Intimacies Compared: The Emotional Responses of Family Caregivers to Internal and International Migration

Abstract

This article takes a relational approach to studying the effects of internal and international migration on family intimacies. Drawing on interviews with adult children caring for parents back home, we examine how caregivers respond to the roles that dispersed siblings play in networks of eldercare. Using the concept of “relational comparison”—defined as how caregivers judge the efforts that different kinfolks make to fulfill their responsibilities and obligations—we argue that the impact of national borders and geographic distance on parental care should be assessed through the intimacies that multilocal families co-create. The (mis)alignment between non-migrant caregivers’ expectations and their migrant siblings’ practices generates myriad emotional responses, shaping whether they view the impact of international and internal migration on eldercare as largely similar, fundamentally different, or simply insignificant. These feelings affect who caregivers turn to when they need help, further shaping the configuration of care networks during moments of crisis.