The Paradoxes of Mobile Care Work: The Case of Aging Filipina Australians in a Digital Era

Abstract

This paper critically examines how 15 aging Filipina Australians in Victoria, Australia use mobile devices and online channels in their everyday care practices. Deploying in-depth interviews and visual methods, the study unravels the diverse modes of mobile care practices, including caring for oneself and for local and transnational networks. We apply an intersectional lens to identify and scrutinize the contradictory outcomes of mobile care work as shaped by interconnected axes of structural and digital inequality. The findings reveal the paradoxical and multifaceted experiences of these older Filipina Australians in embodying mobile care practices. We find that through mutually reinforcing factors, including gendered duties, familial responsibilities, economic and citizenship status, and digital access and abilities, care work is made easier yet is also made more imperative. These factors position our respondents unequally in the digital care landscape, highlighting the centrality of intersectionality in understanding their care experiences. This paper contributes to the literature on the intersections of digital media, migration, and care by illuminating the gendered dimensions of mobile care work and its significance to transnational caregiving practices.