Kinkeeping and Caregiving: Contributions of Older People in Immigrant Families*

Many immigrant families in the U.S. contain transnational older people who maintain loyalties to their homeland and to the homes of their American children. These dual commitments give rise to a unique life style among seniors who move between kin in different countries and continents. Because the overwhelming majority of older people around the globe are content to in place, that is, to grow old in the place where they have lived out their lives (Longino, 1994), these foreign-born seniors must be regarded as remarkable. What unifies them is their willingness to relocate (at least temporarily) in old age to the distant country and foreign culture that younger family members call home. In terms of origins and personal biography, the transnational elderly are admittedly diverse. They are men and women, married and widowed, prosperous and poor, sophisticated and provincial. What unites them is the life style of family caregiving detailed in this paper. Transnational older people carry out caregiving responsibilities in two or more countries-their homeland, the U.S., and wherever else children or other close relations have settled. Wherever they hail from, and whether they come to the U.S. as a temporary visitor or as a permanent resident, they share a common experience as elderly newcomers. They share both their desire to be close to their U.S.-based children and their longing for faraway people and places (Treas and Mazumdar, 2002). Their experiences are shaded by the realities of old age. Declines in health, energy, and functioning threaten their travel between countries, their accommodation to American culture, and their ability to be of use to kin.Their contributions to kin are substantial. Older parents' kin-keeping and caregiving make possible their children's participation in the American economy and society. Most are family re-unification immigrants, petitioned and sponsored by children who are U.S. citizens and can afford to support them. However, even older immigrants who live permanently in the U.S. travel to their home villages to visit and help out family members who remain behind (Treas and Mazumdar, 2002). Returning from their birthplaces, they nurture family ties by sharing news and photos of distant kin with their U.S.-based relatives. Those who cannot immigrate have come on a six-month visitor's visa to celebrate the weddings and graduations of their U.S.-based grandchildren or to lend a hand with family affairs. In the face of a global diaspora of professional workers from less developed countries, some elderly people establish a pattern of seasonal migration between the residences of grown children. This transnational lifestyle is a new phenomenon, because circular migration over long distances was unthinkable, especially for old people, before the advent of inexpensive air travel.Older members in transnational families demonstrate a complex blend of practical caregiving activities and symbolic kin-keeping. The practical aspects involve the domestic duties necessary to maintain a household and care for children and the sick. By symbolic kinkeeping, we refer to activities that go beyond any functional requirement to keep families together, such as arranging family gatherings, marking birthdays, mediating conflicts, and disseminating news of kin. Symbolic kin-keeping preserves the meaning of kin relationships through activities that conserve ethnic culture, celebrate religious values, pass on unifying family stories, and share treasured recipes. This symbolic kin-keeping may take on special importance for older transnational persons, because they depend on younger immigrants whose very incorporation into American society may threaten customary understandings and traditional practices of elder care.For families separated by great distance and national boundaries, carework and kinkeeping by older people becomes an essential medium for reinforcing personal relationships, affirming the primacy of kin ties, and sustaining mutual obligations. …

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