Shifting Geographical Configurations in Migrant Families: Narratives of Children Reunited with their Mothers in Italy Paola Bonizzoni, Luisa Leonini Abstract: The article explores the experiences of separation and reunification by children of migrant mothers in Italy by analysing 32 qualitative interviews conduct- ed with adolescents who had rejoined their mothers at different points in their lives. We show that international migration causes children to face multiple shifts in the configuration of their family ties due to the geographical dislocations and re-loca- tions to which these ties are subject. The way in which children interpret and adjust to these changes depends on factors such as the timing of the family migration process and the frequency of transnational family practices, which are affected by more or less abrupt discontinuities in family life after their mothers’ and their own departure. Keywords: Transnational motherhood · Transnational childhood · Family reunification · Female migration 1 Introduction Globalisation and the intensified flows of goods and people across national borders have prompted research on the role played by space in family and intimate life, especially in regard to care and parenting relationships (Carling et al. 2012; Glick 2010; Mazzucato/Schans 2011; Bonizzoni/Boccagni , forthcoming). As a significant number of studies have shown, the migratory process often involves repeated and prolonged separations of the members of the extended family as well as of spouses, parents and children (Boccagni 2012; Dreby 2006; Fresnoza-Flot 2009; Hondagneu- Sotelo/Avila 1997; Horton 2009; Parreñas 2005a; Whitehouse 2009). Transnational families therefore emerge as a new category of analysis, which further complicates the plurality of contemporary family forms while also confirming the lack of cor- relation between family and household addressed by most contemporary social research. Comparative Population Studies – Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft Preprint (Date of release: 19.06.2013) © Federal Institute for Population Research 2013 URL: www.comparativepopulationstudies.de DOI: 10.4232/10.CPoS-2013-01en URN: urn:nbn:de:bib-cpos-2013-01en2