Materialising Care across Borders: Sent Things and Family Ties between Sweden and Ukraine

Khrenova, Lyudmyla and Burrell, Kathy ORCID: 0000-0001-5961-235X (2021) Materialising Care across Borders: Sent Things and Family Ties between Sweden and Ukraine. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 11 (3). pp. 250-264. ISSN 1799-649X, 1799-649X

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Abstract

<jats:p>This article is an exploration of transnational family links and how they are materialised. Based on interviews with Ukrainian migrants living in Sweden, we discuss different dimensions of the everyday practices of sending things back and forth between family members. We find that what these packages embody and represent are more complex than tropes of economic need, obligation and responsibility allow for. Of course, in many senses they do reveal stories of highly gendered practices of care and duty, and economic divides between Sweden and Ukraine. We find, however, that they are also stories of mutuality, love, fun and shifting post-Soviet subjectivities. This article then both underlines the enduring importance of physical things in maintaining close family connections across distance and reminds us that these material connections are not fixed but instead are mutable circulations, shaping and shaped by generational change and lifecourse experiences.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	44 Human Society, 47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4702 Cultural Studies, 4403 Demography, Generic health relevance
Divisions:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	06 Sep 2021 09:05
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2025 14:16
DOI:	10.33134/njmr.399
Open Access URL:	https://journal-njmr.org/article/10.33134/njmr.399...
Related Websites:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3136056