Transformation of the Family in the Context of Migration: Family Practices and Internal Family Dynamics (Case Study: Migrants from Central Asia in Russian Cities)

Abstract

The family is traditionally regarded as one of the most stable social institutions. Yet migration seriously tests its stability. The experience of Central Asian migrants in Russia demonstrates that familiar ideas about family solidarity, the role of older generations, and gender hierarchies often break down when faced with a new situation. Labour migration transforms the economy and symbolic order of family relations. In the context of 'living at a distance,' ties with the extended patrilocal family weaken, while the nuclear family gains autonomy. Over time, transnational networks become less frequent, and trips back home are increasingly viewed as holidays rather than family reunions. Digital technologies, which might sustain contact, prove insufficient for reproducing emotional closeness. At the same time, however, migration generates new forms as well as disrupting existing ones. The forced redistribution of responsibilities and the need to solve problems together encourage more egalitarian, partnership-like relationships. Women, who were previously dependent on the family budget, now earn independently and thus gain agency. Deprived of the support of the extended family, men take on some of the 'women’s' tasks. As a result, practices emerge that would have been unthinkable in the region’s patriarchal culture just a short time ago. However, migration produces ambivalent effects. Some families become more cohesive, while others collapse under the strain of separation and everyday hardships. While some women gain new resources for independence, others face even stricter control. These contradictory processes reveal that migration does not fit neatly into the optimistic framework of 'transnationalism' or into an integrationist model of convergence with the host society. Instead, migrant families form hybrid patterns of relationships that cannot be explained by simply borrowing norms from either the sending or the receiving society. These patterns emerge within migration itself, through the daily practices that combine economic challenges, cultural differences, and the necessity of collective survival. Thus, the migrant family becomes a key space of social change, where trends of individualization and solidarity, tradition and innovation converge. It is in this contradictory experience that the main lines of post-­Soviet societal transformation lie.