Where have all the fathers gone? Remarks on feminist research on transnational fatherhood

Abstract

Research on transnational relations has been increasing over the last two decades. Since 1997, when the notion of ‘transnational motherhood’ was investigated by Avila and Hondagneu-Sotelo, many scholars have considered how parents arrange their parenthood across borders. This article explores how social scientists examine male migrants as fathers. We review empirical work on the migration of men and explore how transnational fatherhood has been examined, understood, and utilized in feminist research. We ask ‘Where have all the fathers gone?’ and evaluate feminist conceptualizations of transnational fatherhood over the last two decades. We organize our discussion around three stages of feminist research on transnational migrant fatherhood. These stages are: (1) discovery of unseen transnational fatherhood, (2) conceptualization of breadwinning transnational fatherhood, and (3) shift to conceptualization of caring transnational fatherhood. These three stages depict the changing content of the notions of transnational fatherhood. The article contributes to current research on transnational families and feminist research on migrant men. We show how gendered norms and stereotypes prevail in migration research and the ways in which they are inscripted in how scholars approach the male migration experience.