Research at the intersection of migration and aging has primarily focused on elderly migrants, and has only recently begun to address the issue of transnational family relationships of older parents left behind by their migrant children. The current study contributes to this nascent area of research by examining the intergenerational relationships of Korean Americans with at least one older parent living in Korea. Korean immigrants represent a theoretically rich population to study because, as labor migrants, they have largely been successful in American society, but retain values of filial piety from their native culture. The empirical design consists of in-depth, open-ended interviews of twenty Korean Americans living in the Northeast of the U.S. Most subjects are first-generation immigrants from Korea. A grounded-theory approach is used to detect consistent thematic content across interviews. Findings suggest that there is uncertainty among these immigrants as to future expectations for their parents’ later years and how to plan for their care. They tend to feel ambivalent over the difficulties of maintaining family ties and fulfilling filial obligations over great distance, a challenge further complicated by practical issues of formal elder care availability in contemporary Korea. There is also some tension, both internally for the immigrants and between family members, over future plans and expectations for care, including the expectations of parents. Such conflicting factors mean that when the time comes to respond, intergenerational care provision will involve complex negotiations among members of these transnational families.
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