Enforced transnationalism

This chapter focuses on displaced people’s transnational family lives in the context of long-term separation. As refugees often cannot flee together, some family members leave for certain countries, whilst others stay behind – be it in the country of origin or of first reception – at least temporarily. If family reunification fails, separation from family members can continue for an indefinite time. Even though many manage to ‘do family’ across a distance, many separated families experience entrenched periods of ‘enforced transnationalism’. Drawing on the figurational approach and recent literature on protracted displacement and transnational family life, the chapter conceptualizes refugees’ family constellations that stretch across multiple countries. Based on empirical research in Germany with refugees from Syria and Eritrea, we distinguish three distinct transnational family figurations: the reunited nuclear family, the involuntary separated family, and the transnationally extended family. The chapter argues that refugees’ transnational lives are not only an inevitable side effect of cross-border mobility, but also an (un)intended consequence of multiple mobility barriers, in particular systematically upheld barriers to family reunification. By employing the concept of family figurations in displacement, this chapter provides a practice-oriented understanding of family lives and a power-sensitive analysis of the politics of family separation.