Intergenerational ties across borders: a typology of the relationships between Polish migrants in the Netherlands and their ageing parents

Abstract

The question of how intergenerational relationships are maintained when family members reside in different countries has been gaining scholarly attention. However, those studies focus mostly on the so-called old migrant groups. The focus on the ‘new migrants’ from Central and Eastern Europe is still scarce. In this paper, we examine the transnational ties between Polish migrants in the Netherlands and their parents living in Poland. To identify types of transnational ties, we performed a latent class analysis using data on 970 men and women from the Families of Poles in the Netherlands (FPN) study. Following earlier studies on adult child–parent relationships in transnational context, we combined information on upward and downward emotional support, upward financial and practical support and frequency of contact (face-to-face and via communication technologies) and commitment to norms of filial obligation. Three types of transnational child–parent relationships were distinguished: harmonious, detached and obligatory. Multinomial regression analyses showed that that background characteristics of the adult children and their parents rather than the time elapsed since arrival in the Netherlands accounted for variability in relationship type. The relatively high probability of face-to-face contacts even in detached ties is characteristic of the strong commitment to family life among people of Polish descent.