Mobilities and Communication Technologies: Transforming Care in Family Life

Abstract

In this chapter, I argue that any discussion of migration and mobilities in contemporary family life leads directly to an analysis of the role of new media and communication technologies in sustaining relationships across distance. Using ethnographic case studies that highlight different types of care exchange in diverse families, I examine a series of propositions about how a migration, mobilities and communication technologies lens helps us to re-examine and revalue care in migrant and ‘mobile’ family life. A care circulation framework is presented as a methodological tool that helps to avoid the implicit normative valuing of certain types of care, and caregiving relationships, over others. The chapter concludes with some reflections on the limits of distant care and policy implications.