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Care Talk Within Transnational Families: “I Hold Myself so I Don’t Cry”

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Transnational Family Communication

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Abstract

This chapter looks closely at the communication surrounding the exchanges of care within both local and transnational families, including how members re-organized and interacted around health issues and medical problems. The focus is mainly on the care talk that both left-behind and local families engaged in when struggling to cope with health and medical problems and how their identities and relationships formed around these conversations. The families communicated about a type of care that was characterized by protecting the person experiencing a crisis, providing material goods, and then, checking on the effects of the support given. The tensions that the participants experienced in making emotional and ethical decisions are highlighted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health and Community Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

    Sondra Cuban

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  1. Sondra Cuban
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Correspondence to Sondra Cuban .

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Cuban, S. (2017). Care Talk Within Transnational Families: “I Hold Myself so I Don’t Cry”. In: Transnational Family Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58644-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58644-5_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58643-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58644-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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