Doing family on the move: Venezuelan migration in Ecuador

The article examines Venezuelan family migration projects in two locations in Ecuador: the town of Huaquillas, located on the southern border, and the city of Quito. We argue that some migrant families in both contexts are adopting movement, rather than settlement, as a strategy to reimagine their migration projects. Remaining on the move is a way to escape from the precarious social conditions, exclusion and xenophobia they endure in many sites of destination in Ecuador and other neighbouring countries. At the same time, moving from one place to another is also a way to reconfigure their migration project as a family project. This is what we call ‘doing family’. That is, a way of preserving material and emotional relationships among family members while still on the move, blending moments of separation with reunification and resulting in ‘complex spatial and temporary family trajectories’ (Jorgensen, in this issue). We adopt the concept of families on the move to assess how movement itself, rather than transnational ties or family social networks, becomes the main way to keep doing family in contexts of social exclusion and hostility.