Migration, family separation and caregiving across borders: A multi-sited ethnography of transnational child-raising arrangements between Ghana and The Netherlands

Migrant parents cannot always migrate with their children. This dissertation examined how the contexts of the home and host countries influenced transnational family dynamics. Ethnographic research among Ghanaian migrant parents in the Netherlands and the children they left behind in Ghana reveals that cultural norms around shared parenting facilitate translational family relationships and mitigate negative effects on individual family members, while at the same time making traditional practices more challenging. The legal and economic status of migrant parents and the options for family reunification also determine how transnational parenting is practised and what the consequences are for individual family members and the stability of the family unit as a whole.