Family Separation Among Migrants in Need of International Protection: Anticipation, Duration, and Agency

Abstract

Much remains unknown about how threat evasion—migration undertaken to escape threats to survival—occurs at the family level. With the phenomenon of threat evasion as our principal focus, we collected and analyzed 65 in-depth interviews and four focus groups ( N = 44) among a highly diverse sample of Latin American asylum-seekers and other migrants in need of international protection (MNP) in Costa Rica. Across MNP from diverse backgrounds, family separation emerged as one of the most prominent themes. Family separations were closely related to families’ evolving degrees of agency, which shaped variation in separations’ anticipation and duration. Conceptualizing anticipation and duration as two intersecting continuums, in this article, we describe different types of MNP family separation, link these types to differences and changes in families’ perceived control over the migration process, and illustrate their distinct emotional and practical implications. Our findings deepen understandings of MNP family separation, and at the same time, broaden theories of migration volition to demonstrate their applicability and implications at the family level.