What happens when the parents of migrants age and need care in mobile and aging societies? Ethnomorality of Care acts as a window in sharing how physical distance challenges family-centered elderly care by juxtaposing transnational families with non-migrant families.

A novel approach that explores intentions and moral beliefs concerning elderly care alongside practical care arrangements, Ethnomorality of Care presents a concept of care which recognizes how various factors shape the experience of care, including: national, regional, and local contexts, economic inequalities, gender, care and migration regimes. Based on the findings of a multi-sited research carried out between 2014 and 2017 in Poland and the UK, this perceptive volume also seeks to demonstrate how researchers and practitioners can use ethnomorality of care approach to examine non-migrant families and other types of care.

Helping readers to better understand the lived experience of care receivers and givers beyond kinship care, Ethnomorality of Care will appeal to graduate students, researchers, policy makers and care practitioners interested in fields such as migration studies, transnational studies and social and cultural gerontology.

About the Author
Agnieszka Radziwinowiczowna is Assistant Professor and Project Manager at the Centre of Migration Research at the University of Warsaw, Poland Anna Rosinska-Kordasiewicz is a Research Fellow at the Centre of Migration Research at the University of Warsaw, Poland Weronika Kloc-Nowak is a Researcher at the Centre of Migration Research at the University of Warsaw, Poland

Reviews

"This book is a highly original exploration of the complex negotiations of moral and practical issues faced by transnational families with ageing relatives. Through the skillful analysis of the multifaceted interrelations of beliefs, intended actions and actual practices of care we get a better understanding of the moral, relational and political challenges to local, national and transnational care arrangements. Ethnomorality of Care provides a much needed cohesive perspective in times of ageing migrating societies."

Bernhard Weicht is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Innsbruck and the author of The Meaning of Care.

"This excellent and fascinating book breaks new intellectual ground developing the concept of the ethnomorality of care to extend understanding of what Polish families think about, intend to do about and actually do about the care of ageing family members in the context of high rates of outward migration and low levels of state provision for elder care. Based on an ambitious research design composed of surveys, indepth interviews and ethnogaphic observations spanning Poland and the UK, Radziwinowiczowna, Rosinska-Kordasiewicz and Kloc-Nowak offer the reader a rich body of data, which is presented in an eminently readable manner. Their insightful analysis will have resonance beyond Poland, particularly in other Central and Eastern European countries experiencing similar challenges related to rapid population ageing, high rates of emigration and social and economic transition."

Majella Kilkey is Reader in Social Policy at the University of Sheffield and editor of Family Life in An Age of Migration and Mobility. Global Perspectives through the Life Course.

"The authors of this study are after a[n] all-encompassing analytical concept, one that captures 'care as outstretched between lived social norms defined in moral terms (moral beliefs), care intentions and actions (care arrangements)'. For this purpose, they have devised a new term, the 'ethnomorality of care' ... By exploring the ethnomorality of care in two communities - the provincial Polish towns of Konskie and Kluczbork - the authors sought to assess how well their members were able to put into practice the types and level of care presented as ideal. The inhabitants of these communities overwhelmingly declared their support for care by - and within - families. However as the authors discovered, changing economic and social conditions, such as deindustrialisation, increased female labour force participation and migration, challenged families' ability to adhere to this norm, despite paying lip service to it."

Sonya Michel is Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland and editor of Women, Migration, and the Work of Care: The United States in Comparative Perspective and Race, Ethnicity and Welfare States: An American Dilemma? Book review appeared in the International Journal of Care and Caring.

"The book investigates the "lived experience of aging" in two Polish towns, comparing the experiences (over time) of parents with adult children abroad; parents whose children live elsewhere in Poland or locally; and childless older people. It also explores the "care intentions" of migrants: how they envisage what will happen if their parents in Poland need more intensive support. Poland is interesting as a case study of a society with, on the one hand, an ageing population and mass out-migration, which creates a need for care, and, on the other, a self-image as a place where family is of the highest value."

Anne White, UCL, School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Book review appeared in Migration and Society.

Book Information
ISBN 9780815354031
Author Agnieszka Radziwinowiczowna
Format Hardback
Page Count 214
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 453g