Globalisation and the family: sociological perspectives

Last Updated on November 9, 2025 by Karl Thompson

This post explains how globalisation affects family life. It covers sociological perspectives on the relationship between globalisation and the family, examines the positive and negative impacts of globalisation on the family, and provides A-level Sociology exam application tips. Updated statistics and recent examples illustrate the continuing relevance of this debate.

Globalisation has changed family life in the UK in several ways:

• Family size has declined and there are more childless families. There are also more single person households. These trends are correlated with increase economic growth due to globalisation.
• There is greater ethnic diversity and more families stretched across national borders. This is because of increased migration.
• There are more pure relationships, negotiated families and higher divorce rates. All of these are related to the increased sense of risk and uncertainty which is part of globalisation.
• There are more family-like global friendship networks and childhood is more toxic today, because of the globalisation of media flows.
• There is more equality between men and women in relationships and more childless couples. This is linked to increased gender equality is an aspect of globalisation.
• There is more experience of inequalities relating to the family and more relative social exclusion. For example poorer families can’t afford an annual holiday abroad.

The relationship between globalisation and family life is one of the more difficult topics within the families and households module. In the blog post below I look at different aspects of globalisation and how these may have changed family life in the UK.

Aspects of globalisation you could consider include:

• economic globalisation: increased trade and economic growth.
• Increased migration: more people coming to the UK from other countries.
• Globalisation of media: more global media flows penetrating family life.
• Increased risk and uncertainty. These are also part of of postmodernisation.
• Greater gender equality is also a global trend.

Aspects of family life you could consider:

• Impacts on the structure of the family: what types of family are more common because of globalisation?
• Relationships between men and women within family life.
• How globalisation may have changed childhood and the relationships between parents and children.
• How government policies on the family has responded to globalisation.

Globalisation and family life: analysis points

Two things to consider here:

• what affects are more immediate and direct, which are indirect and more gradual?
• What consequences are negative and positive. This relates to optimist and pessimist views of globalisation.

Economic globalisation and family life

Global optimists argue that economic globalisation has resulted in increasing trade which in turn has resulted in huge economic growth and rising prosperity.

In 2023, 27% of UK employees worked in jobs connected to global trade (ONS Labour Force Survey), which means huge numbers of families would be affected by a global economic downturn.

Economic growth is correlated with declining birth rates and increasing life expectancy. This in turn means the average household size in the UK is smaller today. There are more one child households than ever and very few households with three or more children.

Increased life expectancy also means there are more multigenerational families with four generations alive. The number of beanpole families has also increased: long and thin families where three generations have only one child each, for example.

Property price speculation by global investors has driven up prices in the UK, especially in London. The basic costs of maintaining a family household had doubled in the last 30 years relative to inflation. This means many people today can’t afford to buy houses which puts some people off having children, so there are more childless couples and more people having families in later life.

The above trend also helps explain why so many young adults today ‘choose’ to live with their parents.

There seems to be a globalisation of ‘single person households’. There seems to be a global trend of increasing numbers of people choosing to live alone (not necessarily not being in relationships). This trend is positively correlated with economic growth: the richer a country the more people choose to live alone.

Increasing inequality is also a consequence of globalisation. For example the norm in Britain is for families to have a summer holiday abroad. However many families can’t afford this which may increase a sense of social exclusion.

Globally, migrant workers sent home $860 billion in 2023, a record high (World Bank, 2024), there are huge numbers of families who depend on one family member working abroad and sending money back home.

Increasing immigration and family life

Increasing migration to the UK is part of globalisation.

In 2024, net migration to the UK was 685,000, with family reunification visas rising by 23% compared to 2021 (ONS, 2024).

Increasing migration to the U.K. means there is increasing cultural diversity and diversity of family structures.  There are more families where British born people have had children with migrants from other countries.

Increased migration means more families are stretched across national borders and have family members living abroad, which in turn reinforces globalisation as more families maintain contacts through media and physical visits.

Immigrant families to the UK have on average higher birth rates than non-immigrant families. A positive effect of this is that it reduces the dependency ratio, however a claimed negative consequence is an increased strain on public services, mainly schools.

Part of globalisation is people displacement following conflict, which sometimes results in the breaking up of families, U.K. policy has focused (to an extent) on taking in orphan refugee children, meaning more ‘global step/ foster families’.

Globalisation of media flows and family life

Cultural globalisation means more people create global friendship groups based on shared interests online. Many people regard these friendship networks as ‘family’, if we follow analysis from the Personal life perspective.

In 2025, over 70% of UK households used video calling weekly to maintain transnational family ties (Ofcom, 2025).

Globalisation also means more media flows. Children more active users of media, more exposed to global media events can have negative effects:

• More difficult for parents to prevent radicalisation (e.g. Shamima Begum).
• More exposure to global media events (mass shootings in USA, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, war and conflicts) children are more risk conscious – anxious kids, more mental health issues. (More ‘toxic childhood’.)
• Parents are more paranoid, more restrictive parenting, less outdoor play.
• In general you can argue more globalisation leads to childhood becoming more toxic.

Increased risk and uncertainty

Globalisation has resulted in more diversity, choice and uncertainty, resulting in decline of people committing to long term relationships. It is also more difficult to maintain long term relationships. Hence we have much higher rates of divorce in our global age.

Globalisation and postmodernisation are closely related. The new family norms are the pure relationship and the negotiated family.

Comparative Perspectives on Globalisation and the Family

The Impact of Globalisation on the Family

Aspect of Globalisation	Positive Impacts on Families	Negative Impacts on Families
Migration & Diaspora	Remittances boost incomes; cultural diversity enriches family life	Family separation; pressure on children left behind
Employment & Economy	New jobs in global industries; higher incomes for some families	Job insecurity; long/antisocial hours weaken family time
Technology & Communication	Families stay connected across borders; online support networks	Digital divide; surveillance and screen-time issues
Cultural Globalisation	Exposure to diverse family norms; acceptance of different lifestyles	Westernisation may erode local traditions
Gender Roles	Women gain opportunities via global labour markets	Care drain from Global South; double burden on migrant women
Consumption & Lifestyle	Wider access to goods/services improves family living standards	Consumerism increases debt; rising inequality

Applying Globalisation and the Family to A-Level Sociology Exams

When answering exam questions on the family, it is useful to be able to apply the concept of globalisation to show evaluation and analysis skills.

How to apply in essays:

• Use migration examples when evaluating family diversity.
• Apply remittances and global work patterns when discussing class inequality and family.
• Use digital technology as an example when discussing the changing nature of family relationships.
• Link cultural globalisation to debates around postmodern family forms and diversity.

Example exam application points:

• “Migration shows how globalisation leads to family diversity, but also raises challenges of separated households.”
• “Digital communication supports the idea that family remains significant even in a globalised world.”
• “Globalisation highlights how families are shaped by wider economic and political structures, supporting Marxist critiques.”

One possible question which may come up on the families and households exam paper is:

Outline and Explain two ways in which globalisation may impact family life in the UK (10)

A good strategy to answer this question is to pick two different aspects of globalisation and discuss how these influence different aspects of family life. For more specific advice on how to answer these see ‘10 mark questions‘.

Two ways in which globalisation may impact family life

I would choose economic globalisation and migration as my two aspects of globalisation. Then I would discuss how these lead to a variety of changes to family life.

It is generally good advice to avoid overlap between your two points.

One aspect of globalization is increased immigration to the UK. This has affected family life in the following ways:

• There are more ethnically diverse families as British born people form relationships and families with people originally from other countries.
• This means there are more families stretched across borders. This could mean more travel abroad to maintain family connections, for those who can afford it.
• There are more people sending money to other countries if their partners have not come to Britain with them.
• Immigrants have higher birth rates so this has positively affected the dependency ratio.
• One downside of the above may mean increased pressure on public services.
• Increased immigration doesn’t necessarily mean increased integration. Migrant families may remain relatively isolated in their own communities.
• For very wealthy families, some have taken advantage of cheap migrant labour to employ cleaners and child carers.
• In extreme cases this is related to an increase in modern slavery, hidden in the domestic sphere.

Another aspect of globalisation is a more globalised economy.

• In general this has resulted in economic growth in the UK. This is correlated with lower birth rates and a smaller family size.
• Recently increased amounts of university students from abroad means fewer places for British children. Some choose not to go to university, which could increase the number of households with young adults.
• There has been a shift in manufacturing abroad. This means a decline in traditional male jobs, more equality between men and women in relationships (link to topic 5)
• There are more financial crises (‘credit crunch’) – more divorce/ family instability (link to topic 2).

Signposting

This post has primarily been written for students studying the families and households topic for A-level sociology.

Students may also like to read this broader introduction to Globalisation.

References and Further Reading

• Office for National Statistics (2024) – Migration and Families: https://www.ons.gov.uk
• Ofcom (2025) – Online Nation Report: https://www.ofcom.org.uk
• BBC (2023) – Food inflation and family costs: https://www.bbc.co.uk