Mother, grandmother, migrant: Elder translocality and the renegotiation of household roles in Cambodia

Abstract

This paper explores the participation of elder members of Cambodian households in translocal livelihoods. Based on linked, rural–urban fieldwork rooted in a Phnom Penh garment worker enclave, it highlights three aspects of elder translocality in Cambodia. First, it shows that the logistics of older people’s migrations are not predicated directly on physical mobility or lifecycle, as often assumed in the literature, but that these are merely two amongst a variety of factors that instigate nested, longer and shorter term cycles. Secondly, it explores how older members of migrant households engage agentively in ‘supportive’ migrant roles such as childcare, as opposed to passively complying with the needs of their families. Finally, the paper demonstrates how elder members of translocal households – recognising their changing economic and ecological environment – utilise the performance of these duties as a means of retaining status in a marketising context.