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Uncertainty and risk became key concepts in social sciences in the past half century (Douglas, 1986; Lupton, 2013; Stalker, 2003). The post-modern world was labeled as a risk society (Beck, 1992), since constant reassessment of the situations in which one finds oneself, increases one’s knowledge, but decreases certainty (Voicu, 2005). A world of liquid migration (Engbersen, 2018) overlaps with this uncertain society, and things become even more complicated when transnational parenthood (Ducu, 2018; Mazzucato, Dito, 2018; Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, 2013) is involved. We focus on challenges faced by Romanian transnational parents and document their situation using a set of ten in-depth interviews carried out in 2020-2021 in the UK and Germany with Romanian immigrants. We argue that the complicated situation of transnational parents is the byproduct of taking risky decisions in a risky world, and in a risky era, marked by global stressors, such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. Risk is seen through the lenses of uncertainty, and as a factor of interest for social workers (Carling, Menjívar, Schmalzbauer, 2012; Leifsen, Tymczuk, 2012; Smeeton, O’Connor, 2020) Observing practices of transnational parenthood, permits the assessment of the situation of transnational families in terms of risk and uncertainty. We consider to which extent the latter are manageable, and what are the implications in terms of potential demand for support from welfare providers.
Keywords: Transnational parenthood, Romanian migrants, uncertainty, risk
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