When I’m out or I go to a party he calls me twenty times a day (RO)

1. Respondent ID
1. 1. Age: 18.
1. 2. Sex: M.
1. 3. Parent(s) away: Father
1. 4. Country: Spain.
1. 5. Parent(s) moved abroad: almost eighteen years ago
1. 6. Respondent lives with: Mother and grandmother (maternal grandmother)

2. Details of Respondent’s life before:
I: You were actually born when your father left abroad…
R: Right. I was a baby, only a few months old.
I: While he was away when did help you with your homework if needed?
R: Basically I did homework alone. If something wasn’t clear to me, for instance in math, Mom helped me when I was in the seventh or eighth grade.
I: Have you ever asked advice from your father, for your homework?
R: No, I haven’t needed it.

3. Details of Respondent’s life after:
I: Why did he have to leave?
R: Because he was working abroad, he hadn’t had any higher education from a college r university in Romania, so that he could have found a well paid job, therefore he chose to go to Spain.
I: Do you have any special feeling, any particular opinion about his reason for leaving?
R: That’s his own business. I mean his leaving hasn’t affected me at all.
I: Does he care for you?
R: Dad? Well… Mom does. Dad is helping me with money. He sends me money every month.
I: Do you get along well with your mother?
R: Oh, very well. The same with dad… I spend my summer holidays, with him in Spain.
I: Do you also have other relatives in the town and its surroundings?
R: Yes, I have my maternal relatives: uncles, aunts, cousins.
I: How do you get along with them?
R: We get along super well, like we do with everybody.
I: Have you had any serious health problems during these years? Have you needed to go quickly to a doctor or be put in hospital?
R: No, never. I’ve never been in hospital.
I: Do you also have friends whose parents work abroad?
R: Yes, I’ve got many enough friends whose parents work abroad.
I: Do you feel closer to them than to those whose parents are here?
R: Not necessarily, I mean I have the same relationship with all my friends.
I: Aren’t there any discussions like “Mom is Italy” or “my mother is in Spain” or “it’s warmer in Italy” or is it better in Spain”?
R: Oh, no. We don’t usually discuss about that.
I: What about the other friends whose parents are here, do they have a different attitude toward you?
R: No, they don’t.
I: They show neither envy nor pity for you…
R: No, they have the same attitude.
I: Do you know what your father used to work here?
R: In Romania he used to work as a car driver, but in Spain he is a truck driver.
I: You say he helps you with money.
R: Yes, he does.
I: Does he send the money to your mother?
R: He sends it to me, into my own bank account. When I was under age, he used to send the money to Mom and she gave it to me. Pocket money, sometimes for the bills, too.
I: Does he also send presents?
R: He does. For my birthday, for Christmas, he sends us presents…
I: Can you exemplify?
R: Well… he bought me a laptop when I was admitted to high school, he got me a camera, a flash bulb and zoom lenses for my camera and paint supplies: canvas, easel, oils, brushes, acrylic paints, many… I mean exactly what I needed.
I: Is there anything you would like to have and hope to get with the money from your father?
R: First of all, as I am eighteen, I want to finish the driving school and get my license without failing exams. (He laughs.)
I: Have you got a car?
R: Dad will buy me one and later on, when I have a job, I’ll by one with my money.
I: You said you would like to go to the faculty of Fine Arts. Where?
R: In Bucharest, to photo-video, at UNARTE, and I’ll also choose some options for studying abroad, at other famous faculties.
I: How will you do that, through distance learning?
R: If I fail in Romania, I’ll be admitted by one of the faculties abroad and vice versa. I’ll apply for several variants.
I: Where would you best like to study?
R: At the faculty of Rotterdam – in the photo-video department. It’s a very good one.
I: Is it a faculty where you have to pay fees?
R: Yes. The courses may be either free of charge or paid, they cost about four thousand euro a year, I think… or five thousand.

4. Internet-based communications.
* Technical.
I: Do you have internet at home?
R: Of course. (He laughs.)
I: On the computer, on…
R: On all the devices: smart phone, phone, laptop, secondary laptop…
I: A secondary laptop? Do you mean a second laptop?
R: Yes, I’ve got two laptops. I use one to process photographs and one to play on whenever I have some free time. Or Mom uses it, too. Right.
I: Who pays the subscription?
R: I pay, because I use the internet.
I: From the money you get from your father…
R: Well, it’s only thirty lei. (He laughs.)
I: It’s a responsibility you assume! How long have you got a computer, your first computer?
R: Since I was twelve and I’ve got the internet since I was thirteen.
I: Who bought the computer?
R: Dad.
I: Was it on a particular occasion, or…?
R: No, he bought it because I was in the fourth grade and probably I was big enough to have a computer.
I: have you ever written any letter by hand?
R: Yes. I wrote some when I was a little boy. I wrote to my paternal grandparents who live in another town.
I: Where?
R: In Ialomița County; and I used to send them letters in winter or season cards painted by me.
I: Have you also painted and sent any cards to your father?
R: Not to Spain. I haven’t sent cards to my father.
I: Do you use internet programs to communicate with your colleague and friends?
R: Sure. Facebook and WhatsApp and cell phone.
I: It means you have a Facebook account.
R: Sure.
I: Does your father have one?
R: Yes, he does.
I: How do you prefer to communicate with him?
R: Well, when I’m out I use the phone, when I’m at home we talk on Facebook, through video call
I: Who is the one that usually calls? Is it you or he?
R: He is the one that usually calls. Often.
I: Does he call you often?
R: Yes, he does, three times a day. Every day. When I’m out with my friends he calls me ten times a day. When I’m out or I go to a party he calls me twenty times a day. He’s very caring and curious at the same time.
I: Do you remember how you learned to use the computer?
R: Yes, I remember there were some magazines we could find on stalls and they contained instructions on how to use Windows, programs. Therefore I learned by myself how to use the computer.
I: Apart from communication and photo processing, what else do you do on the computer?
R: I watch serial movies when I’m bored and I want to relax, I listen to music and also learn more advanced methods for processing photos.
I: Do you also edit short video clips?
R: No, I haven’t worked on the video part because the performance of my laptop is not so high as to process a Full HD. I remain static. Photography. And design.
I: Have there been any cases where you would have liked to talk to your father, but you couldn’t?
R: When I was younger it was more difficult to talk to him because of the technical problems I had with my phone. I used to change the phone cards and anyway we only talked once a week, because he was very busy at work.
I: Do you use the e-mail to correspond with him?
R: No, not the e-mail.

* Content.
I: I see. You talk ten times a day and ten times a night…
R: Right.
I: Do you remember your first communication with him?
R: Yes, I was four or five when he used to talk with my parents and I remember I also joined their conversation.
I: Wait a minute! Who were your parents he talked to?
R: Mom, grandma.
I: I see. He talked to them….
R: I also talked to him.
I: How did you feel while you were talking to him?
R: I was quite happy and asked when he would come home…
I: I understand it is a normal thing for you to have your father far away…
R: Yes.
I: Do you ever call him?
R: I sometimes call him to ask how he is or if I see he hasn’t called for a long time, I call.
I: Are there any particular occasions on which you call him?
R: I call him for the season holidays and ask how he is.
I: Would you like to talk to him more often?
R: More often than three times a day? Not really. (He laughs.) It becomes stressful at a certain point.
I: What do you usually talk about?
R: He asks me if I’ve woken up, had breakfast, what and how much I’ve eaten, he tells me to have some more if I say I’ve eaten a little and asks what did at school the day before, about my lessons, everything, who I got out with, when I got out and when I came back home, well, details like these.
I: What did you last talk about?
R: Las time he said “Good night” to me. He called me yesterday evening.
I: And before he said “Good night”?
R: He asked me what I had eaten for dinner, if I had done my homework and if not to do it first and then to go to sleep.
I: Does he ask you what you would like him to send or bring to you?
R: Yes, he often does and I give him a neuter answer, I mean I tell him “well, you don’t need send to, I buy everything here, with my money”.
I: Don’t you ever ask him to send something? Something you cannot find here or if you can, it is more expensive than in Spain?
R: Well, it’d be good if he sends me some seafood next winter because here I cannot find exactly what I want to eat. I’ll tell him to send me a parcel this winter, because I’ve been feeling that specific taste since last summer.
I: Are there any other people around while you are talking to your father?
R: Yes, either Mom or Grandma or my cousin when I help him with his homework. He is in the sixth grade.
I: If there are several people in the room, do you start the speaker to have a common conversation?
R: No, I don’t. I’m the only one who can hear him.
I: Are there any things you feel you can only discuss with your father?
R: No, what I discuss with Mom I also discuss with Dad.
I: Are there any particular things you can only tell face-to-face?
R: No, there’s been no question. I mean what I tell on the phone I can also tell face-to-face and vice versa.
I: Therefore, technology has so deeply got into your life that there’s no interface…
R: Right.
I: Do you show your father what you have done at school?
R: Yes, I often send him my pictures, and also photos.
I: Does he make any comment on them?
R: Yes, he tells me that he likes this or that…
I: Does he ever scold you?
R: Yes, he does, if I get home too late or I don’t do my homework…. and, well, when I was to him in Spain, he also scolded me if I didn’t eat all the food. He is sort of chubby, a foodie. He cooked a lot and he thought I had to eat as much as he did. I’m a sixty-kilo boy, while he weighs one hundred and… That was somehow impossible and he scolded me. Well, when I didn’t like the food he had cooked, he asked me to cook.
I: Did you cook? Are you good at it?
R: Yes, I am. I asked him for money “give me twenty”, I bought what I liked – “I cook, you eat, too, and tomorrow you’ll cook and I’ll eat, too.
I: Did he eat what you cooked?
R: Yes, but it wasn’t enough for him.
I: But did he enjoy it?
R: He did. I cooked sort of light foods, while he preferred… harder one, extra fat, with lots of pork collar. (He laughs.)
I: Romanian style.
R: Yes.
I: And you preferred a more Mediterranean style.
R: Right.
I: Who stays in contact with your school?
R: Mom does.
I: What about your father?
R: He talks with my form mistress but rather rarely.
I: Does she call him or he calls her?
R: I know he is the one that usually calls her.
I: Interesting! He is indeed watching over you.
R: Yes, he is.

5. Relationship with father (important stages/significant moments)
I: How often does your father come to Romania?
R: Once a year or so. When he is on holiday for two or three weeks…
I: When did he last come?
R: Last March.
I: What did you two do?
R: Well, he came to see his father, I mean my Grandpa, who has some troubles. He’s got cirrhosis, with internal bleeding. Well, they talked that… he felt he wouldn’t be long, so had the doctor told him, he told him “you have three months to live” and since then Grandpa has lived for three years, not three months. Now he’s feeling worse and Dad came to see him. Dad thought Grandma would die and came to see him before he took the final path, as it were. Well, Dad stayed with him, he saw he was alive (he gives me an easy smile). He hasn’t died, he is still alive, he’s super-ok. Anyway, Dad bought him some oxygen bottles and… paid me a visit to talk a while, then he went back to Spain.
I: Oxygen bottles?
R: Oxygen for Grandpa to breathe through a mask, yes.
I: I see. (I sigh.) How many times have you been to your father?
R: Twice. First I went to him when I was seventeen. My aunt, his sister, accompanied me. She had a power of attorney for that. Her husband is working there, in Spain. Last summer I travelled there without any power of attorney.
I: What exactly impressed you in Spain?
R: First of all, their landscape and food, their lifestyle, I mean they are much happier than the Romanians because… well, they also have a much better financial situation than the Romanians. Well, they are joyful, they have that specific spirit. I travelled a lot in Spain, last summer and the summer before and I saw various new things which differ from those in Romania. Their civilization, for instance, is different.
I: Which city, of those you saw, did you like best?
R: Barcelona, then, Valencia… and, well, the island of Ibiza is also beautiful. Yes. And… I was in Barcelona during those attacks, more exactly one week before, and I wanted to go to the Sagrada Familia. There were tickets available only after a week, It is very crowded and you have to buy tickets one week in advance.
I: It means I was lucky. Indeed, I was there during the winter holidays, many years ago, and entered without any problem.
R: My ticket was for the day of that attack. I had it cancelled, of course, because I didn’t want to go any longer. Another attack occurred about twenty kilometers from my location, somewhere in Cambrils, I guess. A house was blown up, a warehouse of cylinders…
I: It seems the attackers were the same.
R: Yes, the same. They were preparing an attack. Otherwise, well, the Spanish are peaceful.
I: I wonder for how long, you know what’s going on in Catalonia.
R: Yes, I know.
I: If you remember: what did you do the first day when you first visited your father, or the first two or three days?
R: I lived in Catalonia, in an area called Tarragona, at my aunt’s place. Well, I walked around, through that town. That’s all.
I: Anything special?
R: No, nothing special.
I: Then you know where your father lives.
R: Yes, I know.
I: Can you describe his place?
R: He’s renting. Last year he had an apartment with a dining-room combined with a kitchen. They call that a “comedor”. And there was one bedroom. And he paid a rent of two hundred and fifty euro. This year he has a two-storey house, including the first floor, six bedrooms, one kitchen, well, the first floor cannot be used, and the pays the same rent, for so many rooms…
I: What does he do with six bedrooms?
R: Well, he has enough room for his guests, friends or relatives and so on. The house is at about ten minutes walk from the beach.
I: Can you give me a few details about his work?
R: Well, he works on a truck.
I: Does he only make trips within Spain?
R: Within Spain, also from Spain to France. He loads in France, from France he makes a trip to Italy, from Italy he takes a boat to the port of Barcelona and again, he repeats these trips, and so on. And he arrives home once in two weeks. He hardly rests for two days and his boss calls him “come to the company, we have a cargo and you’ll drive to France.” And so on and so forth.
I: You say he comes by boat from Italy.
R: There are some routes where he must arrive faster, he takes a boat and arrives in twenty-four hours by sea.
I: Did he tell these details to you?
R: Yes, everything.
I: As far as you know from him, has he moved for good or wants to return to Romania?
R: For good, because he’s worked enough time with an employment contract and he will get a pension there.
I: What advantages do you think you have from his being abroad?
R: He sends more money, around eight million a month and this is only my money to spend on clothes, trips into town, clubs and so on. This is an advantage, because this money… others work a month to get it, but he sends it to me. Anyway, I take good care of it.
I: Do you have a more powerful feeling of independence?
R: No, I’m just like the other children.
I: Are there any things you do not tell your father, for instance about your marks at school, fights with your friends…?
R: Oh, no. I tell him absolutely everything.
I: Any negative parts of his moving away?
R: The fact that he is not near me. I mean to toast with a glass of juice and things like that… or the holidays, for instance, we don’t spend them together. He doesn’t spend them in Spain, either. He is always driving.
I: His employers ask him to work.
R: Right, because he is Romanian. They let their countrymen home and send Romanians or Moroccans or Ecuadorians to work. That’s it.
I: How did you spend the last Christmas?
R: I spent the Christmas Eve with my friends, out in the town, then at home with my parents, Mom and Grandma.
I: Thank you very much…