We are delighted to announce the launch of our exciting new research project, Transnational Families in Europe: Care, Inequalities and Wellbeing.
This innovative comparative research project will investigate the relationships between caring responsibilities, inequalities and wellbeing among different generations of transnational families in the UK, Spain, France and Sweden. The COVID-19 crisis has brought into stark relief the care deficits many European countries are confronting as ageing societies, with low-paid women migrants often filling gaps in formal care provision, while their own caring responsibilities for kin are often overlooked. Demographic shifts due to population ageing and increased international migration are leading to major changes in the provision of care, social protection and intergenerational responsibilities. These transformations may exacerbate existing inequalities facing migrant families with care needs.
This research will compare migrant carers’ and transnational families’ experiences within four partner countries with contrasting welfare models, migration regimes and post-colonial legacies. Using a multi-sited family-focused ethnographic and participatory action research methodology, we will work with partner organisations to train migrant peer researchers and support them to undertake research with families, building trust and capacity within communities.
The project consortium brings together an interdisciplinary team of leading professors and early career researchers based in the UK (University of Reading, University of Leeds), Spain (University of A Coruña (UDC), France (University of Aix Marseille, CNRS), and Sweden (Malmö University).
The project is one of six projects funded through the Joint Programming Initiative More Years Better Lives programme, Equality and Wellbeing across Generations call. The call aims to improve understandings of how demographic change is altering the implicit contract between generations and how policy can ensure that change reduces inequality instead of increasing it.
For more information: read about the project and our partners here.
Contact: Ruth Evans, Email: r.evans@reading.ac.uk; Twitter: @DrRuth_Evans
Please tweet using #TransnationalFamilies
