The care pentagon: Older adults within Sri Lankan‐Australian transnational families and their landscapes of care

Abstract

Much of the scholarship on care for older parents within transnational families concentrates on challenges migrants encounter when providing care across transnational space. This paper focuses attention on older adults as transnational care recipients, their agency, and alternative sources of care. Drawing on the experiences of 35 affluent, urban older parents residing in Sri Lanka with at least one adult child who is a skilled, permanent migrant in Australia, I examine how the older parents adapt to the migration of their traditional caregivers, and how the family, community, market and state respond to this care gap to varying degrees. I propose a “care pentagon” as a framework to interrogate older persons' negotiations with these multiple caregivers in the home and host countries, and the manner these agents operate to form a tiered network of caregivers. Through the analysis, I highlight the care‐receiver's tendency to self‐care and the agency they exert within their relationships of care. The paper demonstrates that older persons' landscapes of care change both temporally and spatially as their levels of health and independence vary over time.

A conceptual framework studying transnational immigrant family experiences: The phenomenon of Chinese seasonal parents/grandparents in New Zealand

“…Empirically, the paper enriches the literature of transnational family studies by illuminating the very specific and routinised transnational movements of older immigrant family members. This transnational family experience emerges from the time when the rising transnationalism of contemporary international migration encounters the drastic changes of their family dynamics (De Silva, 2017). By exploring the multilevel impact factors behind the formation of transnational families, this paper also brings to light the intricate interactions among different individual agencies within family settings, as well as between individual agencies and wide ranges of social structures (e.g., family, community and nation‐state) during the process of transnational family making.…”

“…As an inevitable outcome of the rapid development of transnational migration, transnational families have drawn substantial scholarly interest from various academic disciplines in recent decades (Baldassar et al, 2007; Waters, 2002). Among them, much of the scholarship has focused on the problematic aspect of ‘doing family’ transnationally, particularly the impact of transnational family separation vis‐à‐vis the function of the family as the basic social unit for individual well‐being and associated societal outcomes (De Silva, 2017; Liu, 2018; Mazzucato, 2011; Zentgraf & Chinchilla, 2012).…”

“…While almost all major immigration destinations have tightened immigration policy to confine the size of their immigration intake in recent decades, transnational families surge mainly because of the increasing restrictions towards family reunifications (Liu, 2016). This scenario creates a forced dimension of family separation in transnational family experiences, particularly exemplified by the case of rising immigration restrictions of the elderly parents of adult immigrants in various regions (De Silva, 2017). Fourth, culturally embedded social practices from both sending and receiving countries also influence transnational family experiences.…”

Cuidados transnacionales y vejez. Aproximaciones teóricas y debates pendientes

“…Vincular migración y vejez también permite comprender hasta dónde la distancia física transforma las dinámicas de cuidados y redefine la relación entre los distintos agentes que proveen cuidados, agrupados bajo la figura del diamante o el pentágono (Estado, mercado, comunidad, familia y sujeto) (Arriagada, 2010;De Silva, 2017). Tal como lo indica Baldassar (2008), estos agentes de cuidados se articulan de distintas maneras según los contextos históricos, políticos y económicos en donde se sitúan.…”

Aging in India: From Family to Institutional Care

“…India, like many Asiatic societies, even in India, intergenerational care and coresidence are rooted in its strong traditional filial obligations. (Buch, 2015;Chang & Chang, 2010;Chou, Kröger, & Pu, 2015;Datta, 2017;De Silva, 2017;Hsieh, Huang, Lan, & Ho, 2017;Ramamurti, Liebig, & Jamuna, 2015;Samanta, Chen, & Vanneman, 2015;Watt et al, 2014). The role of families in caring for the aged is very much rooted in the traditional social structure of India.…”