Economic, class, and gender inequalities in parental migration

In: (Post)transformational migration: inequalities, welfare state, and horizontal mobility, S. 151-173

Abstract

"The author would like to show the complexity of migration decision-making among parents, on both the macro and the micro levels. Their motivation is often directed toward economic goals. The economy, in particular job availability in the local and host markets is crucial, and it gives rise to significant regional differences, for instance in the proportion of mothers in the migration stream. However other features of parental migration, like the length, structure (single parent/both the parents' departure) and forms of childcare during absence of parents do not depend only on economical factors, but also on social and cultural ones. The main aim is to identify regional and status inequalities that influence characteristics of parental migration. On theoretical level rational choice theory approach with interpretivist cultural analysis will be combined. The family is a set of individuals acting under the influence of a complex of factors. The combined influence of these factors, including those of the economic sphere (i.e. unemployment, income differences), the political sphere (i.e. access to the external job markets), the social sphere (migration networks, cooperation within the extended family), and the cultural sphere (cultural aims and means) is reinforced by social inequalities and shapes the structure of parental migration." (author's abstract)