Authors

Discussion

Migration and living across borders have become a common experience of Lithuanians since the state’s accession to the EU in 2004. Consequently, transnational families (parents/ children living separately) have come to constitute a significant category in the typology of family life. The authors argue that global migration is contextual dimension that drive transformations in Lithuanian society. By exploring the migration-related experiences of different age groups in Lithuania, the authors examine the ways in which migration affects the conceptualization of family life by young people born from 1980 to 2000, and whether this mobility experience sets up the strategies of young people’s lives on the move.

To do so, the authors build on the concept ‘imaginary’ developed by Carol Smart to analyse personal life and the data from the three research studies (based on two representative surveys implemented in 2013 and 2018 and a quota survey from 2018) carried out within the research projects, funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. In examining ‘imaginary’, the authors reveal non-institutional conceptualizations of family life across borders and the social reception of parents/ children living separately. The authors demonstrate how migration experience and possibilities of personal decision-making practices once having reached adulthood shape emerging definitions of families living across borders and affect the mobility strategies of young people.