Emigration is a 'family business': Lessons from South Africa

摘要

This paper will discuss the importance of looking at the process of emigration from a systemic perspective and especially focus on the experiences of those staying behind. Some of the findings from a research study exploring the impact of emigration on family life in South Africa will be highlighted.Emigration involves uprooting from all that is familiar as well as the loss of significant relationships and places. Uprooting can be linked to an ecological perspective of the social world where all organisms are in reciprocal relationships with each other. Therefore if you remove one system from the environment it will consequently have an impact on those surrounding it. We can also speak of "social ecologies" (Neimeyer, 2000, p 267) consisting of human systems which are connected in the form of social communities. These are deeply affected when pivotal relationships depart (Neimeyer, 2000). However much of the literature focuses on the experiences of the people who emigrate while little has been written on the psychological effects of those who are left behind and whose world is changed forever.