Who Cares? Older Singaporeans Negotiating Care Expectations and Aging Futures

Abstract

International migration has meant that many transnational families develop transnational circuits of care to maintain collective family welfare. Although the emotional toll of geographical separation on the family has been recognized, the perspectives of elderly family members have remained relatively under-explored. Our paper seeks to plug this gap by first studying how emotions mediate the impact of geographical distance on caregiving and conversely, how distance modulates emotions related to receiving care. Second, it examines the aging futures that the elderly envisage, including the emotions that they negotiate, particularly as they anticipate changing health situations. Our analysis draws on in-depth interviews with 17 older Singaporeans (aged from the mid-60s to mid-90s) with at least one adult child residing overseas to highlight the emotional complexities of eldercare in the context of transnational families.