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Abstract

With transnational mobility on the rise, care is today increasingly carried out across borders, which profoundly impacts the wellbeing of migrants and their families. Drawing on two in-depth qualitative studies with Brazilian migrants in the United States, this article extends discussions on transnational care circulation by exploring two understudied dimensions in transnational care arrangements: legal status and sibling relationships. These two dimensions highlight the importance of legal (undocumented) status and larger family networks, besides the traditional aging parent-adult child dyad, in transnational care practices, family cohesion and wellbeing. The article's findings are two-fold. First, it shows that undocumented siblings experience long-term psychosocial stress resulting from the legal impossibility of their return visits and to make up for that, they provide emotional forms of care from a distance. Second, it reveals a gendered and sexualized component to care provision within family and sibling relationships, wherein women and gay siblings are typically expected, almost as a ‘naturalized’ role, to take on care responsibilities. This is the case regardless of being a migrant or non-migrant, documented or undocumented sibling.