ABSTRACT
Our chapter draws on our research of Italian and Caribbean migrant communities in Britain in order to investigate the interplay between care circulation (Part A, this volume) and social and cultural capitals in transnational family relationships. Our analysis highlights theories of cultural and social capital to show how care circulated in transnational families can be interpreted as a cultural and social resource. We begin our discussion showing how specific practices of circulated care among transnational families are linked to particular understandings of cultural identity. Within the context of social capital, we approach our understanding of care circulation as both an obligation and a resource—something that flows multidirectionally across countries and generations and also helps to maintain bridging and bonding networks across geographical and generational divides. Transnational care flows also provide individuals and family networks with cultural resources, which help strengthen their sense of belonging to their local, ethnic, diasporic and transnational communities. Thus, in the second part of our discussion, we adopt a Bourdieusian framework of cultural capital to examine the role that cultural capital plays in shaping the circulation of care amongst migrant families and their children (i.e., the second generation). In particular, we highlight ways in which the circulation of care establishes cultural capital and social mobility amongst particular migrant communities. We similarly assess how migrant and minority ethnic groups might be able to utilise their cultural capital as part of circulating care transnationally.
