Paper short abstract:

This presentation will focus on the relation between mobility and family structure. Based on a historical case study of one family, it will show how mobility changes the identity of the family as a whole, and the identity of its individual members.

Paper long abstract:

The internal structure of the family as a socio-cultural institution has changed over the last decades. Because of the multitude of family forms in contemporary European societies, the definition of 'family' became rather centred around its function, not around its form. What remains interesting is the question of things and events that led to this transformation.

This presentation will discuss a selected set of egodocuments research, in the form of one family case study. Although Kazimierz and Maria Niedenthal were both born in Lviv, Poland, in the beginning of the 20thC, they were raised in the model of 19thC upbringing. In the 1930s, they decided to migrate to Peru as settlers. Due to this decision, their life and the life of their daughters underwent substantial changes, completely reshaping the structure of their family.

Basing my presentation on this case study, I will demonstrate how mobility may reshape family structure by changing the identity of the family (from a 19thC model to a transnational family) and the identity of its members(from Lviv Intelligentsia to settlers and then into immigrants).Secondly, I will illustrate how all of these transformations worked out in the case of Kazimierz's and Maria's daughters, particularly Cecylia, who may be described as an early example of a Third Culture Kid.