Abstract/Summary

Transnational families are defined as familial groups where one or more family members spend all or most of their time geographically separated from each other across borders, but nevertheless share a collective sense of connection as a ‘family’. Care of older people and transnational motherhood have been investigated, with considerable policy concern about children ‘left behind’. Care has been conceptualised as both ‘proximate’ and ‘at a distance’, circulating among family members through time and space. Migration regimes and other institutional contexts provide parameters for caring arrangements, which are also shaped by migrants’ agency in negotiating caring arrangements. Children’s caring roles, including language brokering, may be significant; they are not just ‘dependents’ receiving care, but provide care and support for older and younger generations and their peers, in ‘proximate’ and ‘at a distance’ relationships. Such caring arrangements may have positive and negative impacts on family members’ wellbeing and opportunities.