The household structure of second-generation children: an exploratory study of extended family arrangements

"Using data from the Children of Immigrants Survey, the antecedents of extended family arrangements among [U.S.] immigrant households with children are examined. The incidence and form of such arrangements, especially the presence of grandparents, are analyzed in relation to single parenthood, national origin, cultural assimilation, and socioeconomic variables. The findings serve to underscore the complexity of the correlates of extended family arrangements. While there is a relationship with single parenthood, more research is needed on the economic basis for the presence of relatives in the household. The analysis uncovered the need to also treat presence of grandparents as an independent variable, especially in the cultural assimilation of children of immigrants."

Family reunification: policies and issues

"International standards provide for protection of the family as the fundamental unit of society. However, a consequent right to family reunification for migrants is not sanctioned and continues to be resisted. This article reviews the formulation of the possibility for family reunification as provided for in international and regional standards and by migration policies. It argues that family separation, if inherent in some forms of migration, should not be institutionalized by migration policies and that state sovereignty is limited when dealing with human rights. More specifically it argues that labor migration, as currently developing in Asia, will require appropriate family reunification policies, because it will evolve into some form of settlement."

International labor migration and the family: some observations from Indonesia

This article addresses two dimensions of the complex interrelationship between the family and international labor migration in Indonesia: the role of the family in influencing labor movements out of Indonesia; and the consequences of this movement on family well-being, structure, and functioning. Research on this topic in Indonesia is highly limited due mainly to the recency of large scale international labor migration, inadequate data collection systems, a high incidence of undocumented migration, and failure of available research to be sensitive to family related issues. Against a rapidly changing economic and social situation, two major overlapping systems of migration have developed. The official system is focused strongly on the Middle East (although other Asian destinations are increasing in significance) and is dominated by female migrants. The undocumented system is much larger in volume, is focused upon Malaysia, involves more males than females, and is becoming permanent in some cases. The role, status, and experiences of women migrants in relation to their families (decision making, networks, remittances) are discussed with recommendations for other areas needing further research attention.

Determinants of migration values and expectations in rural Thailand

"Based on the argument that values and expectations underlie behavioral motives, this study explores the determinants of migration-related values and expectations, and whether they are intervening factors in explaining intentions to move among residents of rural northeast Thailand. Data from the 1992 National Migration Survey of Thailand identify four migration-related value-expectancy dimensions: income, affiliation, stimulation, and comfort. Logistic regression analysis shows that landownership and being married are associated with higher expectations, while a diversified village economy, a village economy development program, and a younger and extended household structure are associated with lower expectations of attaining valued goals in the local rural village. The analysis also shows that value-expectancy concepts are only partial intervening explanations for intentions to move or stay."

Socio-economic factors, personal illness control and infant and child mortality in Pakistan

"The hypothesis of the inverse relationship of socio-economic status of the parents and child infant mortality rates has been retested by introducing 'personal illness control' as an intervening variable. The data obtained in the 1984/1985 Pakistan Contraceptive Prevalence Survey have been used. The infant and child mortality rates have been estimated by using indirect techniques." The author finds that infant and child mortality rates are lower among upper socioeconomic groups, with mother's educational status being particularly important.

Subsistence crop deficit and family structure in Sub-Saharan Africa

The author seeks to provide demographic explanations for the current food crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. "In the present paper, we will consider the possibility that one of these [explanations] may lie in the way African families are structured, particularly in countries that are still in the first stage of the demographic transition. More specifically, we will examine the following two assumptions: the effects which the rural-urban migration...has on food production may be amplified by the way family labour is divided between the sexes and the different age groups; [and] lower mortality increases the size of the kin group, while rural-urban migration decreases the proportion of family members engaged in agricultural production, thus perturbing the distribution and consumption of subsistence foods."