Fathering From Beyond the Border . . .: Exploring the Experiences of Deported Fathers in Trinidad and Tobago

Father Separation From Families

Separation of father from children following migration, results in negative consequences to the migrant father, as well as to the children. Worby and Organista (2007) argue that the inability of Mexican and Central American migrant men to visit their loved ones as one of the factors responsible for the increased use of alcohol by those men. Schmalzbauer (2005) argues that some fathers separated from their children struggle with severe loneliness and depression. In some cases, the migrant male would engage in casual sexual relationships with women as a way of dealing with separation from loved ones.

Only a few researchers have studied the problems arising from deportation of fathers. However, those studies are restricted to examining the problems from the perspective of the children and families left behind, rather than the perspective of the deported father. A key finding of those studies is that the separation has negative consequences for the children left behind in the deporting country, in that it disturbs the family’s economic stability (Capps, 2007; Hagan et al., 2008), particularly when the breadwinner is detained or deported.

Family Coping Styles and Resources

Capps (2007) highlight that families with at least one deported member often experience unusual hardship since there is no significant savings or assets at the time of detention and subsequent deportation. Following deportation, existing family assets and resources are either confiscated or they diminish quickly, consequent to which, extended family or kin networks which previously acted as networks and supports, often assume financial and caretaking responsibilities (Capps, 2007). Families affected by deportation are afraid to seek resources, especially from governmental agencies, even when their children are eligible for those resources (Hagan et al., 2008).

Adaptation of Family Structures

Scholars point out that transnationalism promotes and facilitates adjustments to the forms and structures of families and parenting (Chee, 2005; Le Espiritu, 2003; Levitt, 2001). The adjustment and adaptation of family structures usually involves the change over from a two-parent, two-income household to mostly a single-parent, female-headed household (Dreby, 2006).

Strategies for Maintaining Transnational Parenting

Parrenas (2005) has outlined some measures used by migrant fathers to mitigate the negative effects caused by distance from their children and families. Those strategies include providing remittances to mothers who assume child care responsibilities. Subsequent changes in material supply may provide additional emotional security and reduce mothers’ stress, thus positively influencing parenting behavior and relationship with children.

Some studies highlight the use of telecommunications as a way of maintaining contact with families separated by borders (Dreby, 2006; Madianou & Miller, 2011). Parrenas (2005) and Harper and Martin (2013) argue that frequent telephone communication is the primary way fathers can keep in touch with their children. Since long-distance communication helps in maintaining relationships within transnational families, migrant mothers, for instance, feel empowered when they have a mobile phone that allows them to communicate with their children and reconstruct their role as parents (Madianou & Miller, 2011). Bacigalupe and Lambe (2011) found that transnational families use social technology, and access to internet connectivity and social media in addressing the challenges posed by migration and separation.

Gendered Analysis of Transnational Parenting

While no research offers a gendered analysis of fathering after deportation, Carling, Menjívar, and Schmalzbauer (2012) emphasize that there are gendered differences between transnational mothering and fathering. Studies of voluntary migration of a parent shows how migration can affect power relations and decision making in families. In a study of migration of parents from Mexico, Dreby (2006) suggests that mothers and fathers use similar ways to manage their parent/child relationships, when living away from their children. However, Dreby (2006) also observed that after divorce, transnational fathers strengthen their bonds with children, whereas transnational mothers distance themselves from children temporarily. Schmalzbauer (2005) highlights that in the case of Honduran transnational parenting, fathers are less likely to meet gender expectations, with abandonment of the family often resulting. Dreby (2006) concludes in a study of Mexican transnational parenting that often fathers grew distant from their families because of challenges in fulfilling their roles as providers. In the case of Mexican and Central American fathers’ migration, Worby and Organista (2007) argue that the inability of fathers to visit their loved ones led the men to engage in increased drinking.

Parrenas (2005) claims that traditional gender expectations persist even after a parent’s migration. She further reported that, in the Philippines, despite migration, the ideology of a woman’s domesticity remains intact. From another study, Parrenas found that, in the case of voluntary migration, discussions on transnational fathering do not try to reconstitute the normative gender behavior in the family; instead, they support the existing gender norms, namely that the males are breadwinners and the female’s homemakers (Parrenas, 2008). Ultimately, it was found that gender expectations restricted radical reconfiguration of transnational family relations. Kilkey et al. (2014), for example, argue that migrant men’s narratives about fathering remain embedded within a framework dominated by the division of labor. Yasuike (2011) found that the phenomenon of Japanese fathers who are transnational corporate workers with long absence from home, perpetuated the mother’s duty of taking care of their households and raising children single-handedly. However, no research has been conducted to suggest that a similar situation prevails in families whose fathers are separated from children by deportation.

Theoretical Framework

Social researchers have long studied the impact of stress on the family (Conger & Donnellan, 2007; Conger, Rueter, & Elder, 1999). One model which advances a theoretical understanding of the process and impact of stress on the family, the family adjustment and adaptation response (FAAR) model, suggests that families engage in processes which balance family demands and family capacities in ways which the family adjusts or adapts to stressful situations (McCubbin & Patterson, 1983; Patterson, 2002). A stressor is defined as a “demand placed on the family that produces, or has the potential to produce changes in the family system” (McCubbin, Thompson, & McCubbin, 2001, p. 17). Family stress occurs when there is an imbalance in the ratio between demands and capabilities.

According to Patterson (2002), the FAAR model is associated with three central concepts: demands, meanings, and capabilities. Demands refer to stressors that disrupt the normal equilibrium of the family. Family capabilities include both resources and existing methods that families use to cope with everyday stressors. The FAAR theoretical model posits that families may make different meanings of demands that are placed on them. By applying coping methods, families are able to reach homeostasis by balancing demands and capabilities. Thus, families may face daily challenges but establish stability by making meaning of events in ways which balance the demands with their existing capabilities. However, in some cases, crisis occurs when there is sustained stress in the family because there may be too few resources to meet demands introduced by a stressful event (McCubbin et al., 2001).

The FAAR model explains how families may cope with stress by engaging in a process of adjustment and adaptation. Adjustment involves the family’s use of behaviors and resources to balance the daily demands. The adjustment phase, however, refers to a sequence of interrelated mechanisms which determine whether present family resources and coping skills can maintain family functioning (bonadjustment), or whether a crisis necessitates that the family adapt their regular patterns of functioning (McCubbin et al., 2001). Crisis thus occurs when the demands overwhelm a family’s resources.

Adaptation involves a process through which families restore equilibrium between demands and resources. Thus, families adapt by bringing new levels of balance or new coping skills to reduce stress on the family (McCubbin et al., 2001). Family adaptation results in patterns of functioning which establishes new family structures, adaptive rules and boundaries, relationships, and communication and transactions with the community (McCubbin et al., 2001).

Researcher’s Reflexivity

An essential ingredient in qualitative research is for readers to understand how the investigator became interested in the topic under study. Interest in the phenomenon of deportation and fathering was sparked during my professional experience as a social worker at an agency providing social services to communities in Trinidad and Tobago. During my time at the agency, I saw an increasing number of deported men seeking services from the agency to help them connect with their families abroad. In trying to understand the fathers’ experiences, I found academic literature focusing on the experiences of children who were left behind and not on how deported men negotiate fathering of their children across borders. This awareness marked the beginning of my dedication to explore the experiences of fathers’ who have been separated from their children.

However, qualitative research requires that researchers become conscious of his or her personal motivations and biases, professional experience, and academic epistemologies (Merriam, 2015). Thus, I consciously reflected on the research process to ensure that I did not sift out difficult or uncomfortable experiences that would generate adverse prejudices against the participants. A fundamental strength of this study was to explore the experience of the fathers through their own lens. Thus, I avoided researcher bias by maintaining reflexivity.

In this study, credibility was integrated as a major criterion of trustworthiness. Since this study was conducted following my doctoral studies, I engaged in a process of review and debriefing with academic colleagues-who provided an unbiased check of the research process (Schwandt, Lincoln, & Guba, 2007), which promoted my self-awareness and honesty. This helped ensure that the data continued to stay focused on the purpose of the study.

Transferability in this qualitative research was guided by providing rich, thick descriptions so that the reader can decide whether the transfer of findings to a similar cohort would be possible. This was congruent with Denzin (1988, p. 39) who notes that the thick description is expected to probe “the intentions, motives, meanings, contexts, situations and circumstances of action.” To maintain dependability, the research project was presented at three seminars with my dissertation committee who audited the assessment of methodological decisions, and questioned inquirer bias and the treatment of the data.

The Participants

The participants in this study were 28 to 52 years old and were deported from the United States, following a criminal conviction. Prior to their conviction, 11 of them were married, 4 were separated, and 3 were single. The average age of the children who were left behind on deportation was 10.1 years. The youngest child was 3 years old and the oldest was 17 years old at the time of the father’s deportation. Table 1 shows the pseudonyms used in this study for the participants and their details.

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Table 1.

Summary Table of Participants.

No.	Name	Age, years	Conviction	Number of years since deportation	Number of children
1	Alex	42	Assault	5	1
2	Brian	49	Drug trafficking	9	3
3	Curtis	28	Domestic violence	3	1
4	Dennis	51	Assault	14	2
5	Elvin	37	Fraud	11	1
6	Fred	52	Tax evasion	13	4
7	Garth	34	Fraud	4	2
8	Kerry	41	Drug trafficking	6	5
9	Ian	50	Drug trafficking	7	2
10	Jones	52	Assault	5	4
11	Ken	43	Assault	9	2
12	John	41	Drug trafficking	7	1
13	Mark	29	Assault	6	1
14	Nate	35	Assault	8	3
15	Steven	39	Assault	1	3
16	Peter	32	Drug trafficking	4	2
17	Rick	45	Firearms trafficking	3	1
18	Edwin	48	Drug trafficking	10	4

Psychosocial Effects Experienced by Deported Fathers

The participants shared their feelings of intense sadness and loss following their separation from children. At the time of data collection, 9 of the 18 participants were outpatients of mental health clinics and were being treated for mild to severe depression, anxiety, addictions or bipolar disorder. Six of these nine participants were taking medication prescribed for their mental illness.

Their loss was compounded by the weight of deportation and the finality of the condition that deported fathers will not be legally eligible to return to the country in which their children reside. This finality and the sense of permanence of separation led Ken to feel “trapped in a prison from where I could never get out nor can I ever visit my children.” John shared similar feelings.

Curtis spoke of the frequent bouts of depression he has been going through, whenever he thought of his child. His life, he claimed, was built around caring for his offspring and working to give her what his parents could not give him. He considered his daughter as his principal motivator in life. But, unfortunately, since his deportation, his daughter began to exhibit behavioral issues, including truancy and early sexual indulgence. Prior to this study, Curtis was diagnosed with depression, and receives monthly disability cheques. Nate, Rick, and Jones also admitted that they have become outpatients of a mental health clinic in Trinidad and started using antidepression medication. Steven admitted that he had even attempted to commit suicide after his return to Trinidad. The participants expressed that their bouts of depression worsened, whenever their telephonic talks with their children became few and far between. John also admitted to having tried to beat his loneliness by drinking alcohol. He confessed thus:

Every one of us has our own faults and vices. When I came back, I wanted to forget my problems and my loneliness. Leaving my child was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. I started to drink all the time. I used alcohol to drown my sorrows and get away from loneliness.

Experiences of Fathers following Deportation

Changing Roles of Fathers After Deportation

Prior to deportation, participants explained they saw themselves undertaking various roles as fathers. Roles that were commonly shared by all fathers included that of provider, discipliner, and family protector. The fathers also considered themselves to be responsible for molding the masculinity of their sons, regardless of the son’s age. However, prior to detention and deportation, fathers with daughters saw their roles as protector and talent developer more strongly.

Fathers described that their roles had altered following deportation. All fathers explained that they were no longer able to continue to provide for their families. The opportunities to protect their children were also weakened. Steven explained that following his deportation his children were being bullied in school. Ken claimed that his family lived in a high-crime area and the family feared that they would become the victims of crime since he was not there to protect them.

However, there was some level of adaptation of fathers’ roles following deportation. Kerry and Ian explained they took up the role of life coach for their children. Thus, conversations with their children focused on counselling their children and offering supportive guidance regarding their career aspirations.

Economics and Fathering

The deported fathers revealed how they became financially dependent on their wives to support themselves. They added that they find themselves as having lost their role as the major breadwinner, and now the families abroad must renegotiate for their space and money. All participants expressed challenges in gaining employment. In all cases, the participants acquired temporary jobs which involved unskilled labor such as gas pump attendants, security, construction, and laborers. These jobs were often for only 2- to 3-week periods, punctuated by long periods of unemployment. At the time of the data collection, only 6 of the 18 participants were employed, albeit in temporary jobs; 8 were unemployed and 4 were reliant on social welfare provisions.

Two participants mentioned that when they became employed, they still had problems in maintaining their fathering role, because their salaries were so low that they barely provided for subsistence. Fred, who has been doing menial jobs for short periods, since his return, described his challenges thus:

I don’t know anybody in this country. I cannot get a decent job. Nobody wants to give me a decent job, so that I could take care of myself or send money to my children.

Smith shared similar sentiments thus:

When I go to job interviews and the interviewers hear my accent, they immediately ask me whether I am a deportee and about my “criminal” conviction. No matter what I say at this point, I know I will not get the job.

Jones complained that deported men are stereotyped as sophisticated criminals, and because of that the potential employers are dissuaded from hiring them. For a deportee, not accessing suitable employment is something like a double whammy. Nate commented thus on this situation:

On the one hand, I am unable to financially support myself in Trinidad and that means I cannot send any money to my family. On the other hand, my wife must send me money when I am out of work. This means less money for the children.

For Mark, his deportation became a source of gender conflict, particularly regarding his role as breadwinner and provider. He summed up this experience as:

My wife had to work on two additional jobs provide for the children. It was a role reversal: instead of my providing for the children, she has been providing for me. I couldn’t handle this new role and we argued all the time.

This was echoed by Kerry thus:

I am another one of her dependents, because she must send money for me too. In my mind, I am confused, and we would argue sometimes about what was happening. She cannot understand how I am trying too, but the job situation here is not what it was when I left. We start arguing every time I call her. After some time, she starts to challenge my role as a man by dropping hints like “You don’t wear the pants around here” and “remember I now must send money, like I am the man in this family.”

As discussed earlier, the loss of the role of disciplinarian, combined with the loss of the role of financial provider, has become a contentious issue because of the change in the traditional gender role of the father.

Adjustment and Adaptations to Family Structures Due to Deportation

Whereas the literature on transnational families indicate that the families of migrant men usually echo the structure of a modern nuclear family (Parrenas, 2008), this study shows that the family structure undergoes rapid changes after deportation. Elvin explains this change:

Because of so many challenges in trying to be a father from so far away, the family becomes a single-parent household. My wife had to take upon herself the family responsibilities, totally and completely; it was like I was living in the shadows of other family members. I had no say in the family anymore, because I was far away and struggling to exist in this place here.

Another consequence of deportation is the breakdown of marriage, which further exacerbates the child–father relationship, particularly where the relations between parents are acrimonious. In those cases, the participants often blame the mothers for the child–father relationship problems and for altering the nature of the family structure. In this regard, Fred had this to add:

After a while, every time I spoke with the family, my wife and I would argue.

This caused a rift in my relationship with my child because my wife would not allow me to talk to my child when I want. It was as though my child had a single parent and I was no longer part of my child’s life.

Keeping in view the likelihood of these changes affecting the family structure, Garth argues that the transnational family structure of deportees should be given due recognition. He passionately pleads that the policy makers and social workers would do well to recognize that, although the deportee and his family are geographically separated, the family continues to exist for the deportee, though in a transnational form.

Termination of Parental Rights

Two of the fathers who participated in this study, Brian and Garth, lament that they lost parental rights because of their deportation. They disclosed that, following their deportation, the U.S. government-initiated proceedings for termination of their parental rights, and their children were placed in foster care. In the case of Brian, his deportation and the ailing condition of his mother who was the main caregiver to his children, were cited as the main reasons for placing his children in foster care. In the case of Garth, his deportation was seen as a consequence of his abandonment of his responsibilities toward his children. As there was no relative willing to take parental responsibility, his child was placed in foster care.

Provision of Social Support for Deported Fathers

The participants disclosed they found that there are very limited social services available to them on their return to Trinidad and Tobago. These limited services include social welfare grants, medical services and housing at homeless shelters. The men who used these services claimed that they heard about the services from local individuals and media advertisements and voluntarily accessed these services as walk-in clients. There is only one NGO which receives a government subvention to assist in the reintegration of deported men. However, the focus of that NGO is to provide support to the men in matching them with employment opportunities, providing short-term housing and meet their subsistence needs. Participants claimed that the agency’s mandate was not to strengthen the family life or fathering abilities of the deportees. Thus, the agency provided minimal opportunities for the men to call their families abroad or use social media such as Skype to connect with children.

Ten participants also claimed that they walked into state-welfare services to seek help. The support received included short-term emergency grants. This was delivered by personnel who were appointed as welfare officers and not necessarily trained social workers. None of the fathers in this study attained the age of 65 years or above and so were not qualified to access provisions for the elderly in Trinidad and Tobago.

Limitations

First of all, there are limitations with regard to the sampling procedures. This study relies on a small purposeful sample size of 18 fathers whose deportation resulted in fathers leaving their children behind. All the men who participated were biological fathers and there were no questions to determine their sexual orientation. Thus, this study’s findings cannot be transferred to situations involving gay fathers, adopted fathers, and stepfathers. Second, the study focuses on the lived experience of the father. Therefore, information was not gathered on the situations as described by wives and children. However, the findings in this study show that this can be an area of promising research. Third, the length of time which passed between the actual deportation and the interviews with participants deserves attention as it may have been possible that these fathers’ memories might have been eroded or distorted over time. This was addressed through triangulation by guiding the interview to a discussion of events for which the investigator has a record with which to compare the participants’ oral versions. This is done with the purpose of assessing whether people are being honest with their stories, but rather what types of events and details they recall, as to ascertain accuracy in memories of events.

Recommendations for Supporting Families Separated by Deportation

This study raises various recommendations for social work intervention, immigration policy, and further research to support families separated by deportation. From a social work practice perspective, greater emphasis on clinical support should be done in ways that recognize deported fathers as part of a transnational system, instead of as a client unit which is disconnected from a family abroad. In so doing, greater emphasis would be placed on maintaining family connections. By using a wraparound model for social work intervention, local caseworkers in Trinidad and Tobago may explore the possibility of connecting with caseworkers who work with families left abroad. This will allow for the entire family to be supported as a unit and open the possibility for international social work to be done whereby the local social worker can connect with the social worker of the family members left abroad. Social workers can support families affected by deportation through the process of adjustment and adaptation.

NGOs and agencies which offer social support for deported fathers should make greater efforts to encourage fathers to maintain their ties with their families by providing technologies that will facilitate communication. Psychosocial support should not only focus on meeting the material needs of the deported fathers but also include assisting the deported father in making meaning of the changing family structures and roles which may emerge. Spaces should be provided for men to make sense of the changing gender roles and for constructing ways to cope with the separation from family members. Support should also include helping the deported men develop and adopt appropriate strategies for maintaining connections and relationships with family members abroad.

Immigration and deportation policies should also be reviewed to allow judges to consider the impact of deportation of a father on the health and well-being of the children who would be left behind. In many cases, the children endure social, economic, and emotional hardship because of the long-term separation caused by deportation. Thus, decisions to deport fathers should allow for judges giving due consideration to the potential harm deportation can have on family members, especially children who are left behind. This study also calls for additional research to be done on the cost of deportation on the welfare of children separated from parents following deportation and the impact on the family unit.