Conditioning grandparent care-labour mobility at the care-migration systems nexus: Australia and the UK

Authors

Majella Kilkey
Loretta Baldassar, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Volume

50

Issue

5

First Page

1157

Last Page

1176

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

64570

Funders

European Commission

Comments

Kilkey, M., & Baldassar, L. (2023). Conditioning grandparent care-labour mobility at the care-migration systems nexus: Australia and the UK. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50(5), 1157-1176. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2279732

Abstract

A ‘transnational turn’ in welfare regime theory has disrupted methodologically nationalist analyses of care regimes generating analytical frameworks that capture the interdependencies between care and migration regimes. Those frameworks share a focus on migration for paid care labour as the vehicle connecting care and migration regimes transnationally. In this paper, we highlight familial care-labour mobility as an additional mechanism connecting care and migration regimes across borders. Drawing on the care circulation framework, we argue that a focus on these informal global care chains helps to bridge macro structural level approaches of the frameworks that focus on paid care labour with the more micro-level transnational family care approach. We focus on grandparent care-labour mobility, arguing that while it is ‘familial’, ‘informal’, ‘private’ and ‘invisible’, its dynamics and the lived experiences of those entwined within it, are mediated at the care-migration systems nexus. Through case-studies on grandparent care-labour mobility between China and Australia and India and the UK, we examine how the care-migration systems nexus is shaped by the prevailing logic of neoliberalism and ensuing patterns of stratification within care and migration systems. We conclude by highlighting the need for a transnational ethics of family care to govern the care-migration systems nexus.

DOI

10.1080/1369183X.2023.2279732

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