The Scattered Family

Parenting, African Migrants, and Global Inequality

Cati Coe

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780226072388, 9780226072241
• eBook ISBN: 9780226072418
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Estudios de los pueblos negros

Today's unprecedented migration of people around the globe in search of work has had a widespread and troubling result: the separation of families. In The Scattered Family, Cati Coe offers a sophisticated examination of this phenomenon among Ghanaians living in Ghana and abroad. Challenging oversimplified concepts of globalization as a wholly unchecked force, she details the diverse and creative ways Ghanaian families have adapted long-standing familial practices to a contemporary, global setting.

Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, Coe uncovers a rich and dynamic set of familial concepts, habits, relationships, and expectations—what she calls repertoires—that have developed over time, through previous encounters with global capitalism. Separated immigrant families, she demonstrates, use these repertoires to help themselves navigate immigration law, the lack of child care, and a host of other problems, as well as to help raise children and maintain relationships the best way they know how. Examining this complex interplay between the local and global, Coe ultimately argues for a rethinking of what family itself means. 

INDEX

Abiriw, fosterage in, 66 (table 2), 79

Abokobi, fosterage in, 209n4

Abu-Lughod, Lila, 34

Aburi: migration from, 72–73, 208n6, 208n11; pawning in, 51

Accra: domestic service in, 78–79; as former residence of international migrants, 33, 92, 175, 178, 211n7; fosterage in, 68, 76, 79–80; households, 209n10, 213n1 (chap. 6); as migration destination, 49, 72, 73; as place of work, 58, 68, 72, 107, 166, 176; as residence for children of international migrants, 103, 163–64, 166, 169. See also urbanization

adolescents: American, depiction of, 128, 131–35, 139, 143–44; and childcare, 77–78, 132–33; and corporal punishment, 76; and domestic service, 77–79, 85, 120, 166, 171; and gender, 133; Ghanaian, depiction of, 128–29, 135; and migration, 88, 125; pregnancy among, 74, 128, 133, 212n3; sent to Ghana, 127, 133, 135, 137, 197

adoption, international, 108–12, 211n16, 211n17

African-Americans: and African immigrants, 139, 144–45, 147–51; and fostering, 9; Great Migration of, 9; stereotypes of, 17, 139, 149

African migrants: and African-Americans, 139, 144–45, 147–51; and Asian-Americans, 150; and Central American immigrants, 147; and changes in U.S. immigration law, 92–93; education of, 116–17; and gender relations, 26, 122; income of, 116–17; in Italy, 214n11; and language issues, 137, 148; and Latinos, 147–48; and marital conflicts, 26, 122, 211n8; and racialization in United States, 148–49, 150; residence of, 207n9, 211n2; in South Africa, 213n3 (chap. 6); and South Asian immigrants, 147, 187; and trade networks, 26

Ahearn, Laura, 17

Akropong: and changes in fosterage, 61–85; and cocoa farming, 52, 69; disfavored by international migrants, 163–65; and domestic service, 77–79, 85; fosterage prevalence in, 66; grandmother fosterage in, 57, 70, 73–76, 161; houses in, 38, 39; as multiethnic town, 32; schools in, 52, 66, 70, 107, 163

Akuapem: and cocoa farming, 50–54, 208n11; and domestic service, 78–79; description of, 42; fosterage prevalenc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction. A Scattering of Families
• One. A History of Family Reciprocities: Material Exchanges between the Generations in Akuapem
• Two. Distributed Parenting in the Twentieth Century
• Three. International Migration and Fosterage: How US Immigration Law Separates Families
• Four. Work and Child Care in the United States
• Five. Borderwork: A Repertoire Made Conscious
• Six. The Dilemmas of Fostering the Children of Transnational Migrants
• Seven. Children’s Expectations of Care: Love, Money, and Living Together
• Conclusion. Barriers and Openings
• Notes
• References
• Index