CONTEMPORARY ARMENIAN FAMILY IN THE TRANSFORMING SOCIETY
tive in decision making if they work abroad while men are unemployed. Based on traditional values and perception of gender roles, Armenian society doesn’t widely accept women that leave to work abroad alone, without their husbands or any relative. The reason is that they are out of control of spouses, families and communities. These women are consid ered as people with “deviant” behaviour that do not fulfil their maternal responsibilities. In addition, the reproductive behaviour of migrant wom en is being strictly controlled.
In the Armenian culture labour migration is still being considered as a job for men. Men should be the breadwinners and have the priority to express their opinion, while women should take care of children and a household. Provision of economic support to families is accepted by so ciety as an important means of maintaining a family. Therefore it has an important impact on the formation of male migration behaviour.
Due to labour migration, lifecycles of family development are being disrupted. Since young migrants often leave 1 –2 months after the mar riage, they are abroad when the first or second child is born; moreover, later on it is possible that they do not participate in wedding or engage ment ceremonies of their children. This has negative influence on the strength of families. In addition to this, a lot of young people migrate and leave their parents alone.
Due to labour migration the number of interethnic marriages has increased. Due to social-economic situation in Armenia and the high un employment rate, some labour migrants consider interethnic marriages an important way to settle abroad. It is noticeable that labour migrants often have a model of “marital markets”, the goal of which is to increase benefit from the marriage by choosing the “right” partners. Interethnic marriages also weaken the influence of traditional kinship and neigh bourly ties. The overwhelming majority of respondents are against the interethnic marriages. They explain it with linguistic, national and cul tural differences. In families formed on the basis of interethnic marriages, there is a mutual exchange of different cultural values that effects the identity of family members.
SUMMARY
Labour migration raises a number of serious issues in terms of fam ily solidarity. Temporal separation of family members raises the risk of divorce. Out-of marriage ties and the existence of “second family” abroad have become widespread phenomena. Respondents consider “undesir able” to have children as a result of informal marriages. As a result of labour migration, the number of abandoned families has also increased in some communities since migrants leave and stop communicating with their families. “Divided” families are also widespread: the man of a fami ly is abroad while children and wife or children and grandparents live in the motherland. In this case, issues related to upbringing and control of children may rise. During the absence of a husband, all the household affairs are under women’s, elderly’s and underage children’s responsibili ty. However, man’s power does not weaken in a majority of families and transition from the patriarchal system to the matriarchal one or to the egalitarian (equally divisive power between men and women) doesn’t take place. Man continues to be the final decision-maker of the major and important issues. The role of man as the leader of family is related not only to economic but also to traditional factors, according to which the image of a man as the homeowner is still dominated in Armenian culture.
In the section named “Ethno-cultural peculiarities of Syrian-Arme nian families living in Armenia” the peculiarities of Syrian-Armenian family rituals and values were revealed in comparison with local Arme nians.
It has been almost six years that Syrian-Armenians have left their country as a result of the conflict in Syria and moved to Armenia bring ing with them their culture, family values and traditions.
The results of the study suggest that Syrian-Armenians have partic ularities related to the characteristic of their family structure. Two-gen eration Syrian-Armenian families, consisting of middle-aged parents and two or three children are dominating. Compared to local Armenian fam ilies, there are many Syrian-Armenian families with eight and more members despite the fact that it is very common for Syrian-Armenians
CONTEMPORARY ARMENIAN FAMILY IN THE TRANSFORMING SOCIETY
that young families live separately from their parents. In Armenia Syri an-Armenians often live with their parents, children, and sometimes their relatives in order to face socio-economic challenges of the new en vironment easier.
Among the Syrian-Armenians there are many lonely people (most ly young people) who are in Armenia with the hope to reunite with their family in the future. Armenians have united around Christian values in Syria therefore the idea of solidarity, unity and family traditions have been more dominant than personal liberties and ambitions. The percep tion of the head of family is unquestionable in three-generation fami lies mainly the elderly man is considered as the head of family, similar situation is also in two-generation nucleus families, and only one in five families (not full-fledged three-generation families) the elderly women is considered as the head of family.
Syrian-Armenian youth, unlike local Armenians, marry late be cause they consider that maturity and financial independence are neces sary for a couple and especially for men. Among them, the level of intol erance towards mixed-ethnic marriages is quite high; moreover, it grows especially in relation to other-religious marriages. The Syrian-Armenians find that the role of family is important for the preservation of the Arme nian identity, therefore having wife/husband from Armenian environ ment is the most important guarantee of success.
Unlike Syrian-Armenians, the majority of whom are in favour of marriage with local Armenians, the latter are more intolerant and hardly accept Syrian-Armenians in their own families. Gender is an important factor here, since mostly men do not approve marriages with Syrian Ar menians. This attitude is mutual, since the majority of Syrian-Armenian women are also against a marriage with local Armenian men. It seems that two “different” Armenians should be united and should be tolerant towards one another, but definitely it is not the case. Though they have common ethnic backgrounds, there are very different lines and definite boundaries between Syrian-Armenians and local Armenians concerning
SUMMARY
social and cultural life, as well as the significant differences in daily life and lifestyle.
Based on the results of the study, we can state that the basis of the formation and maintenance of family among Syrian-Armenians is largely based on Christian traditions. Church ceremonies as well as immediate legal registration of marriage are core part of wedding ceremonies. It is important to note that immediate registration of marriage is no longer a mandatory element among local Armenians.
According to the value system of Syrian-Armenians, Armenian families should be complete and divorces should be excluded from the marriage culture. Most of them do not accept single mother institute and negatively treat to the free relationships of young couples.
According to Syrian-Armenians, man should financially provide family, and woman should be responsible for everyday and non-primary issues. This is largely explained by the fact that women in the Syrian Armenian community have not been encouraged to work outside the house since they lived in a foreign-religious environment.
The results of the analysis of the role of Syrian-Armenian families in the socio-cultural and economic life of Armenia reveal the fact that local Armenians are more likely to appreciate their investments in eco nomic than in cultural life. The majority of Syrian-Armenians also be lieve that Armenians value their input in economy more than their con siderable input in cultural life. Moreover, they feel that the sub-cultural differences existing in the daily lives and lifestyle of the Armenians neg atively impact on their communication with the locals.
Despite all this, the majority of local Armenians find that Syrian-Ar menian families are temporary in Armenia and it is not a permanent re patriation. They think that after Syria’s restoration most of them will re turn back. Syrian-Armenians prefer mostly to go back to Syria, but the United States, Sweden, France, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Australia and the Netherlands are probable countries to find shelter, as well as economic and social support.
CONTEMPORARY ARMENIAN FAMILY IN THE TRANSFORMING SOCIETY
Syrian-Armenian families have mostly social and economic reasons to leave Armenia. Creating favourable conditions for work, business, and housing are the key factors that can keep the majority of Syrian-Arme nians in Armenia.
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