Come fare le madri da lontano? Percorsi, aspettative e pratiche della "maternità transnazionale" dall’Italia

How can mothering be practised at a distance? On the life trajectories, per-sonal expectations and practices underlying transnational motherhood in Italy - Abstract Transnational caregiving, i.e. the ongoing affectional and material care relationships between migrant parents and children left behind, has gained increas-ing salience in international literature. The paper builds on the results of one of the first empirical investigations on the topic in Italy. The biographical experience of transnational mothers is approached within a local immigration context (the prov-ince of Trento). Relevant insights are thus provided on four areas of concern: the origin and the development of migration processes; the relationships with the motherland and the forms of transnational caregiving; the relationships with local communities, and the networks migrants rely on, in the context of settlement; the personal experiences of transnational motherhood and the future life expectations. Besides making sense of the differences in transnational parenthood stemming from national origins, and from the structuration of migration systems, the paper copes with a key question: to what extent, and under which conditions, can rela-tionships of "proximity at distance" be fungible with those drawing on physical proximity? What is lost and what is retained in the bond between dear ones - in terms of exchanging information, affections and material resources - once it cannot rely on physical co-presence?

Keywords Female migration - Migrant mothers - Transnational caregiving - Transnational family life - Care work.

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Paolo Boccagni, Come fare le madri da lontano? Percorsi, aspettative e pratiche della "maternità transnazionale" dall’Italia in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 1/2009, pp 45-66, DOI: 10.3280/MM2009-001003