Paper short abstract:

This paper focus on the relationship and challenges faced by adult migrant daughters living in the United Kingdom, London, and their parents left-behind in Brazil. The paper explores the exchange of care practices, such as economic and emotional/moral support at a distance.

Paper long abstract:

Recently international mobility and immigration has affected Brazilian families and introduced a new phenomenon in Brazilian society - contemporary transnational family. By analysing the later historic and socio-economic context of Brazil society, two main migratory waves were identified. The first migratory wave, in the 80s, which was characterized by male migration in search of financial improvement as men were considered the breadwinner and thus the ideal person to go abroad and send remittance back to his family. And the second wave in the 90s, when women have started also leaving the country in search for employment, study and improvement of career. By focusing on the second wave, this paper aim to present that feminization of migration is challenging traditional intergenerational expectations of the role which women should play in family life. In the case of Brazilian society, women are the main source of family practical, emotional and moral support. This social fact can be understood as inheritance of patriarchal society, Catholic Church and lack of welfare-state. This new phenomenon influences the way Brazilian families have organized themselves until recently. Many of Brazilian women who left Brazil in the 90s or early 00s now are in their later 30s or early 40s, and are facing the challenge of traditional intergenerational expectations, once their parents are ageing and they are living apart from them in another far away country. Then, I will present in this paper to what extend adult-migrant daughters and left-behind parents negotiate their relationships, expectations and obligations of transnational care and support.