In this article, we account for the emergence of new ‘being together’ practices that transnational families develop through ICT‐mediated communication. Drawing on the case of Romanian migrants in Switzerland, we show how political and technological factors, family norms and obligations, as well as individual preferences and aspirations interact and generate novel ordinary co‐presence routines that rely on multiple media affordances to recreate a space for family practices and shape different ways of ‘doing family’ at a distance. This study shows how a subtle sense of each other's everyday life combines with possibilities and feelings of ‘being and doing things together’ at a distance, through multimodal interactions, reflected in ritual, omnipresent and reinforced co‐presence routines. Although these routines are the drivers of new forms and feelings of togetherness, they generate ambivalent effects that range from immediate reciprocal wellbeing and emotional comfort to new expectations of solidarity, family tensions and constraints. In conclusion, ICT‐mediated ordinary co‐presence not only mirrors the ‘normal’ functioning of transnational families, but it also reflects, more generally, an expression of the cosmopolitanization of everyday life.

This first special issue dedicated to grandparenting patterns and their significance within transnational families sheds new light on transnational grandparenting as a phenomenon reflecting the convergence of three major transformations in today's societies – global ageing, diversification of migration and mobility flows, and lifestyle individualization. It contains five articles based on empirical studies conducted in several European countries (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain, Romania, and the Czech Republic) focusing on transnational families from both EU and non‐EU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Morocco, Algeria, Switzerland, Britain, Portugal, Romania, and Vietnam). These articles portray transnational grandparenting through the prism of three nexuses (mobile/non‐mobile, migrant/non‐migrant, and kin/non‐kin), thus allowing one to understand grandparents' roles in the transnational circulation of care in the light of contemporary family transformations on the one hand, and of the increased transnationalization of everyday ‘doing family’ practices on the other.

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Among the various forms of transnational grandparenting is the engagement of the so‐called zero generation – the transnationally mobile parents of adult migrants – in caring for their grandchildren abroad. It constitutes a distinct kind of intergenerational solidarity within transnational families. By taking migrant families in Switzerland as a case in point, in this article we attempt to broaden the existing research by adopting a comparative, qualitative approach towards understanding the commonalities and differences of childcare organization involving grandparental support in European and non‐European transnational families. By taking into account the main objective and the temporality of grandparents' visits in Switzerland, we identify six different types of childcare arrangements. While these arrangements are shaped by the discriminatory Swiss migration regime, several other institutional, familial, and individual factors help to promote or impede them, or to change their dynamics. Thus, we introduce an innovative, multi‐level, analytical approach towards studying the various ways in which the parents of adult migrants of different nationalities take part in the transnational circulation of care.

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This article is based on a qualitative and comparative study of childcare arrangements that European and non-European grandparents engage in in Switzerland. It shows that the Swiss migration regime significantly shapes these arrangements, as a result of free circulation versus visa constraints that discriminate EU and non-EU nationals. It also points to other structuring factors, such as the Swiss care and gender regimes or the quality of intergenerational relations.

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