Maintaining intergenerational solidarity in Mexican transnational families.

Abstract

This study explored how Mexican transnational families maintain intergenerational relationships among adult children in the U.S. and their parents in Mexico across borders using five dimensions of intergenerational solidarity theory. Interviews with 13 adult migrant children from Mexico and their parents were analyzed to explore their unique challenges and efforts to maintain intergenerational solidarity in a transnational context. The results showed that a great distance across national borders between generations, adult children‟s lack of documentation for freely visiting Mexico, and less accessibility between family members limited maintaining intergenerational relationships in a transnational context. In spite of these challenges, these transnational families made effort to maintain intergenerational solidarity by making contacts frequently, giving financial supports to parents, expressing love, support, and concern to each other, cooperating with siblings in Mexico for maintaining the intergenerational solidarity across borders. In this process, Mexican families‟ cultural norm that emphasized the importance of family provided strong motivation to maintain connections between adult children and their parents across borders.