Concluding reflections: ‘Care circulation’ in an increasingly mobile world: Further thoughts

Merla, Laura; Baldassar, Loretta

doi:10.5565/rev/papers.2268

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…‘Flow of care’ related to the presentation of negotiated, reciprocal, and shared family collective informal care was based on ability, availability, and capacity to care, occurring in motion, fluidly, through time and space as the care receivers transitioned and moved geographically to be with family as they aged and/or family moved to be with them. In addition to being consistent with an Ethics of Care framework, this notion develops further the work related to the circulation of care being developed by Baldassar and Merla (2014) ; Merla & Baldassar, 2016 ). The concept of care circulation offers a broad view on transnational care through its focus on ‘the reciprocal, multidirectional, and asymmetrical exchange of care that fluctuates over the life course and within transnational family networks subject to the political, economic, cultural, and social contexts of both sending and receiving societies’ ( Baldassar & Merla, 2014 , p. 25).…”

Section: Discussion: Who Exactly Is ‘The’ Carer and Where Is This Casupporting

confidence: 59%

Family care across diverse cultures: Re-envisioning using a transnational lens

Andruske

O’Connor

2020

Journal of Aging Studies

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In an increasingly globalized world, the importance of developing a more culturally complex understanding of family care has been clearly identified. This study explored family care across three different cultural groups - Chinese, South Asian, and Latin American - living in a metropolitan, Pacific-West, Canadian city. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 29 family members from one of the three family groups exploring how they practiced ‘care’ for their aging, often frail, relatives. The importance of conceptualizing family care as a transnational, collective undertaking emerged from the outset as critical for understanding care practices in all three cultural communities. Three themes identified contributed to this conceptualization: the need to broaden the understanding of family care; the centrality of geographic mobility, and the need to rethink the location of aging and consider its relationship to mobility; and the use of technology by extended family networks to facilitate continuity and connection. An over-riding notion of ‘flow’ or fluid movement, rather than a fixed, static arrangement, emerged as critical for understanding family care. This perspective challenges the dominant approach to studying family care in gerontology that generally conceptualizes family care practice as one local primary caregiver, often female, with some support from other family members. Understanding family care from a transnational lens builds support for the importance of a feminist Ethics of Care lens and has important implications for policy and service delivery practices.

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Section: Discussion: Who Exactly Is ‘The’ Carer and Where Is This Casupporting

confidence: 59%

Family care across diverse cultures: Re-envisioning using a transnational lens

Andruske

O’Connor

2020

Journal of Aging Studies

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“…These examples offer strong arguments for considering older people in transnational families as important agents of transnational solidarities and encourage a more systematic examination of the role of the zero generation from a ''care circulation'' perspective. Developed by Merla and Baldassar (2016), this approach provides both a ''conceptual framework and a methodological lens'' to study care exchange mechanisms within transnational families. From this perspective, observing care giving across borders and life course allows ''to capture all the actors involved in family life as well as the full extent of their care activity, including practical, emotional and symbolic, that defines their membership in a family'' (Merla and Baldassar 2016: 276).…”

Section: Transnational Grandparenting In the Digital Age: A Theoreticmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From this perspective, observing care giving across borders and life course allows ''to capture all the actors involved in family life as well as the full extent of their care activity, including practical, emotional and symbolic, that defines their membership in a family'' (Merla and Baldassar 2016: 276). Moreover, within this framework, transnational family scholars focus on various factors shaping processes of care circulation, whereas institutional contexts merge with family configurations and individual resources (Kilkey and Merla 2014;Merla 2014;Merla and Baldassar 2016;Nedelcu and Wyss 2016). As a result, care arrangements within transnational families may strongly vary according to origin and host countries, family life course, class and gender factors, and transnational resources.…”

Section: Transnational Grandparenting In the Digital Age: A Theoreticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational grandparenting in the digital age: mediated co-presence and childcare in the case of Romanian migrants in Switzerland and Canada

Nedelcu

2017

Eur J Ageing

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Taking transnational families of Romanian migrants in Canada and Switzerland as a case in point, this paper accounts for the emergence of new patterns of "grandparenting" and "doing family" practices in the digital age, based on ICTs-mediated co-presence. It shows that migrants' parents are able to acquire manifold technological skills in order to cope with distance and separation and to improve the quality of their interaction and relationships with children and grandchildren living abroad. Ordinary co-presence routines within polymedia environments allow grandparents to take on their role as childcare providers across borders and develop new transnational lifestyles. Thus, despite contrasting feelings of well-being and distress that mediated co-presence generates, migrants' parents are able to place themselves as key actors within the transnational family in the digital society and invent new grandparenting practices.

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“…Moreover, while stressing the role of the macro determinants cited above, Merla (2014: 128) emphasizes 'the importance of combining an analysis of practices related to the circulation of care at the macro, meso and micro levels'. This implies paying attention to other influential elements, including community and family networks, family life course, gender, age and socio-economic status (Baldassar 2007(Baldassar , 2008(Baldassar , 2014Baldassar et al 2007;Merla and Baldassar 2016).…”

Section: Zero-generation's Role In Transnational Families: Theoreticamentioning

confidence: 99%

Grandparents on the move: a multilevel framework analysis to understand diversity in zero‐generation care arrangements in Switzerland

Wyss

Nedelcu

2019

Global Networks

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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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Concluding reflections: ‘Care circulation’ in an increasingly mobile world: Further thoughts

Cited by 21 publications

References 20 publications

Family care across diverse cultures: Re-envisioning using a transnational lens

Family care across diverse cultures: Re-envisioning using a transnational lens

Transnational grandparenting in the digital age: mediated co-presence and childcare in the case of Romanian migrants in Switzerland and Canada

Grandparents on the move: a multilevel framework analysis to understand diversity in zero‐generation care arrangements in Switzerland

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