When care is near and far: Care triangles and the mediated spaces of mobile phones among Filipino transnational families

Abstract

We highlight the complex and multidirectional dynamics of transnational familyhood where flows of care involve multilateral negotiations of competing interests, aspirations, and subjectivities. Drawing on the findings from a mixed-method study among migrant-sending families in the Philippines, we explore how the discourses and practices of transnational parenting are negotiated and contested from the perspective of left-behind children and proximate non-parental carers. By attending to the way ‘proxy’ but proximate care in the homeland intersects with the long-distance care provided by migrant parents, we show how a ‘hierarchy of care access’ is facilitated by differential use of and access to ICTs. This creates disparities in the way care is received, given, and experienced. This not only reveals the mediating power of communication technologies in shaping care relationships and normative familial values that hold together the transnational family, but complicates binary understandings of proximity and distance. © 2021 The Authors