Refugee Family Reunfication

The Temporality and Precarity of a Transitional Phase

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21241/

Keywords:

temporality, refugee family reunification, doing family, transnational families, immigration bureaucracies

Abstract

This paper examines temporality in family reunification procedures for refugees in Germany and France. We conceptualize refugees’ family reunification as a transitional phase. During this phase, temporality means the longer an unpredictable procedure takes, the ever more precarious it becomes, and it poses increasing challenges for maintaining family life across borders. The paper explores how the governance of refugee family reunification creates long waiting times and affects the living conditions of refugees and their families. The temporal course of the reunification poses specific risks, as the validity of papers can expire due to long waiting periods, and family relationships are exposed to high stress levels. Facing long-lasting, unpredictable procedures and being dependent on state officials have already been emphasized as refugee experiences during asylum procedures. During the pending stages of the reunification procedures, refugees’ life prospects are again exposed to administrative regulations and practices. Instead of merely considering temporality and its link with precarity as inherent in refugees’ conditions as such, we ask how uncertainties are institutionally created and affect refugees’ family reunification as well as their family life. To understand how differing institutional regulations matter, our paper explores the reunification procedures for refugee families in Germany and France from a comparative perspective. The paper is based on narrative interviews with refugees who applied for family reunification in Germany or France. For data evaluation, the documentary method was employed to analyse temporality in the family reunification procedure and the possible consequences for the refugee applicants and their family lives.

Author Biographies

  • Dr. Emmanuel Ndahayo, University of Siegen

    Dr. Emmanuel Ndahayo ist Mitglied der DFG-Forschungsgruppe „Grenzüberschreitende Mobilität und Institutionendynamiken) und war wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Teilprojekt „Asylregime und transnationale Familien von Geflüchteten in Deutschland und Frankreich“ an der Universität Siegen. Er promovierte an der Universität Siegen und war Stipendiat der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind transnationale Migration, Staatsbürgerschaft, empirische Sozialforschung, Afrikanität und Entwicklungspolitik.

    Dr Emmanuel Ndahayo is a member of the DFG-Research Unit “Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics” and has been a research associate in the sub-project “Asylum Regimes and Transnational Refugee Families in Germany and France”. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Siegen and was a fellow of the Hans Böckler Foundation. His research interests include transnational migration citizenship, empirical social research, Africanity and development policy.

    https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0569-9431

  • Prof. Dr. Karin Schittenhelm, University of Siegen

    Karin Schittenhelm ist Professorin für Soziologie (im Ruhestand) an der Universität Siegen und war Sprecherin der DFG-Forschungsgruppe „Grenzüberschreitende Mobilität und Institutionendynamiken.“ Dort leitete sie das Teilprojekt zum Thema „Asylregime und transnationale Familien von Geflüchteten in Deutschland und Frankreich.“ Sie promovierte an der Freien Universität Berlin und erhielt ihre Habilitation an der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Zu ihren Schwerpunkten gehören Migrations- und Asylforschung, Bildung und Arbeit im Lebenslauf sowie Forschungsmethoden, insbesondere Methoden der qualitativen Sozialforschung.

    Prof. Dr. Karin Schittenhelm is a retired professor of sociology at the University of Siegen and was spokesperson of the DFG Research Unit “Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics”. She is principal investigator of the sub-project “Asylum Regimes and Transnational Refugee Families in Germany and France.” She obtained her PhD from the Free University of Berlin and her habilitation from Humboldt University Berlin. Her research interests include migration and asylum research, gender, education, and life course research.

    https://www.uni-siegen.de/phil/sozialwissenschaften/soziologie/mitarbeiter/schittenhelm/

    https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2089-1751

References

BAMF/Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge. 2021. Dienstanweisung Asyl. https://www.ggua.de/fileadmin/downloads/Durchuehrungsanweisungen/2021-08-03_BAMF_Dienstanweisung_Asyl.pdf. Accessed 24 February 2026.

BAMF/Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge. 2024. Subsequent immigration to join foreign family members. https://www.bamf.de/EN/Themen/MigrationAufenthalt/ZuwandererDrittstaaten/Familie/NachzugZuDrittstaatlern/nachzug-zu-drittstaatlern-node.html. Accessed 25 February 2026.

Bauloz, Céline, and Géraldine Ruiz. 2016. Refugee status and subsidiary protection: Towards a uniform content of international protection? In: Reforming the Common European Asylum System: The New European Refugee Law, ed. Vincent Chétail, Philippe De Bruycker and Francesco Maiani, 240–268. Leiden: Brill/Nijhoff. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004308664_010

Bohnsack, Ralf. 2014. Documentary Method. In: The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis, ed. Uwe Flick, 217–233. London: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446282243.n15

Borrelli, Lisa Marie, and Sophie Andreetta. 2019. Introduction: Governing migration through paperwork. Journal of Legal Anthropology 3:1–9. https://doi.org/10.3167/jla.2019.030201

Burridge, Andrew, and Nick Gill. 2017. Conveyor-belt justice: Precarity, access to justice, and uneven geographies of legal aid in UK asylum appeals. Antipode 49:23–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12258

Council of the European Union. 2003. Council Directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the right to family reunification. Official Journal of the European Union. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32003L0086. Accessed 25 February 2026.

De Hertog, Sara, and Milena Belloni. 2026. Fraudulent families? Investigating the role of paperwork in the assessment of refugees’ family reunification in Belgium. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 24:127–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2023.2271864

Dubow, Talitha, and Katie Kuschminder. 2021. Family strategies in refugee journeys to Europe. Journal of Refugee Studies 34:4262–4278. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feab018

Elder, Glen Holl Jr. 1985. Perspectives on the life course. In: Life Course Dynamics. Trajectories and Transitions 1968–1980, ed. Glen Holl Elder Jr., 23–49. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

EMN/European Migration Network. 2024. Family Reunification for Beneficiaries of International Protection. EMN Inform. https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/EN/EMN/FlashInformSyntheseberichte/Inform/emn-inform-familienzusammenfuehrung.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3 Accessed 28 February 2026.

Fattorelli, Elena. 2024. Administrative control mechanisms in the descent-based family reunification of refugees. Ethnic and Racial Studies 47:2541–2562. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2345459

Gibney, Matthew J. 2014. Political theory, ethics and forced migration. In: The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, ed. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long and Nando Sigona, 48–59. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goodwin-Gill, Guy S. 2014. The international law of refugee protection. In: The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, ed. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long and Nando Sigona, 36–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Griffiths, Melanie. 2017. Seeking asylum and the politics of family. Families, Relationships and Societies 6:153–156. https://doi.org/10.1332/204674317X14845801814426

Haller, Liam, and Zeynep Yanaşmayan. 2024. A not-so ‘natural’ decision: impact of bureaucratic trajectories on forced migrants’ intention and ability to naturalise. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 50:1904–1922. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2268844

Kobelinsky, Carolina. 2012. Des corps en attente. Le Quotidien des demandeurs d'asile. Corps 1:183–192. https://doi.org/10.3917/corp1.010.0183

Leinonen, Johanna, and Saara Pellander. 2020. Temporality and everyday (in)security in the lives of separated refugee families. In: Family Life in Transition: Borders, Transnational Mobility, and Welfare Society in Nordic Countries, eds. Johanna Hiitola, Kati Turtiainen, Sabine Gruber and Marja Tiilikainen, 118–128. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429024832

Löbel, Lea Maria, and Jannes Jacobsen. 2021. Waiting for kin: a longitudinal study of family reunification and refugee mental health in Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47:2916–2937. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2021.1884538

Menjívar, Cecilia. 2023. State categories, bureaucracies of displacement, and possibilities from the margins. American Sociological Review 88:1–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224221145727

Motakef, Mona. 2019. Recognition and precarity of life arrangement: Towards an enlarged understanding of precarious working and living conditions. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory 20:156–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2019.1610019

Ndahayo, Emmanuel, and Karin Schittenhelm. 2025. Exploring intersectional perspectives with the Documentary Method: Comparative case studies on the reunification of refugee families. Sozialer Sinn 26:35–52. https://doi.org/10.1515/sosi-2025-0003

Ndahayo, Emmanuel, and Karin Schittenhelm, forthcoming. Refugee Families Undergoing Reunification Procedures in Germany and France: Conflicts and Hierarchies Within Manifold Institutional Involvements. In: Migration, Mobility and Institutions. Interrelations and Dynamics In and Across World Regions, ed. Dominik Schieder and Karin Schittenhelm. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Nicholson, Frances. 2018. The “Essential Right” to Family Unity of Refugees and Others in Need of International Protection in the Context of Family Reunification. 2nd edition, ed. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). https://www.refworld.org/reference/research/unhcr/2018/en/122578. Accessed 28 February 2026.

Nohl, Arnd-Michael. 2017. Interview und Dokumentarische Methode. Anleitungen für die Forschungspraxis. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-16080-7

Nohl, Arnd-Michael, Karin Schittenhelm, Oliver Schmidtke and Anja Weiß. 2014. Work in Transition. Cultural Capital and Highly Skilled Migrants' Passages into the Labour Market. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442668737

Palander, Jaana, Usumain Baraka, Hilda Gustafsson, Alyssa Marie Kvalvaag, Michelle Lokot, Patricia Nabuco Martuscelli, Hadas Yaron Mesgena, Irene Tuzi and Helena Wray. 2023. International human rights frameworks in relation to national family reunification policy and administrative practice. In: Forced Migration and Separated Families: Everyday Insecurities and Transnational Strategies, eds. Marja Tiilikainen, Johanna Hiitola, Abdirashid A. Ismail and Jaana Palander, 15–40. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24974-7_2

Research Unit transMID/Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics. 2025. Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics: Research Agenda. TransMID Working Paper. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-107034-8

Riemann, Gerd, and Fritz Schütze. 1991. ‘Trajectory’ as a basic theoretical concept for analyzing suffering and disorderly social processes. In: Social Organization and Social Process. Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss, ed. David R. Maines, 333–357. Aldine: de Gruyter.

Robertson, Shanthi. 2018. Migrant, interrupted: The temporalities of “staggered” migration from Asia to Australia. Current Sociology 67:169–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392118792920

Schapendonk, Joris, Ilse van Liempt, Inga Schwarz and Griet Steel. 2020. Re-routing migration geographies: Migrants, trajectories and mobility regimes. Geoforum 116:211–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.06.007

Schiltz Julie, Sofie Vindevogel Ilse Derluyn and Wouter Vanderplasschen. 2019. Uncertainty in situations of forced displacement: A critical interpretative synthesis of refugee literature. Population, Space and Place 25:e2194. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2194

Schittenhelm, Karin, and Emmanuel Ndahayo. 2025. State interventions into refugees’ family life: (Un )intended consequences of family reunification policies in Germany. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2025.2514165

Schütze, Fritz. 1983. Biographieforschung und narratives Interview. Neue Praxis 13:283–293.

Schwarz, Inga. 2020. Migrants moving through mobility regimes: The trajectory approach as a tool to reveal migratory processes. Geoforum 116:217–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.03.007

Strauss, Anselm L. 1991. Creating Sociological Awareness: Collective Images and Symbolic Representations. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Tuzi, Irene. 2023. ‘Doing family’ as a separated household: The experience of Syrian refugees in Germany and Lebanon. In: Forced Migration and Separated Families: Everyday Insecurities and Transnational Strategies, eds. Marja Tiilikainen, Johanna Hiitola, Abdirashid A. Ismail and Jaana Palander, 165–181. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24974-7_10

Downloads

Published

2026-10-07

Issue

Vol. 42 (2026): Transitions

Section

Sektion Migration und ethnische Minderheiten: Transitions and Temporalities in Migration (Sek28)

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Transitions. Proceedings of the 42nd Congress of the German Sociological Association in Duisburg 2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Contributions in the proceedings of the 42nd Congress of the German Sociological Association in Duisburg are published under the Creative Commons license “Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)”. 

Third parties may:

  • Share: reproduce and redistribute the contributions in any format or medium
  • Edit: remix, modify, and build upon

 them under the following conditions:

  • Attribution: Third parties must provide appropriate copyright and rights information, include a link to the license, and indicate whether changes have been made.
  • Non-commercial: Third parties may not use the material for commercial purposes.