Planning for later life: Transnational and inter-generational care among Papua New Guineans in Australia

Drawing on qualitative research conducted among Papua New Guineans living in North Queensland, Australia, this paper explores how people imagine and plan for later life in transnational contexts. We present 'planning' for old age as a socially embedded practice with specific spatial and temporal properties that emerge in everyday interaction. At issue are representations of difference in the cultures of care found in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia and the problem of intergenerational changes in care practices among Papua New Guineans resident in Australia. We argue that growing tensions in intergenerational relationships in Australia and PNG play a crucial role in changing the social relations of the transnational moral economy of care. These intergenerational problems are understood by PNG research participants, in their own critical analysis of their care relationships, as related to other concerns about estrangement from place, loss of culture and the difficulties of planning for later life. We conclude that transnational households are dynamically defined and transformed in terms of tensions central to their very operation.