Materialising Care across Borders: Sent Things and Family Ties between Sweden and Ukraine

Abstract

This article is an exploration of transnational family links and how they are materialised. Based on interviews with Ukrainian migrants living in Sweden, we discuss different dimensions of the everyday practices of sending things back and forth between family members. We find that what these packages embody and represent are more complex than tropes of economic need, obligation and responsibility allow for. Of course, in many senses they do reveal stories of highly gendered practices of care and duty, and economic divides between Sweden and Ukraine. We find, however, that they are also stories of mutuality, love, fun and shifting post-Soviet subjectivities. This article then both underlines the enduring importance of physical things in maintaining close family connections across distance and reminds us that these material connections are not fixed but instead are mutable circulations, shaping and shaped by generational change and lifecourse experiences.

‘I Brought My Grandma’s Old Cheese Cutter with Me’: Finns’ Domestic Material Culture in the UK as Translocal Assemblage

“…It is enough if I get Fazer Blue! Leena's mention about receiving Fazer Blue as a gift from family members also implies that it is considered as a form of a mobile, materialised affection and a form of transnational care, echoing the findings of Khrenova and Burrell (2021). Interviewees mentioned receiving small parcels -almost every time containing chocolate -often for Christmas, or 'just because.'…”

“…McKay (2006) and Rubinov (2014) discuss participation in several co-presences through sending material remittances, and explain how giftgiving and transporting items transmit subtle culturally coded messages between the givers and receivers. Sending items can also be seen as a form of transnational care and a way of sharing experiences, as discussed by Khrenova and Burrell (2021). They also found an example of power relations that are negotiated through sending things: (Khrenova & Burrell 2021).…”

“…Sending items can also be seen as a form of transnational care and a way of sharing experiences, as discussed by Khrenova and Burrell (2021). They also found an example of power relations that are negotiated through sending things: (Khrenova & Burrell 2021). In addition to the flows of materialities between sites, the routes between them are also important.…”

“…Numerous interdisciplinary studies exist on migrants' material cultures related to identities, taste, home-making and lifestyle (see e.g. discussions by Khrenova & Burrell 2021;Lauser et al 2022;Marschall 2019;Money 2007;Ran & Liu 2021). My approach is to focus on the everyday materialities that generate (dis)connectedness between translocal sites through the idea of 'translocal assemblage.'…”

Freedom of Expression Across Borders: Communication, Culture, and Language

“…Countless interdisciplinary studies addressed the significance of material objects concerning identity, lifestyle, and homemaking processes (e.g., Khrenova & Burrell, 2021;Ran & Liu, 2021;Marschall, 2019;Money, 2007).…”