A Game of Phone Tag : A qualitative study of women living away from loved ones

Abstract: In today’s globalized world leaving one’s country of origin to move abroad has become more common,which often results in families and loved ones living apart from each other. This qualitative study aimsto explore professional women’s experiences of living abroad and their ways of coping with being awayfrom their loved ones. The study relies on theoretical concepts and prior research on transnationalfamilies, the sense of home and identity, guilt and coping strategies when longing for loved ones. Inaddition, the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for travel has also beentaken into account. The primary data for thisstudy is based on ten semi-structured interviews with womenthat have been living and working or studying in Sweden for over a year, with loved ones abroad. Thedata is analyzed by a relational and partly narrative analysis and the study has been done from a feministperspective. The results show that moving abroad has impacted individual relationships with loved ones.Our participants expressed longing for physical co-presence with their loved ones, although they weremostly satisfied with their current situation. As our interviews showed, COVID-19 has not significantlyaffected their relationships with loved ones abroad, since the women have already been living apart -some of them quite long distances. In addition to the results the discussion will focus on key issuesencountered during the study, its limitations, strengths and suggestions for further research.