Configuration of Fatherhood in Migratory Contexts

• In Event: Gendered Migration and Displacement

Abstract

This study argues that parents modify their way of thinking and exercising fatherhood in migratory contexts. The question that gives rise to the investigation is the following: How does international migration affect the exercise and meanings of fatherhood? I analyze this phenomenon through the theoretical lens of Margaret Archer. In methodological terms, this study used qualitative methods to understand in greater depth both the perceptions and experiences of fatherhood and the structures and functions that underlie the action of the father. Fieldwork was carried out in the city of Santiago de Chile. 40 interviews were conducted with migrant and native fathers. The findings of this research are as follows. 1. Migrant parents can modify the fatherhood structures they inherited when they increase their socioeconomic status. 2. Migrant parents can change the fatherhood structures when children reject the contents of socialization that they promote and adopt the socialization content of the dominant culture. The findings of this research will help to fill the gap within this subfield of migration and fatherhood in contexts of developing countries. My results, based on Archer's theory, will make possible the recognition of the properties of fatherhood structures, and father`s agency in specific relational contexts. Finally, with this research it is confirmed that fatherhood can be understood as the inheritance of a structure that is continually agencied by men, to generate new structures of fatherhood for the following generations.

Author

• Verónica Cano, Universidad de los Andes