Family ties in an era of transnational migration are constantly being either challenged or facilitated by changing political, social, economic and technological conditions in the global world. Within Asia, family formations and practices are especially shaped by transnational mobilities that are primarily transient, repeated and circular. Drawing on the efflorescence of research on Asian transnational families, this chapter first utilises ideologically laden imaginaries to give coherence to notions of familial belonging despite being apart physically. Second, it highlights how transnational families are realized through lived experiences, where intimacies are negotiated across transnational spaces in the context of new communication technologies and the time-structuring conditions of Asia's prevailing migration regimes. Finally, it examines how families assume transnational morphologies with the strategic intent of ensuring economic survival or maximizing social mobility. The growing literature on Asian transnational families is thus paving the way for a more critical understanding of gender and generational relations, identities and politics within families.
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