Transnational families and the provision of moral and emotional support: the relationship between truth and distance

“…and availability of siblings in the homeland, care practices differ between the groups according to direction of care, intensity of ‘distant thinking’, level of financial support received and given, preferred type of communication technology, and ideas about truth and illness (Baldassar 2007).”

“…‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild 1983) necessary to maintain mutually beneficial reciprocal exchange relations and sustain a ‘sense of family’ across distance (Baldassar 2007: 392; see also Baldassar 2008; Baldassar et al. 2006; Ramirez et al. 2007; Ryan 2008; Velayutam and Wise 2005; Wilding 2006).”

“The Chinese elderly in some areas have been in a miserable situation due to the unwillingness of migrant children to support them and weakened social controls to punish these children (Baldassar 2007a).”

“In her research, Baldassar ( 2007b ) concludes that transnational families engage in similar forms of caregiving as proximal families: financial (e.”

“In addition, relying only on transnational communication inevitably leaves space for significant ambivalences (Baldassar 2007; Svašek 2008).”

“These have shaped their digital media practices, the affective labours of their kin-work (see Di Leonardo, 1987), and their experiences of the pandemic as a crisis (see for example Baldassar, 2014; Baldassar, 2007).”

“The increasing sophistication of telecommunications means that when once it was relatively easy to ‘hide the truth’ about a crisis (illness, relationship breakdown, etc.) from faraway kin, today it is increasingly difficult (although not impossible) (cf. Baldassar 2007).”

“Furthermore, family life across borders can provide insights into transnational care and support systems which, particularly in economically marginalized regions of the world, constitute the pivot for collective survival (Baldassar, 2007).”

“This is understood by migrants – and presumably by their counterparts – as a way of ‘protecting’ the other(s) from any bad news that would however lie out of their control (cf. Baldassar, 2007; Wright, 2012).”

“communication (Baldassar 2007; Dreby 2006; Parreñas 2005a; Wilding 2006), to ways of handling child-rearing and issues of identity (Whitehouse 2009), parenting and co-parenting (Pribilsky 2004; Whitehouse 2009) with key gender angles (Parreñas 2005a), and challenges that arise from the separation and eventual reunific…”

“…a high intensity of support exchange and strong family solidarity – in part thanks to newly available communication technologies and/or cheaper transportation services (Baldok 2000; Treas and Mazumdar 2004; Baldassar 2007; Boccagni 2015; Faist 2004; Baldassar et al. 2016; Rooyakers et al. 2016).”

“They also, though to a lesser extent, focus on caregiving relationships between migrant children and their elderly parents in the home country (Baldassar 2007; Baldock 2000; King et al. 2014) and on spousal relationships (Mahler 2001; Menjívar and Agadjanian 2007; Pribilsky 2004).”

“We also discuss how, in spite of these possibilities, these forms of communication and exchange delimit the possibilities and quality of relatedness, especially over time, as relational closeness tends to wither if care at a distance is not complemented with return visits and ‘moments of physical co-presence’ (Baldass…”

“Baldassar (2007) argued that the very existence of transnational livelihood might be an incentive to establish regular and structured contact via phone calls and e-mails.”

“Surprisingly few studies, however, examined transnational sources of support, historically important for refugees (Baldassar 2007) and increasingly available through low-cost information and communication technologies (Navarrete and Huerta 2006).”

“Therefore, relations within transnational families are not just dependent on individual love and care, but on a number of social, economic and culturally shared expectations, which determine ‘who provides care for whom, how much, when and why’ (Baldassar 2007: 393).”

“In a similar study, Italian migrants in New Zealand were found to relinquish their claims to inheritance in order to compensate, financially and morally, for their sibling’s larger share in parental care (Baldassar 2007).”

“The role of transnational means of communication in supporting the flow of symbolic, social and knowledge capital, for example, has been mostly analyzed in instances where the parent-child relationship is done from a distance (Baldassar, 2007).”

“Financial resources also ensure migrants’ ability to maintain co-presence through the use of technology such as mobile phones and increasingly the Internet (Baldassar, 2007; Merla, 2012).”

“The ‘need to “hear” and to “see” each other’ is valued both on special occasions and during a ‘crisis’ (Baldassar, 2007b: 390–1, 399).”

“The romanticized view of transnational family relationships in the diaspora investment literature can fail to capture the ‘tensions, strains. . . and potential for acrimonious conflict and breached relations as well as the mutual interest of family’ (Baldassar, 2007; Olwig, 2002).”

“…and the rich diversity of technological platforms that are currently available (e.g., private messages versus public posts, texting versus calling) (Bacigalupe and Brauninger 2017; Baldassar 2007; Bruess et al. 2015; Child et al. 2015; Child and Petronio 2015; Cramer and Mabry 2015; Walker 2015).”

“Scholarship about transnational caring for the dying and about transnational bereavement has increased in recent years (see, for example, Baldassar, 2007, 2014; Baldassar, Baldock, & Wilding, 2007; Skrbiš, 2008; Zontini, 2015), in part because migration patterns indicate that, since 1995, the…”

“…and see their migrant friends and kin as important source of information on life in the diaspora, migrants depend on their kin, who eventually look after their children, their parents or their houses, and who are supposed to support their eventual homecoming (Levitt 2001; Baldassar 2007).”

“However, these influences vary depending on social class, gender, children's age, notions of family access, and skills to use new technologies (Baldassar, 2007; Madianou, 2016; Madianou & Miller, 2011; Parreñas, 2005, 2008).”

“Emotional concealment can be observed among all the respondents, which was also documented among other groups of migrants in previous studies (e.g. Baldassar 2007; Schmalzbauer 2008).”

“…studies have explored how migrant children provided care and support to older adults in home countries (Baldassar, 2006, 2007; Baldock, Wilding, & Baldassar, 2007; Baldock, 2003), but very few investigated whether and in what ways family relationships and social connections are related to the…”

“While transnational care arrangements have received considerable scholarly attention in recent years (Baldassar 2007; Boccagni 2015; Bryceson and Vuorela 2002; Parreñas 2001), there is still little understanding of migrants’ personal support networks given that their lives simultaneously span two…”

“…distance, as well as the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 mechanisms, processes and practices sustaining these family relations (Bryceson and Vourela, 2002; Parreñas, 2005; Baldassar, 2007).”

“…researchers have noticed that in the face of the transformation of the family at the transnational level, some women who cannot practice caregiving “traditionally”, i.e. with a physical co-presence, may express culpability (Aranda, 2006; Baldassar, 2007; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1997; Parrenas, 2005).”

“Baldassar (2007) documents how platforms such as Skype, FaceTime and social networking sites have made virtual co-presence possible while reinforcing the sense of ‘being there for each other’.”

“In this sense, polymedia can be a useful tool in sieving and managing emotions across time and space zones, and an effective way of managing ‘truth and distance’ where distance can be used to hide the truth (Baldassar, 2007).”

“The concepts of ‘emotion work’ and ‘emotional labour’ have been influential, being used in various forms such as organisations and occupational roles (Hochschild 1983), mothering and motherhood (Erickson 1993), and also transnational family relationships (Baldassar 2007a, 2007b; Ryan 2008).”

“Nevertheless, only informal caregiving (predominantly emotional and moral support) within transnational families (e.g., Baldassar 2007a, b, 2011, 2013, 2016; Baldassar et al., 2016, 2017; Brijnath, 2009; Dekker & Engbersen, 2014; Madianou 2014, 2016; Madianou & Miller, 2013; Spitzer et al., 2006)…”

“…hints already exist that migrants practice emotion work thus the cognitive modification of emotions in the sense of Hochschild’s concept, in order to maintain their sense of family ties over distance, which is caused by time and space (see eg Baldassar, 2007; Ryan, 2008; Maehara, 2010; Lau, 2010).”

“…with the three-generation family The motives for migration are varied and sometimes very pragmatic, such as worries for the future, making use of better opportunities for children, hopes for economic success and a desire to reunite with kin who had emigrated earlier (see Baldassar 2007; Ho 2008).”

“In an analysis of the relationship of truth to care in transnational families, Baldassar (2007) emphasizes the status of seeing with one’s own eyes as a measure of truth.”

“Migrants often feel compelled to repay what could be termed ‘the gift of communality’ with remittances and /or emotional care in the form of presents, phone calls and letters (Baldassar 2007).”

“Distance remains highly relevant for family dynamics and the negotiation of kinship after migration (Mason 2004, 421; Baldassar 2007).”

“I take as a starting point studies concerned with the relationship of migration to emotions (Baldassar 2007, 2008; Gray 2008; Skrbiš 2008; Svašek 2008, 2010; Andits 2015), identity (Ahmed 1999; Brubaker and Cooper 2000), and the self (Whittaker 1992; Walkerdine 2006; Con-radson and McKay 2007;…”

“…mode, wherein face-to-face communication is the key form of intimate communication (Caughlin & Sharabi, 2013), including practical support as well as sharing knowledge and experience beyond words (Baldassar, 2007), we can observe the biggest challenges in the form of relationships weakening.”

“Understandings of duty, guilt or spatial mobility practices are thus analyzed at a methodologically nationalist interface of conjugal relations between individual migrants and their “homeland” parents or children (Baldassar 2007, 387).”

“ition in migration research (Baldassar, 2007; Baldassar & Merla, 2014; Carling, Menjívar, & Schmalzbauer, 2012; Kilkey & Merla, 2014; Madianou & Miller, 2012), transnational fathering practices are still marginalized.”

“New communication technologies and the ease of travel have facilitated the contemporary forms of transnational involvement (Baldassar, 2007; Levitt, 2014; Vertovec, 2001).”

“…remesas (remittances) matter not merely because they afford the purchase of material goods, but more importantly because they foster emotional ties with migrant mothers and thus sustain their imaginaries of migration (Baldassar 2007; Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 1997; Horton 2008; Levitt 1998).”

“Given our specific research interest and the available data, in this article we will not address intergenerational transfers within transnational families (Sana and Massey 2005; Baldassar 2007b; Rooyackers, de Valk, and Merz 2016; King et al. 2014; de Bruine et al. 2013).”

“Baldassar (2007) has expounded certain key determinants of the transnational caregiving model, namely the ‘capacity’ of kin to participate in the process, defined by financial, temporal, technological, physical and mental resources available to them, along with their sense of ‘obligation’ or duty…”

“Baldassar (2007, 2008) proposed that it may be possible to create a sense of shared presence, without physically being together in a face-to-face interaction.”

“caring for the family both locally and transnationally (Baldassar, 2007; Treas, 2008).”

“Emigrating families and those left behind relied on communication technologies to maintain relationships (cf. Baldassar 2007a, b; Falicov 2007; Francisco 2013; Horst 2006; Wilding 2006).”

“Similarly, Baldassar (2007a) conceptualizes migrancy as “a set of processes that extend beyond settlement to incorporate the continuing connections between home and host countries over time, including those of the subsequent generations” (p. 294).”

“Others have focused on how the traditional roles of women, like motherhood, have been transformed with this transnational movement (Baldassar 2007; Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 2005).”

“While there have been multiple studies on migrants’ digital media practices during a crisis (Baldassar, 2007; Cuban, 2018; Horst, 2011; Parreñas, 2020; Peile, 2018), limited studies have focussed on digital practices of ageing individuals (Moore and Hancock, 2020), especially of those from migrant…”

“…call other relatives to inquire about an elderly person’s health or wellbeing if the older adult is prone to downplay his or her troubles, or may visit home more often, if they can afford it and if their legal status allows it, to see for themselves how their relatives are doing (Baldassar 2007).”

““Migrant” kin are categorised in opposition to “homeland” kin (Baldassar, 2007, p. 387).”

“Thus, such internal factors, especially issues such as emotional bonding, are relevant to transnational digital families, and this has been noted historically by researchers outside the sociolinguistic and language policy domains; for example, see Baldassar (2007).”

“Baldassar and Boccagni (2015) note that the emotions of migrants are often socially and culturally (re)constructed.”