Families Caring Across Borders

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: Transnational Caregiving

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 1-16

3. Researching Transnational Caregiving

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 17-32

4. Contexts of Migration and Aged Care: Research Case Studies

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 33-77

5. Transnational Caregiving between the Generations

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 78-107

6. Communicating Across Borders

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 108-136

7. The Role of Visits

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 137-171

8. Implications for Policy

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 172-202

9. Conclusion: Towards a Model of Transnational Caregiving

   • Loretta Baldassar, Cora Vellekoop Baldock, Raelene Wilding

   Pages 203-226

10. Back Matter

    Pages 227-259

    PDF

This is an ethnographic account of the transnational caregiving experiences and practices of Australian migrants and refugees, caring for their elderly parents in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and New Zealand. It describes how people respond to unprecedented mobility (both voluntary and forced), globalized job markets and an ageing population.

• aging
• migration
• mobility
• childhood studies

'This is a fascinating and important book, which as well as providing nuanced and detailed descriptions of the lives and caring experiences of migrants and their families, makes sophisticated use and usefully develops key theoretical ideas...They [the authors] note in previous studies of trans-nationalism a 'gap in scholarship'; this volume goes some way to filling that gap, and deserves to be widely read.' - Sue Yeandle, Ageing& Society

'In the present globalised and internationalised world context, this book is a very relevant and timely contribution to an understanding of what it means to be caring across national borders.' - Dr Mabel Lie SRA:News (Social Research Association)

'...this book is a landmark study in an under-researched area. It will be of great relevance to a broad academic audience and to anyone interested in caregiving and transnational migration.' Lena Näre, Finnish Journal of Ethnicity and Migration

• School of Social and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia, Australia

  Loretta Baldassar

• Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

  Cora Vellekoop Baldock

• School of Social Studies, University of Western Australia, Australia

  Raelene Wilding

LORETTA BALDASSAR is Associate Professor in Anthropology/Sociology at the University of Western Australia. Her publications include Visits Home: Migration Experiences between Italy and Australia (2001), which won a 2002 NSW Premier's Literary Award and From Paesani to Global Italians: Veneto Migrants in Australia (with Ros Pesman, 2005) which is shortlisted for the prestigious NSW Premier's History Award 2006. Loretta is currently working on two co-edited volumes provisionally titled Second Generation Migrants: Contesting Definitions and Realities and Transnational Intimacies: Public, Private, and National among Italians around the World as well as a large community project called 'Italian Lives in Western Australia'.

CORA VELLEKOOP BALDOCK is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, where she also holds an Honorary Doctorate. She has written extensively on paid and unpaid (volunteer) work of women, as well as the history of Australian and New Zealand sociology. Cora's experiences as a migrant caring for her elderly parents and also her own daughter back 'home' in the Netherlands inspired her contribution to the research in this book.

RAELENE WILDING is a Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology, School of Social Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her research into families, transnationalism, media, communication technologies and love has, to date, been published in journalsincluding Global Networks, Journal of Sociology, Media International Australia and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

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