Intergenerational Transnational Support Services: The example of parents and adult children (TransCare).
Integration Department
Project head: Dr. David Schiefer
A central feature of family social relationships is mutual support and care. Within the overall family structure, the parent-child relationship is particularly important. Parents accompany and support the development of their children throughout their lives, but adult children also support their parents themselves. If one's own parents live abroad, it can become a particular challenge for their adult children to support them. On the one hand, in many (though not all) cases there are greater distances between them and their parents, and on the other hand, both live in different countries, each with its own regulations, economic situations, and government support systems, but also different norms and expectations regarding family support. Nevertheless, research shows that intergenerational support in its many forms is practiced even when parents and their adult children live apart across national borders. In Germany, this phenomenon has been studied only sporadically. To what extent and in what form people in Germany support their parents living abroad, what effects this has on their lives, and to what extent state support structures are effective here, is largely unknown. Yet transnational intergenerational family constellations are no longer a rarity in Germany. The project therefore investigates the extent, forms, and consequences of intergenerational transnational support among adults living in Germany with at least one parent abroad. For this purpose, participants of the Online Access Panel of the DeZIM-Institute who have parents abroad will be interviewed about their support and other relevant content (e.g. use of state assistance for caregiving tasks).
Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Institutional funding)