La relazione a distanza: le famiglie transnazionali

Abstract

In Italy female migration processes meet a growing demand for domestic work and eldercare. Migrant women more often leave their children to the care of substitute caregiver in their country of origin in order to take care of other people in the new country. The economic reason for these career choices are at the origin of the formation of transnational families, characterized by a long-distance relationship, in particular the mother-children one. The increasing number of transnational families has caused growing interest in this topic in international literature. The following paper copes with a key question: to what extent, and under which conditions, can relationships of “proximity at distance” be experienced as the ones based on physical proximity? What is lost and what is retained in the bond between the dear ones once they cannot rely on physical co-presence? In relation to these questions, my reflection focuses on the existence of possible educational damages in children involved in a parental “long-distance” relationship, based more on the ethical dimension than the affective one.