The Roles of ICTs in Sustaining the Mobilities of Transnational Families

• Published in: Families in Motion: Ebbing and Flowing through Space and Time pp. 99 - 116
• Main Author: Cuban, Sondra
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing Limited 25-10-2019
• Subjects: Sociology; USA; Gender; ICTs; qualitative research; communication; migrants
• ISBN: 9781787694163; 178769416X
• DOI: 10.1108/978-1-78769-415-620191007

Abstract
This chapter is based on a study of 60 migrant women in Washington State, USA, and their communication with their families in and across borders through information and communication technologies (ICTs). Four themes were identified in the research concerning the uneasy ways family members used the ICTs to: (1) predicate migration decision-making through word-of-mouth and social media; (2) facilitate the movement of members across borders through stepwise migration; (3) affect the transition to a transnational family through establishing a sense of co-presence; and (4) mediate care through communication chains. The significance of the study demonstrates the need for relational thinking about transnational family communication and the mobilities of families. Transnational family members develop sophisticated ways of communicating through ICTs, albeit with difficulty, and which are embedded in interdependent systems of migration and mobilities.