The consequences of migration for the migrants' parents in Bolivia

Abstract

The existing literature on transnational care suggests that it is possible to care for ageing parents from afar. However, most of these studies are based on research in higher‐income countries, where families have access to institutional support and where travel and communication networks are generally of high quality. Studies focusing on lower‐income countries of origin have found a greater likelihood of migrants' parents being in a vulnerable situation. Here, though, there has been a preference for focusing on rural areas. In this article, we address this gap by reporting on a research project that spans rural, urban and peri‐urban areas, as well as different migration streams (regional South–South and South–North), and ask how migrants' parents fare during their adult children's absences in a context of very weak institutional support, widespread poverty and inequality. We find that parents in urban and peri‐urban areas are generally better able to negotiate their adult children's absences, while those in rural areas experience an increase in their vulnerability. However, there are also stories that are in tension with these general trends, which indicates that social networks, migrants' destinations and parents' socio‐economic statuses also mediate the availability of transnational care.

Migration and development: The overlooked roles of older people and ageing

“…While parents who remain in the country of origin when their adult children migrate are often seen as vulnerable and needing care, many are actually active participants in their children’s migration projects, particularly while they are still healthy and able to lead active lives. As Bastia et al (2021) have shown, migrants’ parents can sponsor their children’s migration, which can be seen as a form of ‘reverse remittance’ (Mazzucato, 2011). In addition, once their children find jobs abroad, the parents who stayed in the country of origin can play a key role both as receivers of those remittances as well as managers of how the money is spent, overseeing investment projects, or the building of their children’s homes.…”

“…Given that many parents also have significant caring responsibilities towards grandchildren, they may use the remittances to cover their grandchildren’s expenses, such as food, clothes or schooling (Yarris, 2017). Many grandparents also end up financially supporting their grandchildren, even when the grandchildren’s parents do not send any money (Bastia et al, 2021). In this context, they are effectively saving their children the cost of remitting, enabling the savings earned through migration to be invested in other projects.…”

“…On top of their economic marginalisation, orphan pensioners also suffer extreme loneliness, especially if all their children have moved away and are unable or unwilling to visit. Such isolation, often in remote and depopulating villages where most services have closed down, is also common in other countries, including Bolivia (Bastia et al, 2021), Bulgaria (Conkova et al, 2019; Iossifova, 2020) and China (Congzhi and Jingzhong, 2014).…”

Work as affective care: Visiting parents’ experiences of paid work abroad

“…From this standpoint, material and affective come into contact and develop through processes of circulation, immobility, dis‐embodiment and dis‐embeddedness. Moreover, the affective and material play out at multiple scales—the self, the couple, the (transnational) family—and convey a collective understanding of security and well‐being where care for oneself and care for others are deeply intertwined and generate new forms of affective relationships, trust and mutual reliance (Bastia et al., 2021; Sampaio, 2020).…”

Migration, ageing and transnational care arrangements of Ecuadorian care workers in Spain

“…The literature on transnational families has expanded the notion of care, showing empirical evidence of how care can be performed despite geographical distances. However, it also highlights the fact that this can generate new inequalities, both within transnational families (Skornia & Cienfuegos, 2016) and across different homes, depending on class and social origin (Bastia et al, 2021). The 'care circulation' approach, as defined by Baldassar and Merla, is 'the exchange of care in families (broadly defined) as inherently reciprocal and asymmetrical, governed by the “norm of generalised reciprocity”—the expectation that the giving of care must ultimately be reciprocated, although it may not be realised' (2014).…”