Transnational Caregiving between the Generations

Abstract

This chapter develops the core themes of our inquiry. It addresses and expands the question, posed before us by Finch and Mason (1993, p. 162), of ‘how significant are kin as sources of practical and financial support’, and applies it to a transnational context. Do people feel they have a responsibility to provide such assistance for relatives, or at least to certain relatives across distance? Central to Finch and Mason’s theoretical approach is the argument that family responsibilities are the outcome of negotiation. Caregiving between family members is not a straightforward product of fixed rules of obligation, but the result of longstanding processes of negotiation based on a combination of normative guidelines and negotiated commitments. The process of negotiation:

Can only be understood with reference to the biographies of the individuals involved and the history of their relationships, as they have developed over time. Biographies are themselves part of the negotiating process.

(Finch & Mason, 1993, p. 79)

The sense of normative obligation is often strongest between parents and children. When sense of obligation is less strong, as it might be for example, between siblings, then personal liking takes on greater importance. Thus, who will provide what kind of support is a matter of negotiation in practice, discussed sometimes in ‘family conference’, in other cases based on tacit understandings that flow from past practices, previous commitments and joint histories.

When I first came to Perth my Mum was devastated. I said ‘look mum, I’m still going to support you’. She was still thinking monetary-wise. She didn’t think that my brothers could give the care that I’d given her since Dad died. She thinks that she is not going to get that sort of care if I get married, so it was a big issue culturally. I said to [my husband], ‘if you marry me, I’m not asking you to take the responsibility, but you are married to a family you know, it’s not just me. [My mum] has been depending on me, you know’. She was very devastated, she knew that eventually I have to be with my husband, that’s what you get married for, and we wanted to start a family. It was hard.

(Singaporean migrant daughter)