The role of the imagination in transnational relating: The case of Nigerian children and their migrant parent in Ireland

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Date
2020-05-04
Authors
Veale, Angela
Andres, Camilla
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SAGE Publications
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Abstract
This paper explores the role of imagination in the lives of Nigerian transnational children and their migrant parent in Ireland. Migration of a parent is a rupture in a child's life that triggers imaginary processes that are real in their developmental consequences. Following Zittoun and Gillespie, imagination is a process that generates a disjunction from the person's experience of the "real" world, and uncouples and loops out before it eventually comes back to the actual experience. For the left-behind child, this imaginative loop remains "open" as parents return becomes extended in time. The dilemmas for the migrant parent and child are explored.
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Keywords
Migration , Families , Life , Work , Imagination , Mobility , Immobility , Transnational children , Transnational families , Ireland , Nigeria
Citation
Veale, A. and Andres, C. (2020) 'The role of the imagination in transnational relating: The case of Nigerian children and their migrant parent in Ireland', Culture and Psychology. doi: 10.1177/1354067X20922136
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© 2020, the Authors. Published by SAGE Publications. Reuse of this article is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.