Academic mobility and the family

Whilst the literature on academic mobility has expanded in recent years, the significance of the family has rarely been positioned at the centre of these debates. This chapter provides a review of this body of work, with an emphasis on how the family is positioned in these discussions. It begins by sketching the overall scope of the literature, which has an impact on how the family is conceptualised. Examples of research that consider the family as a factor contributing to or hindering academic mobility will be presented, followed by other examples that examine the impact of academic mobility on the family. The chapter continues to unpack ‘the family’ and discusses a line of research conducted from gendered or intersectional perspectives, which helps to decipher the unevenness of the academic mobility field. Finally, it concludes by pinpointing several blind spots in the literature and suggesting a few directions for future studies.