ABSTRACT
Transnational families have been the focus of much of the literature on international migration since the late 1990s. Their analysis could benefit from the ‘New Kinship’ approach, which tends to focus on the mundane everyday practices that generate family belonging and identity. In today’s world, the accessibility and affordability of many forms of media enable transnational family members to communicate and relate on a daily basis. Through a case study of Tajik families spread across Russia and Tajikistan, I show how the everyday performance of family relationships through ICTs (information and communication technologies) is particularly polarised by two dimensions: care and control. Maintaining family relationships requires the demonstration of care in its different forms (financial, moral, emotional), but also the exercise of control along lines of gender and generation. To refuse such demands may break relationships. At stake is the construction of intimacy and reciprocity, which allow for the reproduction of family relationships over time.
