Displaying grandparenting within Romanian transnational families

Abstract

In this article, I use the analytical framework of ‘displaying family relationships’ to explore the transnational grandparenting practices of Romanian families. I discuss the theoretical aspects of the concept of displaying with regard to its scope, specificity and manifestation. I emphasize the uniqueness of each instance of displaying, while also revealing the various patterns through which family‐related motivations trigger individual behaviour. Highlighting the intersections between such internal motivations and displaying behaviour, the research underlines the various challenges that transnational grandparents encounter, and the ways in which they react to them.

Transnational ageing and “care technologies”: Chinese grandparenting migrants in Singapore and Sydney

“…The decision to move described above resonate with research observed of PRC grandparenting migrants in Australia, Canada, and the United States and United Kingdom (Da, 2003; Lie, 2010; Xie & Xia, 2011; Zhou, 2012), as well as of grandparenting migration more generally (e.g., Ducu, 2019; Horn, 2019; Nedelcu, 2017; Nedelcu & Wyss, 2019; Plaza, 2000; Treas, 2008; Zickgraf, 2016). Other than to relieve their children's financial burden by helping with childcare duties, supporting the moral and cultural cultivation of the next generation and consolidating familyhood were key reasons for the grandparents to embark upon migration later in the lifecourse.…”

Revisiting Global Care Chains: Power Inequalities in Filipino Transnational Families’ Caregiving Arrangements

“…Through their fulfilment of caregiving obligations, stay-behind families can function, while highly gender dichotomized familial patterns continue to thrive. Contrary to those who argue women's status can be raised when they have earning power, the value of reproductive work is largely overlooked and remains in the hands of women family members, as demonstrated in other countries (Ducu 2020;Yarris 2017). Some stay-behind husbands participate in caregiving at home, but this is because they redefined their masculine identity (Fresnoza-Flot 2014; Hoang and Yeoh 2011).…”

“…The caregiver in Filipino migrant women's households is usually a female member of her immediate or extended kin: notably a migrant's mother, sister, adolescent daughter, aunt, cousin, or mother-in-law (Ducu 2020;Fernández in this volume;Pantea 2012;Save the Children 2006). She assumes the caregiving obligations and domestic chores of the absent mother.…”

“…There is rich literature focusing on the experiences of these migrant women (e.g., Anggraeni 2006;Gamburd 2010;Hondagneu-Sotelo 2007;Lutz 2016;Parreñas 2001), but it is only recently that scholars have started paying attention to the women in female migrants' kin networks who take care of their households back home (e.g., Fresnoza-Flot and Nagasaka 2021;Pantea 2012;Mazzucato et al 2015;Yarris 2017). In the burgeoning corpus of migration studies, it remains rare to find studies that give equal weight and attention to the viewpoints of migrant parent(s) and the women taking care of their households in their countries of origin (Dankyi et al 2017;Ducu 2020;Poeze et al 2016).…”

Relações duradouras para além de fronteiras: jovens filipinos migrantes na Europa e seus cuidadores que permaneceram nas Filipinas

“…Studies about them remain rare at this moment (e.g. DANKYI et al, 2017;DUCU, 2020;HOANG, YEOH, 2011;LAHAIE et al, 2009;PANTEA, 2012;PINGOL, 2001;POEZE et al, 2017;YARRIS, 2011YARRIS, , 2012. These works show that caregiving obligations coupled with migrant parents' expectations engender caregivers' stressful situations, which subsequently affects their physical and emotional wellbeing (see also DREBY, 2010).…”