ABSTRACT
Transnational families meet with multiple family law systems in their everyday lives. In this chapter, we use a bottom-up perspective based on multi-sited fieldwork shedding light on how transnational Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Egyptian families relate to these multiple family law systems. In our analysis, we understand wellbeing as multidimensional consisting of material, relational, and ethical dimensions. With regard to the material aspects of wellbeing, we focus on participants’ needs in dealing with legal systems and bureaucracy. Our findings indicate that it is not that easy for transnational families to translate claims back and forth and strategically use the law across borders, as this requires economic, cultural, and social capital. In the relational dimension, we found that the law is an important aspect of managing transnational family ties. With regard to the ethical dimension, we did not find confirmation of religious or cultural claims, as often mentioned in the literature. Rather, family members try to solve normative issues in pragmatic ways with the aim of preserving or severing family relationships. We suggest ‘navigating’ the law as a useful lens through which to study how these family members reconcile the different norms they encounter.
