This review explores the short- and long-term implications of migration for families in the context of HIV and AIDS, focusing mainly on sub-Saharan Africa. Studies carried out in southern Africa found that the poorest of households were more likely to dissolve than to migrate within the region as a result of illness. An American longitudinal study of immigrant youth showed up another striking pattern: both family capital and community conditions are critically important in orienting the course of the lives of immigrant young people. Migration may then start a virtuous or a vicious spiral for families and for children: it can have disastrous consequences - emotional distancing, undesired destruction of the family unit, physical and mental health problems, dropping out of school, alienation, drug use and prison stays - a whole series of problems that may or may not be directly due to the migration but that are certainly interlinked with it. Or migration may have positive consequences for families and for children, positively changing roles and responsibilities within families, bringing increased economic wellbeing, educational opportunities and social capital; increased autonomy, learning, and pride in achievements. In sum migration can bring the potential strength of transnational identities and build resilience.
©August 2008
