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Older People’s Contribution to Development Through Carework: The Role of Childcare by Grandparents in Migration and Development

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  • Julie Vullnetari

    (Julie Vullnetari is the corresponding author (J.Vullnetari@soton.ac.uk) University of Southampton, England SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.)

Abstract

This article applies a generational lens to understanding the role of older people in development, focusing primarily on older parents who stay in areas of origin while their adult children emigrate. An emerging body of literature from around the world demonstrates that older parents frequently provide childcare for their migrant family members, mainly in the country of origin, and sometimes through migrating themselves. This article goes further. It makes the conceptual argument that this carework should be regarded as development work. Drawing on research into Albanian families, located in Albania and Greece, the article asks how does carework by older people contribute to development and what are the relations of power around this? The analysis shows that grandparents provide significant support particularly for childcare but also for social reproduction and critically for building and maintaining productive assets and safety nets for migrants in their home country. In short, grandparent carers are the lynchpins in complex intergenerational strategies of migration and livelihood development. The analysis contributes to the literature on migration and development by bringing older people from the margins to the centre of these debates. Older people’s childcare, together with other productive and reproductive activities that they undertake for migrant children in countries of origin, is central to invisibilized ‘economies of care’ that underpin migration’s contribution to development. Moreover, this carework by older people contributes to development in home and host countries, thus bridging the Global South–Global North divide. Finally, older people’s carework is gendered, with older women doing the vast majority. Taken together, these insights disrupt two dominant (economistic and Eurocentric) narratives that: (a) development in migration contexts only happens in the Global South and (b) the most significant drivers of this development are migrants’ social and financial remittances from the Global North.

Suggested Citation

  • Julie Vullnetari, 2023. "Older People’s Contribution to Development Through Carework: The Role of Childcare by Grandparents in Migration and Development," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 23(4), pages 444-460, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:23:y:2023:i:4:p:444-460
    DOI: 10.1177/14649934231195511
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dwaine Plaza, 2000. "Transnational Grannies: The Changing Family Responsibilities of Elderly African Caribbean-Born Women Resident in Britain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 75-105, July.
    2. Merril Silverstein & Zhen Cong & Shuzhuo Li, 2006. "Intergenerational Transfers and Living Arrangements of Older People in Rural China: Consequences for Psychological Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(5), pages 256-266.
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    4. Nancy Folbre, 2006. "Measuring Care: Gender, Empowerment, and the Care Economy," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 183-199.
    5. Alexandre Abreu, 2012. "The New Economics of Labor Migration: Beware of Neoclassicals Bearing Gifts," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 46-67, April.
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