ABSTRACT
The emergence and development of Fataluku informal transnational labour migration to the UK coincided with the introduction and rapid uptake of digital communication and social media platforms. These opportunities have radically influenced the patterns and practice of relationships between distant migrants and home-based families. Chapter 5 highlights the changing patterns of Fataluku transnational social relations and the capacity for migrant children to participate in much more meaningful ways in the customary life and ritual practices of home-based communities. The discussion is anchored theoretically, in the critical globalisation literature and especially the work of Giddens on the changing social dynamics and the disembedded subjectivities of ‘late modernity’. It highlights the changing patterns of chain migration and the capacity of Fataluku labour migrants to make periodic returns to family and friends in Timor-Leste, reaffirming and strengthening their familial networks of connection and relation.
