Return Migration of Romanian Transnational Families: Care and Remittance Concerns

Abstract

Romanian migration to Southern European countries like Italy or Spain emerged during the 1990s, led mainly by young couples aspiring to find jobs abroad and achieve economic independence from their families. When the economic crisis erupted in Spain in 2008, the fragility and tensions of Romanian intra-familial relations between transnational family members’ became more visible. Many Romanian couples found themselves in precarious jobless situations in which they had to redefine their migration strategy and consider return to Romania. This chapter traces transnational family rearrangements as they leave Spain and migrate back to their country of origin, entailing the reorganisation of care practices and cessation of foreign remittances within the extended transnational family. Considering how the organisation of family care impacts on Romanian couples’ migration projects offers a novel and more nuanced perspective on the causes of return migration, extending beyond the return migration literature’s main emphasis on economic or legal constraints. Our methodological approach combines analysis of secondary statistical data sources with multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in both countries.