Potent connections: European transnational families and times of crises

This postdoctoral research project, funded by Le Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), aims at developing a novel orientation for the study of mobility and transnational family life that builds on Jennifer Mason’s (2018) groundbreaking work on affinities that she defines as potent connection in personal life. Set in the context where people face growing uncertainty related to major transnational crises such as the recent pandemic, the climate crisis and new wars outbreaking in Europe and its vicinity, the study investigates EU migrants’ multidimensional experiences of connection with the people and places that matter to them. It seeks to understand how such potent forces shape not only their experience of transnational living, but also more concretely their movements and lives in conditions of free mobility.