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Abstract This paper is an ethnographic exploration of a seldom-discussed ‘micro’ dimension of transnational studies, the practices of long-distance family relations and aged care. The importance of time as a key variable in transnational research is demonstrated through comparisons of the care exchanges of three cohorts of Italian migrants in Australia and their kin in Italy. A focus on ‘transnationalism from below’, the more quotidian and domestic features of transmigrant experience, highlights the importance of considering the role of homeland kin and communities in discussions of migration. The analysis of transnational care-giving practices illustrates that migrancy is sometimes triggered by the need to give or receive care rather than the more commonly assumed ‘rational’ economic motivations. Transnational lives are thus shaped by the ‘economies of kinship’, which develop across changing state (‘macro’), community (‘meso’) and family migration (‘micro’) histories, including, in particular, culturally constructed notions of ‘ideal’ family relations and obligations, as well as notions of ‘successful’ migration and ‘licence to leave’. Keywords: Transnational FamilyTransnational Care-GivingItalian MigrationAged Care and Migration Sincere thanks to Terri-Ann White, Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Western Australia, and to the participants in The Europeans Symposium, ‘Migrancy and its Futures’, July 2003. Many thanks also to Ralph Grillo, Raelene Wilding and Cora Baldock for their helpful comments on early drafts, to my co-editor Nick Harney and to the anonymous JEMS reviewers. Notes 1. This project was funded by an Australia Research Council Large Grant A00000731, ‘Transnational care-giving: cross-cultural aged-care practices between Australian immigrants and their parents living abroad’. Data collection comprised approximately 200 life-history interviews and participant observation with migrants and refugees in Perth and their parents abroad in Italy, The Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore, New Zealand and in the transit country of Iran. 2. There are about 1, 000 places currently available in the parent category and 3, 500 places in the contributory parent category. All parents applying for a visa in these categories must meet the ‘balance of family’ test, having at least half of their children living in Australia. Children of both parents are counted in the test and ‘the quality of a parent's relationship with their children is not a relevant factor’ (http: //www. immi. gov. au/migration/family/parents/parents. htm 01/05/06). 3. Applicants for visas in the parent category pay between AUS 3, 000 and over AUS 30, 000 (for contributory parent category), described by the Australian Department of Immigration ‘as a contribution to their ongoing health costs’ (Booklet 3, Parent Category, http: //www. immi. gov. au/allforms/990i/990ibooklet3. htm 01/05/06). 4. Mason (1999) examines different ‘styles of reasoning about proximity, distance and kinship’. In her terms, a ‘distant thinker’ is someone who does not view distance as an impediment to functioning kin relationships and who has a view of distance as ‘malleable’. This is in contrast to ‘local thinkers’ who feel that effective kin support is only possible locally, and ‘reluctant distant thinkers’ who are willing to relate to kin over long distances on a temporary basis. 5. Data about the 1960s cohort included over 40 interviews conducted by the author during 1987–89, 1993 and 1999–2000 with families in Sicily and the Veneto region in Italy and their kin in Perth and Queensland (cf. Baldassar Citation2001b). Data about the 1970s cohort included approximately 12 interviews drawn from the collaborative study by Baldassar, Baldock and Wilding conducted in 2000–03 as well as an additional five interviews conducted by the author in 1999 with members of the Western Australian branch of the National Italian Australian Women's Association (cf. Baldassar Citation2000). Finally, data about the most recent cohort comprised approximately 20 interviews drawn from the collaborative study by Baldassar, Baldock and Wilding, some of which were conducted by research assistant Stephen Bennetts. Additional informationNotes on contributorsLoretta Baldassar Loretta Baldassar is Associate Professor in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia
Loretta Baldassar (Thu,) studied this question.