As we saw in Chapter 3, there are high levels of geographical stability among the survey population, with relatively few respondents having lived for substantial periods of time outside Swansea, let alone outside Wales or the UK. However, there has been a small but significant increase in geographical mobility between 1960 and 2002 which is greater among our middle-class respondents. This, together with class-related patterns of employment, is reflected in the variation in the kinconnectedness of our different ethnographic areas with Fairview, our most middle-class, culturally ‘English’ area, being characterised by less dense kinship networks than our more working-class and culturally Welsh areas. In this chapter our focus is on those who have experienced geographical mobility and whose kin are dispersed. We explore how kinship networks are maintained over distance, how technology facilitates this maintenance, the significance of ritual in cementing relations between kin, and the meaning of place in connection with family and kinship.

First, however, we look briefly at findings from other research into geographical mobility and its effect on support and contact between kin. As we have already seen (Chapter 3), studies suggest that, within the UK, most family members live within relatively easy travelling distance of each other (McGlone, Park and Roberts, 1999; Nolan and Scott, 2006). Living at a distance, however, limits the ability to engage in ‘the kinds of daily tasks involved in caring for someone such as transport, household assistance, meal preparation and shopping’ (Ackers and Stalford, 2004, 136) and, as we have seen, informal childcare. This does not mean that support and care are not exchanged, simply that they take a different form from that which we have discussed so far. Thus, research into families of Pakistani origin in Yorkshire found that communication between kin living on different continents is frequent and that kin relations are maintained by regular visits which often coincide with important family occasions such as weddings; ‘being there at key moments’ is an important part of kin-keeping (Mason, 2004, 425) as is ‘co-presence with and in a place’ (Mason, 2004, 427). In studies of Caribbean and Italian families kin-keeping took various forms ranging from ‘providing small favours and money loans, to telephone calls to family members to give advice, support or just merely “checking in”’ (Zontini and Reynolds, 2007, 263).