Berracas Caring. The Birth, Life and Death of Transnational Families: A Multi‐Sited Ethnography Across Colombia, Spain and France

Abstract

[Abstract] This article focuses on transnational care and social protection arrangements in families scattered across their origin context, Colombia, and their migration contexts in France and Spain. It considers gendered caring practices and their evolution over long time frames, applying a life course and trajectory perspective. The article draws on a multi-sited ethnography conducted in Marseille, Madrid, A Coruña, Medellin and Bogota, with 31 members, mostly female, of three transnational families. Our research allows us to observe the transnational family in the various contexts the family members are located in—‘here,’ ‘there’ and ‘beyond,’—encompassing intergenerational perspectives of the younger, adult or elderly respondents. The results show the birth, life and death of transnational families related to the evolution of family ties intertwined with the migratory, labour and life trajectories of its members, and with their care and social protection arrangements and the underlying tensions.