Transnational Elder Care (TEC)
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
Transnational Elder Care describes the emotional, logistical, and financial work of caring for aging parents and older relatives across borders, when adult children live abroad and elders remain in another country. TEC includes coordinating healthcare, managing crises from a distance, arranging visits or temporary relocations, and negotiating which family members carry caregiving responsibilities. It can generate significant guilt, strain, and role conflict, particularly when mobility opportunities clash with expectations of filial care in the origin culture. For globally mobile families, TEC is a major factor in decisions about staying abroad, repatriating, or orchestrating multi-local care solutions. Recognizing TEC allows practitioners to address elder-care dynamics as part of mobility planning, not just as a private family matter.
Comparable terms
Transnational caregiving (migration studies; broader; includes care for children and other kin as well as elders); Long-distance elder care (community usage; descriptive; less explicit about cross-border dimension); Sandwich generation (community, research; adults caring for both children and parents; not inherently transnational); Intergenerational care in transnational families (research; analytic phrase used in recent studies); Family obligation in migration (research; broader; captures normative expectations but not specific care practices).
Why this matters
Including Transnational Elder Care acknowledges that caring for aging parents is a central, often hidden driver of global family decisions about mobility, location, and work. The term helps counselors, HR, and destination services recognize elder care as a legitimate factor in assignment planning and repatriation discussions. It also validates the emotional weight of TEC for adult children who feel torn between opportunities abroad and responsibilities at home.
Cross-references
Moveable Family (Family Dynamics); Ambiguous Loss (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Sense of Agency (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Aging Abroad and “Last Move” Decisions (Transitions & Mobility). Moveable Family highlights family strengths that can support TEC across borders; Ambiguous Loss captures the experience of caring at a distance without full control or closure. Sense of Agency is crucial as families make hard decisions about care; Aging Abroad and “Last Move” Decisions addresses the life-course questions TEC often raises for mobile adults.
Sources
Who Takes Care of the Elderly When We Leave? Negotiating Care in Transnational Families in the Nordic-Baltic Region. NordForsk project. Highlights understudied challenges of transnational elder care. The Role of Geographical Distance and Cross-Border Mobility for Intergenerational Care (2024). DeZIM Institute report. Analyses how distance shapes elder care in transnational families. Transnational families and aged care: the mobility of care and the ageing body. Monash University research. Provides ethnographic insights into elder care across borders.
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