Financial Transfers Between Adult Children and Parents in Migrant Families From The Former Soviet Union

In: Journal of comparative family studies, Band 44, Heft 6, S. 783-796

Abstract

This paper examines patterns of financial transfers between adult children and their parents in migrant families from the former Soviet Union in Germany. Data from the survey on Ageing of Soviet Union Migrants (ASUM) 2011 allows to compare the exchange of financial transfers in migrant families with elderly parents living in Germany as opposed to migrant families with elderly parents living in the country of origin. Results indicate a substantial number of transnational child-parent relationships among ethnic German migrants from the former Soviet Union. As to the exchange of resources, while financial transfers typically flow from parents to adult children if migrant's parents live in Germany, this is not the case in transnational child-parent relationships, here financial transfers flow more often from adult children in Germany to the elderly parents abroad. We interpret these different patterns in the direction of giving and receiving financial transfers between adult children and parents in transnational or non-transnational relationships as differences in the welfare systems which guarantee different levels of provision for old age.