Living apart together across borders; how Ghanaian couples form, transform, or dissolve in the context of international migration

This thesis provides insight into the role of international migration in how Ghanaian couples form, transform or dissolve. It investigates if, when and where families live geographically separate from each other and if, when and where they reunify. Employing a transnational approach, this dissertation incorporated the notion that migrants are embedded in multiple contexts. This means that: 1) the contexts of the sending and receiving countries are taken into account, 2) couples that did not migrate are included, and 3) the findings are contextualized by considering the cultural and familial norms of the sending country. This thesis demonstrates that the sending country context as well as the receiving country context affects the way in which families live transnationally or reunify. Comparing migrants and non-migrants showed that international migration shapes the transnational family, and it also reveals that some types of living arrangements are related to socio-cultural practices in the sending country, which emphasizes the importance of taking the sending country context into account when studying processes related to international migration. At the same time, restrictive policies and different normative contexts in receiving countries also influence the formation and transformation of transnational family life.