capabilities, attitudes and actual levels of integration, as well as their disparate patterns of self-identification. In the research area of Chinese migrants in Ireland, in-group diversity and its implications is still a novel research topic. With this introductory work, the authors seek to draw more attention to this particular group, especially to the need for studies of encounters between subgroups and longitudinal investigations. The paper points out that subgroups of Chinese migrants in Ireland are divided according to social classification and self-categorisation, which have distinct significances for subgroup members’ integration and identity.     

Trusting Strangers: Work Relationships in Four High-Tech Communities

For the last ten years, anthropologists have been studying work, family and technology in Silicon Valley. Using intensive observation and ethnographic interviews, we have investigated the daily life of people in Silicon Valley in an ecosystem of research endeavours we have dubbed the Silicon Valley Cultures Project, supported by grants by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, as well as through partnerships with the Institute for the Future. The latter collaborated to conduct ethnographic interviews on the details of work and technologically mediated communications in Bangalore, India, Dublin, Ireland, and the Taipei-Hsinchu corridor in Taiwan, revealing the complexities of global interconnections in families and workplaces. These projects have explored the penetration of work, technology and global interconnections into the daily lives of the people. We used a comparative approach, a multisite research design, to yield different research questions. Cross-site analysis allows us to see that differing social and technical infrastructures shape the way trust is built and maintained. Locating research sites in different locations also emphasizes the problematic nature of technologically-mediated relationships, since networks built at a distance and maintained virtually have risks that locally constructed networks do not. Workers in Silicon places are simultaneously inwardly-focused and embedded in a local context and connected to global economic and communications nodes. Interdependent high-tech work, often using technologically-mediated communication, requires a high degree of trust. The cultural construction of 'trust', and the culturally situated negotiation of trust relationships need to be explored in this context. High-tech knowledge work is done by networks of interdependent global workers that must share information, act under a severe time constraint, and establish effective relationships at a distance. The management of interpersonal and organizational expectations that is embodied in the concept 'trust' is an example of how locally constructed cultural realities are enacted on a global stage.     

The economics of housespousery: An essay on household work

The economic model of the household has been used extensively to examine questions relating to work within the household. This essay takes a critical look at this model and these household work applications. It concludes that the model provides several useful insights regarding factors that have influenced the decline in women's household work time during this century and the changes in the overall economic value of household work. In other areas (e.g., parental child care), the model has rarely been used although it has the potential to provide useful insights. Finally, in certain applications, such as investigations of the gender-related specialization of function within the household, the model relies on unrealistic assumptions that need to be modified if it is to prove useful. His research interests include the consumption, investiment, and time-use behavior of families and family members. Her research interests include family time allocation, household structure and economic well-being, and consumer policy.     

Issues of Integration,Participation and Empowerment in Rural Development: The Case of LEADER in the Republic of Ireland

Currently, within the European Union increasing emphasis is being placed on devising innovative development strategies for rural areas. Considerable stress is laid on integration, participation and empowerment. Integration implies a need for cross-sectoral harmonisation of developmental objectives as well as increased co-ordination between agencies involved in the developmental process. Participation implies consultation with those most directly affected, namely rural dwellers, hence increasing the level of involvement of local people in the development process. Empowerment suggests a greater degree of influence being wielded by local residents and, thus, some shift in the power balance between ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ and between ‘professionals’ and ‘amateurs’. In practise, this has resulted in a plethora of initiatives which, to a greater or lesser extent, espouse the idea of a more locally attuned ‘bottom-up’ approach to rural development stressing the importance of involving local communities. This approach is seen as a more appropriate mechanism than traditional ‘top-down’ strategies. Within Ireland, a number of programmes have been in operation since the late 1980s. This paper presents some evidence from on-going research on LEADER II in Ireland suggesting that there are a number of issues which need to be teased out with regard to current initiatives. Power relationships at both national and local levels need to be explored. While there may well be beneficial outcomes, the nature and extent of participation is quite variable. It may well be more valid to view current developments in terms of a process of incorporation rather than a move to a ‘bottom-up’ participatory model. While current strategies may represent a positive move, there is a need to ensure that the rhetoric being employed is translated into reality.     

Family Matters: (e)migration, familial networks and Irish women in Britain

The recent increase in transnational migration among women has lead to a reappraisal of theoretical explanations of migratory movement ( Castles and Miller, 2003 ; Fortier, 2000 ; Zulauf, 2001 ). This paper reviews a number of theoretical explanations of transnational migration and then applies these theories to a qualitative study of women who migrated from Ireland to Britain in the 1930s. I explore the women's reasons for leaving Ireland and their experiences as young economic migrants in Britain in the inter‐war years. Women have made up the majority of Irish migrants to Britain for much of the twentieth century yet the dominant stereotype of the Irish migrant has been the Mick or Paddy image ( Walter, 2001 ). Through an analysis of these twelve women's narratives of migration, I explore themes such as household strategies and familial networks. I am interested in the interwoven explanations of migration as both a form of escape ( O’Carroll, 1990 ) and a rational family strategy and, hence, the ways in which women's decision to migrate can be seen as a combination of both active agency and family obligation. Drawing on the work of Phizacklea (1999 ) as well as Walter (2001 ) and Gray (1996 , 1997 ), I will analyse the ways in which family connections may transcend migration and engage with the concept of ‘transnational family’ ( Chamberlain, 1995 ). In so doing, I raise questions about the complex nature of migration and the extent to which it could be described in terms of empowerment.     

Overcoming “Crisis”: Mobility Capabilities and “stretching” a Migrant Identity among Young Irish in London and Return Migrants

We bring into dialogue the migrant identities of young Irish immigrants in the UK and young returnees in Ireland. We draw on 38 in-depth interviews (20 in the UK and 18 in Ireland), aged 20–37 at the time of interview, carried out in 2015–16. We argue that “stretching” identities – critical and reflective capabilities to interpret long histories of emigration and the neglected economic dimension – need to be incorporated into conceptualizing “crisis” migrants. Participants draw on networks globally, they choose migration as a temporary “stop-over” abroad, but they also rework historical Irish migrant identities in a novel way. Becoming an Irish migrant or a returnee today is enacted as a historically grounded capability of mobility. However, structural economic constraints in the Irish labour market need to be seriously considered in understanding return aspirations and realities. These findings generate relevant policy ideas in terms of relations between “crisis” migrants and the state.     

Use of Overseas Migrants' Remittances to the Extended Family for Business Investment: A Research Note1

Abstract The extended family's role in economic improvement has been extensively debated. From a modernization theory perspective, the extended family is viewed as an institutional obstacle to economic progress, while a social capital perspective suggests that it is an “engine” insofar as it permits individuals to activate networks and pool resources beyond their own. This paper examines, from these perspectives, extended family influences on the use of remittances from transnational migrants. The research asks whether family influences are positive or negative and are more or less important than other factors in determining business investments. The research draws on interviews with 170 family heads in a small community in Pakistan. The results show that relatively little remittance income from family members working in the Middle East was channeled into business investments, despite government incentives offered to migrant households. Most of the extended family measures used in the research are statistically unimportant in explaining level of business investment. There thus appears to be little support for either modernization theory or social capital arguments on the role of the extended family. Of the five operationalized extended family dimensions only one was related to business investment, and that positively. However, “family” considerations are not irrelevant. The best predictors of business investment were a preexisting level of business exposure/experience within the family and whether or not the family head was aware of business investment opportunities. The results raise questions about the need to reconceptualize family influences beyond the formal dimensions of extended family structure.     

Family Theory and Research in Great Britain

This paper argues that the development of family research and theory in Great Britain has been strengthened by the fluidity of boundaries between various disciplines and methodolo- gies employed in the explanation of family life. Indeed, changes in the definition of family have been at the heart of the diversity and fluidity characteristic of the study of family. Studies of economic issues, gender and class distinctions, and family processes have involved vari- ous perspectives in research and theory building. Future directions for research suggest the need to explore linkages between British scholars and the wider community of family scholars, topics related to family morality or obligation, further development of qualitative and quantitative methods in family research, and continued exchanges between scholars and policy makers.     

Mapping civil society in the Republic of Ireland

This article maps civil society in the Republic of Ireland againstthe background of significant social and economic change andthe resurgence of government interest in fostering active citizenengagement in communities. The article provides an analyticaloverview of the substantial body of literature that has emergedon different aspects of civil society in the Republic of Ireland.Taking stock of the literature is both timely and important,as it reflects broader trends towards reflection on the roleof civil society in modern Ireland, and research has a leadingrole to play in guiding future strategies for civil society,actors. Mapping exercises contribute to our understanding ofthe dynamics of civil society, which is salient to the successof future policy and to identifying avenues for future research.     

Expanding “Irish Family” Repertoires: Exploring Gay Men's Experiences as Parents in the Republic of Ireland

ABSTRACT

This article explores gay men's parenting experiences and practices in order to seek insight into how gay men accept or challenge heterosexual family norms and how “family” is understood in the Irish context. It is based on small-scale qualitative research (interviews) with seven gay fathers. Despite the limited routes to parenthood for gay men in Ireland, the research findings indicate that the participants enjoy parenting and that they are motivated in their parenting practices. The gay fathers in this study are participative parents who have made significant decisions in their lives in order to prioritize their children's welfare. The diversity of family constellations and care arrangements that surround gay fathering in Ireland can expand family and care repertoires beyond the traditional biparent heterosexual norm. Gay fathers in Ireland appear to enjoy some security at the private familial level and in the responses from their families and communities, but they are keenly aware that nontraditional families are given less status in Irish society. Unlike other jurisdictions, gay parenting is not articulated by the gay fathers in this research as a rights-based argument. Instead, these Irish gay fathers are de facto activists who seek to “humanize” gay parenting.     

Uncertainty and the Rise of the Work‐Family Dilemma

Existing research argues that women's wages, consumerism, and changing attitudes dismantled the male bread‐winner system. Families' economic need is dismissed with the suggestion that mothers' rhetoric of “need” was a smoke screen to defend against social stigma for working mothers. Drawing on biennial data from 1965 to 1987, I suggest that consumptive certainty of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to economic uncertainty in the 1970s and beyond. Economic uncertainty provided impetus, legitimacy, and justification for young families to adopt new work‐family arrangements. Hence, economic uncertainty is conceptualized as a real circumstance that substantiates families' reasonable perceptions of need.     

Social capital in community,family, and work lives of Brazilian migrant parents in Ireland

The paper examines a recent phenomenon of Brazilian migration to Ireland using social capital as a framework of analysis. The analysis specifically makes use of Portes and Sensenbrenner's typology of social capital sources (1993; Portes, 1998): bounded solidarity, value introjection, reciprocity, and enforceable trust. The paper examines the processes and dynamics inhering within these sources of social capital to account for the differential experiences of family, work, and community life in Ireland. The absence or presence of social capital sources, it is argued, is important in the experience of settlement and adaptation, especially in exacerbating or countering the disadvantages facing migrants. The evidence used is based on recent research from qualitative interviews with Brazilian parents in a small town in the west of Ireland, and residing in Ireland for several years.     

Household technology: Implications for research and policy

If we are to have a fuller understanding of the social and economic context of the family, it is necessary to explore its technological environment. However, few scholars have examined the relationship between household technology and the functioning of the family. This article looks at which academic disciplines address household technology, what have been their findings, and why there is generally a paucity of research in this area. This article concludes with a discussion of the need for more research in household technology and the implications that this research may have for other family inquiry and for policy formation.Cathleen Zick, University of Utah, Richard Widdows, Purdue University, and Joan Ash, Central Washington University, provided helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.His research interests include household technology, consumer policy, and consumer protection.     

Gary Becker's Contributions to Family and Household Economics

Gary Becker's influence on the economics of the family has been pervasive. His ideas have dominated research in the economics of the family, shaping the tools we use, the questions we ask, and the answers we give. The foundational assumptions of Becker's economic approach to the family–maximizing behavior and equilibrium–as well as such primary auxiliary assumptions as household production and interdependent preferences, are now widely accepted not only by economists but also by family sociologists, demographers, and others who study the family. Yet the interesting and provocative implications of Becker's economic approach to the family do not follow from the foundational assumptions or from the primary auxiliary assumptions. Instead they depend on contested auxiliary assumptions to which neoclassical economics has no commitment and which lack empirical support. This paper discusses the crucial role of auxiliary assumptions in Becker's analysis of the family, first in the context of preferences, then in the context of household production, and finally in the context of family or household collective choice.     

Family Life Cycle,Extended Family Orientations,and Economic Aspirations as Factors in the Propensity to Migrate*

This paper provides a simultaneous examination of three noteworthy causes of migration. The influences of the nuclear family life cycle, orientation toward the extended family, and economic aspirations upon the propensity to migrate were analyzed for husbands and wives with relatives in the same community. Multivariate analysis of variance and stepwise regressions of the survey data were utilized in testing several hypotheses There was support for the ideas that (1) propensity to migrate declines during successive stages of the nuclear family life cycle, (2) propensity to migrate is inversely related to extended family orientations for husbands and wives with relatives in the same community, and (3) propensity to migrate is directly related to economic aspirations. It is suggested that future theory and research on the causes of migration need to focus on decision making in which the implications of the nuclear family life cycle can be further specified at the personal-psychological level.     

Rethinking Families and Community: The Color,Class, and Centrality of Extended Kin Ties1

Although a focus on marriage and the nuclear family characterizes much sociological research and social commentary, this article suggests that this focus ignores the familial experiences of many Americans, particularly those on the lower end of the economic spectrum for whom extended kin are central. African Americans and Latinos/as are more involved with kin than whites, but class trumps race in this regard: African Americans, Latinos/as, and whites with fewer economic resources rely more on extended kin than do those more affluent. The emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family may actually promulgate a vision of family life that dismisses the very social resources and community ties that are critical to the survival strategies of those in need. In contrast to those who have argued that marriage is the foundation of the community or even, in that overused phrase, the “basic unit of society,” this article suggests that marriage actually detracts from social ties to broader communities just as an emphasis on marriage and the nuclear family, to the exclusion of the extended family, distorts and reduces the power and reach of social policy.     

The future of the family as envisioned by young adults in Ireland

This article reports on young university students’ visions of the future of the family in Ireland, a country that has experienced dramatic economic fluctuations and extensive social change over recent decades. Using a text-based role-play method, we obtained 34 students’ written responses to two different scenarios pertaining to the family. Analysis of these texts indicates a strong orientation to a future where religion plays little or no role, and tolerance and freedom to choose govern family formation. The fear is expressed that some groups may be deprived of the freedom to marry and have children on grounds of economic inequality. Together, these two visions create a dialectic between more freedom (in choosing values/partners/whether to have children) and less freedom (due to inability to afford the ‘luxury’ of family life), reflective of the post-Catholic, economically exposed context. We show that young agents draw on social debates, traditions, their experiences and social positions in imagining futures of the family, illustrating interplay between structure and agency. It is interesting and significant that some social forces are seen as catalysts of both ‘stronger’ and ‘weaker’ families, in particular religion/the Church is used to explain both decline and flourishing of the family in the future.     

Social and Economic Aspects of the Family in an Italian Peripheral Area

From analyses carried out in the 70s, the family emerges as a system of economic management and a complement to Market and State. Besides having been of undeniable importance in terms of a more detailed perception of the family as a whole in Italian society, this result has also attributed greater possibilities of interpretation to the models of analysis of social reality itself. The choice of a specific territorial research dimension proved in addition to be a particularly determining factor for major accuracy in this analysis. This paper presents the principle results emerging from studies carried out on the family unit by the group of sociologists of the University of Ancona, whose research activities related to the social economic context of the region clearly underline the full ability of the family to play an active economic role in society.     

Family Sociology in a Small Academic Community:

This paper focuses on the development and dissemina- tion of knowledge about family in the small academic community in Israel. The definition of family in this paper is inclusive of all forms of nuclear and extended family and kinship networks. An extensive bibliography was developed as a basis for this review of the multiple disciplinary research on family in Israel. An examination of the development of family sociology in Israel suggests a marginalization of the field of research. Zionist ideology does not place the family in a prominent role in social change. Instead, the family is seen as passive recipient of change as it occurs in the larger society. Only in positions concerning the need to absorb immigrants or to blend exiles can the role of the family in shaping society be seen. The exotic or problematic families have been the subjects of family research in Israel, leaving the average Israeli family largely unstud- ied.