The continually growing number of Asian migrant workers, the majority of whom are in the prime of their reproductive lives and leave families including children behind in their home countries, raises important questions about how families are sustained across transnational spaces. It is our aim in this paper to enhance understanding of the complex relationship between migration and the family in Asia by exploring bonding and parenting efforts between migrant parents and their left-behind children across time and space. In doing so, we draw on and engage with the literature on global householding, transnational families and emotion. Using qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with carers of left-behind children in Northern Vietnam, the paper also sheds light on children's attitudes and reactions to their parents' migration as well as changes in their feelings over time. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Vietnam Children transnational migration Emotion Family

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