Love and mobility among separated families – a pre study Distances to children in separated families – the case of Sweden Olle Stjernström Ph D, senior lecturer Department of social and economic geography Umeå University Sweden A long way from home…

The question… How do separated and reconstituted families move? Constrains? Opportunities? Strategies? Legality?

The pre-study… Cross sectional data from ASTRID All children in Sweden in the ages years 1990 and 2003 About 2 million children in each sample Parents Every individual in the data set is located to a 100-meter square

Data set… All children 1990 and 2003 –Year of birth –Sex –County and municipality –100-m square coordinates Parents –Year of birth –Sex –Location (100-m square –Disposal income –Education –Family status Children and parents are linked together via an ID even if they don’t live in the same household If children and parents lives in the same 100-m square = same household

Theoretical considerations and assumptions Time-geography –Social-physical constraints (Holm et al 1989, Åqvist 1992) Second demographic transition –(Kuijsten 1996, Lesthaege 1995) Theories regarding mobility strategies

Separated and reconstituted? Single persons Living together + children Marriage + children New relation/marriage New partner with or without children One-adult household with children (permanently or occasionally) DivorceSeparation

What about the children? What about the migration decisions in the new households? MotherFather Reconstituted household with a) children from former relationship(s) b) children in the current relationship Household A1Household A2 Household B1Household B2

Separations and divorces (in Sweden) year Numbers Divorces Separations

Divorces

Descriptive results, distance between children and parents

Distances continued…

Increase or decrease?

Distance to father 1990

Distance to father 2003

Distance to mother 1990

Distance to mother 2003

Regional differences in distance to father The longer distances are over-represented in the north of Sweden. Shorter distances are over-represented in larger cities and dense populated areas. Possible explanations –Labour market –Housing market –Daily commuting service –The size of the local labour-market

Education level among the fathers and distance to children Fathers with low education tend to move further away from the children than fathers with high education. Possible explanations –Low income levels for low educated fathers reduces the alternatives. –Higher educated has better opportunities to have flexible work days (weeks). –Higher educated develops alternative mobility strategies like weekly commuting. –Higher educated have better opportunities on a local labour market.

Chain reactions and migration (or big family syndrome) Household 1 M+3 kids F+ 1 kid Household 2 M+1 kid F+3 kids Household 3 M+ 2 kids F+ 1 kid Household 4 M F+ 2 kids Household 5 M+ 1 kid A migration decision in one of the households will directly affect all the other households daily life

Implications and conclusions About or 25% of the children lives with only one parent (2003). One-adult or reconstituted households. About 36% of all children in the age of 17 lives with one parent (2003) children experienced a divorce or separation during % of the separated fathers lives close to their children (50 km) in Having children in another household may affect the migration mobility. Low education among separated parents tend to extend the distances between parents and children The size and structure of the local labour market affects the distance between separated parents and children

Further studies… Yes! A longitudinal study –Life course events –Separations and migration in focus Regression models Thank You!