More than just ‘friends’? Locating migrant domestic workers’ transnational Voluntary Kin relationships

The author explores the practices through which migrant domestic workers established Transnational Voluntary Kin relations with individuals who are non-blood or law-related. Transnational Voluntary Kin are intimate relationships, which alleviate migrants’ reproductive needs by replacing, overlapping or complementing traditional family support. Drawing from Braithwaite, Bach, Baxter, Hosek, & Wolf [(2010). Constructing family: A typology of Voluntary Kin. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(3), 388–407] four relationships are explored. Firstly, there are ‘More than family’ Kin that replace the care of absent or dead family members. Secondly, there are ‘Just like Family’ Kin that replace the care of physically proximate relatives unable to perform their roles. Thirdly, there are ‘Whenever needed it’ Kin that replace or overlap traditional kin aid in particular situations. Fourthly, there are ‘In law or extended’ Kin constructed through the marriage of traditional kin. Data are drawn from a multi-sited ethnography with Peruvian-Colombian migrant domestic workers and their Transnational Voluntary or Traditional kin. The analysis contributes both to the constructivist sociology of the family and transnational family studies where these relationships remain underexplored.