Reciprocal transnational caring : experiences of the aged and their emigrated children

Abstract

Globalisation is increasing and influences the families that emigrate as well as those that stay behind. In South Africa the left behind aged parents of adult children who emigrated experience a sense of helplessness as they feel that they have raised children who abandoned them when they relocated to other parts of the world due to push and pull factors. They also feel that they are missing the experiences of being part of their grandchildren’s lives. Emigration of adult children disrupts the normal functioning of the family for the emigrants as well as those left behind. The reciprocal caring becomes difficult and complicated. The aim of the study was to explore and describe reciprocal transnational caring as it was experienced by aged parents in a selected retirement village in South Africa and their emigrated children. Descriptive phenomenological research was done where scheduled interviews were used with informed consent to obtain data from the 23 selected participants in a retirement village and their emigrated children abroad. Interviews were carefully recorded and transcribed where after the gathered data was used to identify the essence and supporting constituents of the phenomenon. The essence and constituents were thoroughly described and a literature study was done of existing material to integrate the findings of the phenomenon. The findings revealed the essence as “We do love and care, but we can’t touch and hug”, and the supporting constituents: “We are as involved as we can”, “We live a dual life”, “The grandchildren outgrow the grandparents”, “Technology makes it much easier”, “They have a future as ‘world citizens’” and “Financially we are independent” were identified.