Technology-mediated communication among migrant families separated by borders: understanding the tensions of relational maintenance

Abstract This study examined how highly under-resourced Latina/o/x/e families used technologically mediated communication to maintain their relationship when experiencing migration-based family separation. Drawing on relational maintenance literature, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 family triads, each including a father, mother, and child (children between 9 and 17 years old). The findings extend past research on relational maintenance by elucidating how structural barriers and culture contribute to tensions in relational maintenance and by providing within-family and between-family triangulated perspectives. Across families, three recurring relational maintenance strategies were consistently tensional: (a) sustaining routine contact, (b) prioritizing real-time interaction, and (c) practicing selective disclosure. The findings from within-family and between-family analyses showed how relational maintenance, which was primarily mediated by technology, became highly tensional under structural barriers and cultural norms and had unevenly distributed costs for family members.