Dutch migrants and their parents back home: caring from a distance

This chapter, co-authored by Loretta Baldassar, Raelene Wilding, and Cora Baldock, forms part of a larger Australian Research Council–funded study examining transnational caregiving among migrant families. Focusing on Dutch migrants in Perth, Western Australia, and their ageing parents in the Netherlands, the chapter explores how families maintain emotional bonds and caregiving responsibilities across great distances. Through detailed interviews with migrants and their parents, the authors examine patterns of communication, the negotiation of visits, the burden of gendered expectations, and the unspoken emotional tensions that arise in transnational family life. Despite technological advances that make contact easier, the study reveals the continued challenges of distance, especially for women, who often carry the emotional and practical responsibility of family cohesion. The chapter offers a compelling portrait of modern migrant kinship and the enduring human need for connection.