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Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life pp 41–63Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Elderly Migrants, Digital Kinning and Digital Home Making Across Time and Distance

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Abstract

In this chapter, we problematize notions of home and home making for older migrants by considering their entanglements in places, lives and memories that span the geographically and temporally distant and proximate. We do so by drawing particular attention to the role of online communication technologies and transnational relations of care in their home-making practices and processes. Two case studies are used to illustrate these processes. Although distinctive, they have in common a reliance on new digital communication technologies to help them maintain their identities, communities and families—and thus their sense of home—in the world. This reliance, we argue, is an example of the processes of ‘digital kinning’ that have become an essential tool for migrants to create and sustain imaginaries of home.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the generous contribution of time by the participants, their family, carers and communities, including staff at the aged care facility in which the data for this paper were obtained.

Funding

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP160102552 Ageing & New Media: A new analysis of older Australians’ support networks, 2016–2018, led by Loretta Baldassar and Raelene Wilding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia

    Loretta Baldassar

  2. La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Raelene Wilding & Shane Worrell

Authors
  1. Loretta Baldassar
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  2. Raelene Wilding
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  3. Shane Worrell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Loretta Baldassar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Society Studies, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Bernike Pasveer

  2. Centre of Diaconia and Professional Practice, VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway

    Oddgeir Synnes

  3. Faculty of Health Studies, VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway

    Ingunn Moser

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Baldassar, L., Wilding, R., Worrell, S. (2020). Elderly Migrants, Digital Kinning and Digital Home Making Across Time and Distance. In: Pasveer, B., Synnes, O., Moser, I. (eds) Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life. Health, Technology and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0406-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0406-8_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-0405-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-0406-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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