Resilience among Nigerian transnational parents in the Netherlands: a strength-based approach to migration and transnational parenting

Abstract

In this article, we adopt a strength-based approach to transnational parenting. Recent studies have shown that not all transnational parents have a negative sense of well-being. Here, we explore parental resilience over a lifespan to understand how mothers and fathers alleviate the strain of spatial separation from their children. Having established from a quantitative study on the same group that neither men nor women necessarily suffer emotionally from separation from their children, we report the findings of a qualitative study on 18 Nigerian men and women in the Netherlands. We look at the strategies and resources that parents employ to overcome the challenges of migration and transnational parenting, to forge a sense of identity and belonging in a migratory context, to ‘do family’ while spatially separated, to deal with the difficult life events associated with migration, and to maintain a sense of agency amid stringent migration regulations. By revealing the importance of cultural and individual resources in fostering resilience, the contribution of our study is to the literature on the influence of structural factors in the promotion of well-being.