Divided families in Spain

Miguel Requena, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
David Reher, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Maria Sanchez-Dominguez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

International migratory movements often produce at least temporarily the reality of divided families that are located in at least two different places. The literature on divided or transnational families and family reunification movements has shown how the socio-demographic determinants in origin and the socio-economic and institutional factors in destination drive these processes. Assuming that migratory movements are due, at least in some measure, to specifically familial dynamics and strategies, in this paper we are interested in exploring whether other elements associated to country of origin and to the relationship between country of origin and country of destination have a discernible influence on the family results of migration and on the separation and subsequent reunification of the families of immigrants. This complex set of elements builds the playing field where migratory decisions are taken. The Spanish case, with the sudden explosion of an intense migratory flows between 2000 and 2007, and a very significant number of Latin American migrants arrived at the country during these years, is a particularly suitable scenario to investigate this phenomenon. The empirical analysis will be mainly based on the National Immigrant Survey of Spain (2007)