24 June – 03 July 2024: TraFaDy International Summer School

The summer school “Transnational childhoods in Europe” organised by the WG2 in collaboration with IOM at Odisee Campus Schaarbeek, gathered students, professionals, researchers and stakeholders for nine days of intense exchanges. Participants came from Albania, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland. The multiple formats of the presentations – (interactive) lectures, documentary screenings, (creative) workshops, field trips, panels and student projects – provided a stimulating setting to reflect on and discuss transnational childhoods from multiple analytical angles.

The presentations focused on the involvement of children in research; the relationships between children and their siblings, peers, parents and grandparents; well-being and inclusion pathways of refugee families; social work; the new EU-pact on migration and asylum; child development and support; family reunification.

The variety of activities organised during the summer school created a prolific and interactive ground for exchanges. What the participants liked the most was its multi-field mark. Gathering students, social workers, researchers, teachers, third sector and policy actors, the participants had the opportunity to understand how different stakeholders approach and deal with “transnational childhoods in Europe”. One relevant aspect that emerged on the matter is the diverse hold on family, ranging from a restrictive to a more open approach. For instance, migration authorities have a rather narrow understanding of family, mostly conceived in terms of the nuclear family: parents, minor children and non-self-sufficient adults. Experiences in the field, from e.g. researchers and NGOs, provide instead a more nuanced picture of what a family might look like: grandparents, aunts and uncles, adoptive relatives, cousins, extended care givers, just to cite a few examples. Researchers, practitioners in the field and policy makers can thus enter in fruitful dialogue to increase the awareness on and recognise the variety of family configurations constituting kins, and homes, around the world.

On the program

Families that are geographically dispersed due to economic or forced migration; families in which a member works abroad almost continuously; families in which a (mostly) young person lives abroad for a longer period for study or internship,… Obviously, the realities of transnational families are very different. By attending this summer school, participants will get an improved understanding of the growing, rapidly changing phenomenon and dynamics of transnational families.

The theoretical basis in lectures and workshops were offered by an internationally composed team of specialized psychologists and social scientists. Field visits of organizations working with transnational families, refugee families and children confronted the participants with relevant methodologies and how to apply them in this context.

Target Group

• Undergraduate students (2nd, 3rd and 4th grade) of social education who want to develop a broader view on social work and counselling work with transnational families, both on a theoretical and methodological level. All students participating, will get 3 ECTS-points. In order to receive them, all parts of the programme are mandatory.
• (Young) professionals, early career investigators and practitioners from social
  work and welfare organizations.
• Researchers in the field of transnational families and the changing dynamics.

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