Global Networks 5, 4 (2005) 317–336. ISSN 1470–2266. © 2005 The Author(s) Journal compilation © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd & Global Networks Partnership 317 Long distance intimacy: class, gender and intergenerational relations between mothers and children in Filipino transnational families RHACEL PARREÑAS Abstract In this article I address transnational intergenerational relations between Filipino migrant mothers and their young adult children and examine how families achieve intimacy across great distances. I do this by identifying and examining the transnational communication methods Filipino migrant families use to develop intimacy, in other words familiarity, across borders. In my analysis, I address how political economy and gender shape the dynamics of transnational communication. By showing how economic conditions and gender shape transnational family com- munication, I provide a socially thick lens through which to understand the formation of transnational intimacy and emphasize how larger systems of inequality shape the lives of the children left behind by the global migration of women. Migration engenders changes in a family. This is particularly so in the Philippines where a great number of mothers and fathers emigrate to sustain their families economically. There are no reliable government statistics on the number of mothers and fathers leaving their children behind in the Philippines, but non-governmental organizations estimate there are approximately nine million of these children growing up physically apart from a migrant father, migrant mother or both migrant parents (Kakammpi 2004). 1 This figure represents approximately 27 per cent of the overall youth population. The formation of transnational households poses challenges to the achievement of intimate familial relations between migrant parents and the children they leave behind in the Philippines. In this article, I address transnational inter- generational relations between Filipino migrant mothers and their young adult children and examine how families achieve intimacy across great distances. I do this by identifying and examining the acts of transnational communication that Filipino migrant families use to develop intimacy, in other word familiarity, across borders. By transnational communication, I refer to the flow of ideas, information, goods, money and emotions. Contemporary transnational households have a different temporal and spatial experience from the binational families of the past. New technologies ‘heighten the immediacy and frequency of migrants’ contact with their sending communities and