Actress, Mahnaz Afshar, with her husband after immigration to Germany

Family reunification

• There are no global treaties specifically related to family unity, but it usually refers to the rights that ‘respect, protect and support the family, including its ability to be together’. A universal meaning of ‘family’ also does not exist, though the UNHRC says it embodies ‘all interpersonal relations that are held to constitute a family in the society concerned’.

• Since many family members are pressured to migrate to send remittances back home, families are often separated. When the first in the family to migrate deems it suitable, either because they became properly documented or reached a certain economic level, they usually start the process to bring the rest of their family.