Work

The Descendant Bargain: Latina Youth Remaking Kinship and Generation through Educational Sibcare in Nashville, Tennessee

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Older sisters in Latino, immigrant-origin families in the United States bear significant caretaking responsibilities for their siblings, especially regarding their siblings' educations. Young women in Nashville, Tennessee, frame their same-generation caretaking commitments and educational expectations for their siblings in intergenerational terms-what I term the descendant bargain. This intergenerational framing reveals how elder sisters position their siblingship-and their educational carework-as vital to forging socioeconomic mobility and kinship obligations, labor often understood as the domain of parents. Youthful siblings' educational carework is a critical kinship practice that demonstrates the central role of youth in making kinship and remaking genealogical generation in immigrant families.

Source: American Anthropologist

DOI: 10.1111/aman.13052

Author: Andrea Flores

Institution: Brown University

Language: English

Topic: Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funders: Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development