This is a fascinating and important book, which as well as providing nuanced and detailed descriptions of the lives and caring experiences of migrants and their families, makes sophisticated use and usefully develops key theoretical ideas. It is also of methodological interest and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of major contemporary policy issues. The book is based on several linked research studies into the family and caring lives of those who have migrated to Australia from across the globe – some variously motivated by economic, educational or romantic impulses, others fleeing conflict or oppression as refugees. In mapping the trans-global social contacts and support arrangements of diverse groups of migrants, who have travelled to Australia from Europe, Asia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iran, the authors draw our attention to the many factors that have shaped their care-giving experiences. They consider the very different contexts in which migration takes place, the kinds of support family members can give and feel they should deliver to each other; the way opportunities for travel and communication affect trans-national care-giving and the way visiting and face-to-face contact sustains, shapes and changes familial relations.

Strongly influenced by earlier conceptualisations of how familial obligations emerge through biographical experience, are shaped by socio-economic context and culture, and are enacted on the basis of negotiations based in ‘generalised reciprocity’ (Finch Reference Finch1989), the authors of Families Caring Across Borders use Australia, with its complex historical and varied contemporary experiences of migration, as an extended case study of how migration affects the family, inter-generational relations and the caring lives of individuals, and of its significance for public policy. Their analysis stresses that care-giving can and does continue, even when family members live far distant from one another – with emotional, financial, moral and practical support taking place across the lifecourse. Many ‘carers at a distance’ take very seriously what they consider to be their obligations and duties towards their family members, especially parents entering old age or experiencing illness or disability.

Among the book's strengths is its attention to the way family decision-making and behaviour about how to care for each other is shaped both by public policy at the macro level and by socio-economic conditions in specific local communities at the meso-level. The authors emphasise the relevance of their policy conclusions beyond the specific contemporary circumstances of Australia, and highlight differential access to new communications technologies and the way conflict and poverty affect international contact and exchange among different groups of migrants and their families.

The concluding chapter presents a model of ‘active trans-national family relations’ which differentiates types, modes and patterns of care, conceptualises these as mediated variously by obligation, capacity, ability and need, and emphasises that they are played out through kin relationships and migration histories, and affected by life and family stage. Here the detailed policy significance of the evidence is indicated. At the macro level, capacity to care is shaped by migration policies, visa restrictions, employment policies, communications technologies, and international relations. At the local and community levels, the availability of local services and the infrastructure of support for older, sick and disabled people exert important influences, and at the micro-level, personal resources – time, money, language, health and values – play a crucial role. This chapter also stresses the way that migration histories and the identities of parents, migrants and kin shape the obligations and commitments accepted and acted upon by individuals. These new insights and the evidence base from which they spring extend the concept of ‘negotiated family commitments’ and introduce new phrases to the theoretical lexicon of care: whether or not there has been ‘licence to leave’ (acceptance of the migrant's decision to move away and the support given as a result) emerges as important. Whether individuals see themselves as ‘labour’ or ‘humanitarian’ migrants or as ‘world citizens’, and whether they are motivated by individual, career or love interests, ‘despite their varied transnational identities … most expressed a high sense of obligation to provide care’ (p. 216).

This book will be of interest to all those interested in migration, intergenerational relations and care. There are important messages here for policy makers and legislators, and valuable insights for those who work with or study the lives of older people whose kin live at a distance. The authors emphasise the ‘ongoing impact’ of migration on relationships in the old and the new homeland, broadening previous understandings of trans-nationalism, and enabling the impact of migration on those who remain behind – often the parental generation – to be more adequately researched, theorised and understood. They note in previous studies of trans-nationalism a ‘gap in scholarship’; this volume goes some way to filling that gap, and deserves to be widely read.