ITALIAN MIGRANTS IN AUSTRALIA AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ITALY: RETURN VISITS, TRANSNATIONAL CAREGIVING AND THE SECOND GENERATION

In this paper I argue that circularity is a more appropriate concept with which to characterise Italian emigration than the arguably more common notions of departure, outpouring and loss. The first section draws on over two decades of ethnographic research (primarily in Western Australia and the Veneto region) that highlights the role of returns and visits home in the migration process. This historical account provides the necessary context for the second half of the paper, which explores the experiences and imaginaries of the second generation's relationship with their ancestral homeland. Consideration is given to the significant impact of new communication and travel technologies on the processes of circulation that define the contemporary experiences of migrant family and community relations. It is in large part the reliance on new technologies that creates a particular set of obligations for the second generation in transnational family lives. Through their ability to use technology, they are co-opted into caregiving relations that they may not normally be involved in. The frequency and regularity of transnational communication and return visits to the home country reveal that migration is a process that continues beyond the settlement stage of the first generation and impacts upon the second and subsequent generations.