Strategies of Transnacional Care in Contexts of Authoritarian Regimes

In contexts of authoritarian regimes or armed conflicts, the transnational dynamics between migrants and their families face restrictions that exacerbate inequalities and jeopardize the sustainability of care networks. States, through their policies and regulations, directly influence the strategies of transnational families, which conditions their capacity to meet the care needs throughout the life cycle of their members, as well as the types of sacrifices and emotional and material costs they must bear, both for the migrants and for those who remain behind. However, there is still a lack of international research that addresses the perspective of mobility barriers related to the institutional contexts specific to the societies or countries of origin. This project seeks to expand the analytical framework of transnational studies by proposing a more comprehensive conceptualization that captures the multidimensional effects of authoritarian regimes on transnational family networks. With this objective, the research will analyze the configurations of transnational care for migrants residing in Spain, whose dynamics are marked by authoritarian regimes and disruptive contexts of origin. To this end, three specific cases have been selected for study: Cameroon, Iran, and Nicaragua. The following specific objectives are intended to be addressed: OE1. To analyze, for each of the national groups studied, the specific barriers associated with transnational care in the context of authoritarian regimes. OE2. To identify and categorize family arrangements in terms of transnational care strategies (TCS) adopted by migrants and their non-migrant family members to manage challenges and obstacles, paying special attention to factors such as gender relations, family structure, and socio-economic position. OE3. To evaluate the impact of the Transnational Care Strategies (TCS) developed in disruptive contexts on the well-being of migrants and their families, as well as on the formation of a transnational community and the development of a collective sense of belonging. OE4. To formulate practical and policy recommendations both at national and international levels, with a gender perspective, aimed at facilitating the exchanges of migrants who daily experience distance and separation from their loved ones, in order to mitigate the negative effects of disruptive contexts of origin on transnational care networks. The research will be conducted using a qualitative methodological design that combines various data generation and analysis techniques, such as sociobiographical interviews, focus groups, and digital ethnography. The triangulation of these techniques offers various theoretical and methodological possibilities for addressing the configurations of transnational care, particularly taking into account the institutional contexts of origin, intersecting with other factors that also determine the resources necessary for the circulation of care linked to the consideration of gender and intra-family relations, the socio-economic position of families, and the institutional context in the destination country.