European migrants are confronted to maintain relations with their families across borders and to meet the expectations of intergenerational care. This can be a challenge due to the geographical distance to their families as has been documented for non-western migrants across Europe. In this paper, we focus on European citizens living in Belgium. The focus on European migrants is especially interesting given the large and increasing share of them in European migrant populations, and the specific policy context of the European Union. We make use of the Belgian Generations and Gender Survey to examine the contact frequencies with the biological mother of different groups of first generation European migrants in Belgium and compare these to Belgian natives and non-European migrants. Additionally, we study face-to-face and telephone contact in a similar comparative way. Results indicate two important factors influencing contact frequency. First of all, geographical proximity is of importance for maintaining contact and especially for European migrants it determines the face-to-face contact frequency with their mothers in another European country. Secondly, the European mobility policy, characterized by the free movement of persons, strongly influences the differences in contact between EU and non-EU migrants.

中文翻译：

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欧洲跨国家庭的代际接触：比利时案例

欧洲移民面临着跨越国界与家人保持关系并满足代际关怀的期望。正如欧洲的非西方移民所记录的那样，由于与家人的地理距离，这可能是一个挑战。在本文中，我们关注居住在比利时的欧洲公民。鉴于欧洲移民在欧洲移民人口中所占的比例越来越大，而且欧盟的具体政策背景，对欧洲移民的关注尤其令人感兴趣。我们利用比利时世代和性别调查来检查在比利时的第一代欧洲移民不同群体与生母的接触频率，并将这些与比利时本地人和非欧洲移民进行比较。此外，我们以类似的比较方式研究面对面和电话联系。结果表明影响接触频率的两个重要因素。首先，地理邻近对于保持联系很重要，特别是对于欧洲移民来说，它决定了与他们在另一个欧洲国家的母亲面对面的接触频率。其次，以人员自由流动为特征的欧洲流动政策强烈影响了欧盟和非欧盟移民之间的接触差异。