Contextualising Latin American Fathers and Sons in the UK

This chapter situates the empirical work within the broader socio-economic and political context of Latin Americans migrating to Europe and contextualises the lives that they have left. As part of this it explores ways of being and becoming a Latin American man in different socio-economic and historical periods; policies reinforcing gender roles in Latin America and migration policies in the UK affecting the experiences of migrant families such as the patterning of their work lives with low-paid employment impacting directly on possibilities for father-son relations and fathering practices. Additionally, it outlines the kinds of questions asked and methodology applied and considers some of the ethical dimensions of researching multilingually. Finally, it outlines how the data was organised using intergenerational chains of fathers and sons as the unit of analysis.