Encounters in the Transnational: Care, Responsibility, and \u27Doing Family\u27

Poster Presentation This paper engages with the theme of transnational care and responsibility by examining the different ways an international student migrant undertakes ‘doing family’ with their ‘traditional family at home, their siblings and with their friends in ‘host’ country. ‘Doing family’ like ‘doing gender’ involves a construction that is reproduced through repeated performances. The process and performance of doing family is cast against the idea of the ‘naturally’ existing set of relations. The discussion draws on 14 months of fieldwork in Toronto, Canada and New Delhi, India. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 respondents: 22 Indian international students studying at universities and colleges in Toronto, 23 family members/parents and 20 return international students in New Delhi. I mounted an online survey to facilitate data collection on the socio-economic background and educational profiles of the past and present students and their families. This paper draws on the interviews and ethnographic research in Toronto and New Delhi. The findings reveal that ‘doing family’ in the transnational context involves the interaction of different groups and individuals – some who would be defined as family in traditional models (parents, siblings) and others who would not (friends). It is a reciprocal process to which all members have to contribute and also receive from the relationship through activities of ‘caring’, ‘supporting’, and feeling responsible for anothers mental and physical well-being. Technology plays an important role in enabling migrants to be able to perform of the activities from afar with the same ease as they did when they were closer to their parents/siblings ‘at home’