Description
Book SynopsisTransnational Aging and Reconfigurations of Kin Work documents the social and emotional contributions of older persons to their families in settings shaped by migration, their everyday lives in domestic and community spaces, and in the context of intergenerational relationships and diasporas.
Trade Review"These thought-provoking, poetic, critical, nuanced, heartbreaking, and diverse accounts of older people's complex roles in transnational 'kin-work' provide an important and understudied contribution to the wider field of Aging Studies."
-- Annette Leibing * professor of medical anthropology at the Université de Montréal *
“This book is bursting with engaging ethnographic and theoretical contributions from across the world and life course. It’s indisputable: aging and kin-work are critical frames for understanding transnational connections, disruptions, and meaning-making in today’s precarious global economy.”
-- Caitrin Lynch * author of Retirement on the Line: Age, Work, and Value in an American Factory *
"An indispensable contribution to research on transnationalism, family relations and aging and a must read for anyone working on these topics. Apart from providing various ethnographic writings from different authors that describe their findings nuanced and rich in detail, the book enables the reader to gain new perspectives into the lives of aging migrants." * Anthropology News *
"
Transnational Aging and Reconfigurations of Kin Work reminds us of the importance of kinship studies in anthropology, making visible the notion of 'kin work,' that hitherto remained underexplored in transnational and aging studies....An essential and accessible book for academics in the social, human, and public policy sciences, as well as for any researcher or student who seeks to deepen their insights into the everyday processes of aging and care in transnational contexts." * Anthropology & Aging *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Transnational Aging and Reconfigurations of Kin Work
Parin Dossa and Cati Coe
Part One: The Kin-scription of Older People into Care
1. Flexible Kin Work, Flexible Migration: Aging Migrants Caught between Productive and Reproductive Labor in the European Union
Neda Deneva
2. The New Aging Trajectories of Chinese Grandparents in Canada
Yanqiu Rachel Zhou
3. Sacrifice or Abandonment? Nicaraguan Grandmothers’ Narratives of Migration as Kin Work
Kristin Elizabeth Yarris
Part Two: Reconfigurations of Kinship and Care in Migration Contexts
4. Fostering Change: Elderly Foster Mothers’ Intergenerational Influence in Contemporary China
Erin L. Raffety
5. Negotiating Sacred Values: Dharma, Karma, and Migrant Hindu Women
Mushira Mohsin Khan and Karen Kobayashi
6. Transformations in Transnational Aging: A Century of Caring among Italians in Australia
Loretta Baldassar
Part Three: Aging, Kin Work, and Migrant Trajectories
7. Returning Home: The Retirement Strategies of Aging Ghanaian Care Workers
Cati Coe
8. Balancing the Weight of Nations and Families Transnationally: The Case of Older Caribbean Canadian Women
Delores V. Mullings
9. The Recognition and Denial of Kin Work in Palliative Care: Epitomizing Narratives of Canadian Ismaili Muslims
Parin Dossa
References
About the Contributors
Index
