Aging within Transnational Families

Transnational grandparenting: an introduction

“…Within the growing field of transnational family research, studies of transnational grandparenting still remained rather scarce. It is only recently that this topic has gained momentum and a number of studies have put the emphasis on the active role that grandparents play within the transnational circulation of care (Bastia 2009;Da 2003;Horn 2019;Lie 2010;Nedelcu 2007Nedelcu , 2009Nedelcu , 2017Plaza 2000;Treas and Mazumdar 2004;Wyss and Nedelcu 2018;Zhou 2018;Zickgraf 2016). These studies reverse the image of migrants' parents as 'orphan pensioners' (King and Vullnetari 2006) left behind in the country of origin, passively receiving assistance, in particular financial support, from their offspring living abroad (Baldassar et al 2007;King and Vullnetari 2006).…”

“…These mobile grandparents -also called 'zero generation' (King et al 2014;Nedelcu 2007Nedelcu , 2009Wyss and Nedelcu 2018;Zickgraf 2016) or 'flying grannies' (Plaza 2000) -make a substantial contribution to transnational family life, and in particular to the care and education of their grandchildren. Sometimes these mobile grandparents end up settling in their adult children's host country, thereby becoming migrants themselves (Horn 2019;King et al 2014;Nedelcu 2007Nedelcu , 2009Treas and Mazumdar 2004;Wyss and Nedelcu 2018;Xie and Xia 2011;Zhang 2014).…”

“…However, being a mobile grandparent requires specific resources, particularly good health, enough cultural and economic capital, and freedom from other more pressing family demands or obligations in the country of origin or elsewhere. At the same time, the adult migrants who benefit from this support at least need to provide the necessary living conditions to welcome their parents during their long or short stays (Horn 2019;Nedelcu 2009). Above all, the host-country migration policies have the most dramatic impact on the grandparents' capacity to move across borders.…”

“…Indeed, due to visa requirements and restrictions imposed on nationals from the Global South, not all grandparents are on an equal footing vis-à-vis the Western countries' migration policies. Studies on 'zero generation' grandparents show just how much these policies can drastically limit possibilities of temporary sojourns, especially those of Latin Americans coming to Spain (Horn 2019) or Moroccans to Belgium (Zickgraf 2016). The situation is very different for grandparents who can move between countries without a visa, as within EU/Schengen space, for example from Poland to Norway (Bjørnholt and Stefansen 2018) or Bulgaria to Spain (Deneva 2012).…”

“…also reveals the complexity of issues that characterize ageing within transnational families (in terms of care, vulnerability, migration regimes, social policy and so forth). Horn (2019) identifies four categories of older family members -(1) 'stayers', namely migrants' parents left behind in the country of origin; (2) 'transnational travellers', older family members who travel regularly to the country of residence of their migrant offspring; (3) 'late in life family joiners', those who reunite with migrant relatives abroad at an advanced age, often after retirement; (4) 'ones ageing abroad', firstgeneration migrants who have spent most of their working life in one or more host countries.…”