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This study is a detailed exploration of how families cope both individually and as structures with the stresses of moving to a new culture. Through rich interviews conducted over a period of two years, Mary Haour-Knipe shows the processes of change and adjustment at work. As the world of work becomes increasingly a global one, employees of governments, companies and non-commercial organisations increasingly find themselves obliged to live abroad for years at a time, uprooting their families from jobs, schools and support networks in the process. The author's findings will be of interest to students of wider issues of migration and to those who study the family under pressure.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface(p. ix)
• 1 Introduction(p. 1)
• The study site(p. 1)
• Theory(p. 4)
• Methodology(p. 7)
• How the book unfolds(p. 10)
• 2 Who are they, and why do they move?(p. 14)
• Who are they?(p. 15)
• Why do they move?(p. 16)
• The relation between work and moving(p. 18)
• The decision to move(p. 28)
• Discussion(p. 32)
• 3 What is stressful about moving abroad?(p. 51)
• Stress around the move itself(p. 55)
• Hassles as a threat to feelings of adult competence(p. 58)
• Language(p. 60)
• The comfortable known-ness of things, and what is taken for granted(p. 63)
• Not knowing the rules, threats to identity(p. 65)
• Initial isolation and loneliness: 'Nobody would know if I left for three days'(p. 68)
• 4 Strains on families(p. 71)
• Two careers or one?(p. 74)
• Partners not 'adjusting well'(p. 78)
• 'Duty travel' and strains it may cover(p. 81)
• Different values(p. 90)
• 5 Coping(p. 96)
• Event and meaning, comprehensibility and manageability(p. 96)
• Family sense of coherence(p. 98)
• Coping with the stresses of moving to a new culture(p. 99)
• Discussion(p. 112)
• 6 Giving and receiving social support(p. 116)
• Relationships with extended families(p. 116)
• Social support over long distances(p. 119)
• Support coming from the new place(p. 121)
• Gaining control over social relations(p. 123)
• Mobilising social support(p. 130)
• Social support in Geneva and in 'hardship posts'(p. 133)
• 7 Social support from within the family(p. 138)
• Families operating together(p. 138)
• High family 'co-ordination', meeting people and family separations(p. 139)
• Low family 'co-ordination' and family members in difficulty(p. 143)
• Imbalances of authority, encountering different values(p. 145)
• Discussion(p. 154)
• 8 Effects on children(p. 156)
• School-aged children(p. 158)
• Rounger children(p. 162)
• Adolescents and older children(p. 164)
• Discussion(p. 168)
• 9 The effect of the move: two case studies(p. 170)
• The Foster family(p. 170)
• The Wood family(p. 180)
• Discussion(p. 186)
• 10 Families two years later(p. 190)
• Coping with issues around two careers(p. 190)
• Phases of adaptation(p. 194)
• Families' reflections on the effects of migration(p. 198)
• Towards explaining the effects of the move on families(p. 201)
• 11 Summary and conclusions(p. 209)
• Summary(p. 209)
• The influence of SOC and of family 'co-ordination'(p. 215)
• Long-term effects?(p. 220)
• Expatriation, stress, coping and families(p. 221)
• Stress and families(p. 223)
• References(p. 225)
• Appendix(p. 228)
• Index(p. 237)

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CHOICE Review

This is a three-year longitudinal study of 28 upper-middle-class North American families who migrated to Geneva, Switzerland in the 1980s. These relatively privileged emigrants were managers and professionals who worked for corporations, the foreign service, and nongovernmental organizations. The author examines the stresses of moving abroad: language barriers, housing, the everyday challenges of adjusting to a foreign culture, social isolation from the loss of friends and family, financial strains in adjusting to the high cost of living, and marital strains when one spouse sacrifices to support the career advancement of another. How well families cope and learn to give and receive social support depends upon the forging of the household as a cooperative, "high-coordination" group with a collective spirit of resiliency, flexibility, and creative problem solving. Aaron Antonovsky's idea that individuals and families formulate cognitive, emotional, and existential orientations to the world and a "sense of coherence" that renders stressful crises comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful provides the theory that explains successful adjustments by moving families. The extensive use of case histories and interviews explores the painful ordeal for families who succumbed to crises and the narratives of those whose sense of coherence and coordination were triumphant. J. H. Rubin Saint Joseph College