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Transnational intergenerational communication between migrant children and their grandparents depends on family relationships and the specific migration context, but also shifts in response to emerging factors, such as the current COVID-19 crisis. The goal of this study is to offer an agile typology of communication between migrant children in Poland and their grandparents in other countries. It points to two types of family communication practices, namely direct (face-to-face) and technology-mediated communication (TMC). Drawing on data from a qualitative study of immigrant children (n = 19) and parents (n = 18) conducted during the lockdown and associated travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, the study offers a typology of emotional, symbolic, mediated, and discontinuous modes of intergenerational family communications. It also indicates that cessation of direct contact during an "immobility regime" reduces the scope of intergenerational communication in transnational families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polish government decided to shut down all public and private institutions, including schools, from 12 March 2020. Since then, 4.58 million students from 24,000 schools have remained in their homes and practiced distance learning. Distance learning has greatly affected children's social practices, including domestic, everyday, specialist, and cultural practices. This paper applies social practice theory, rooted in Schatzki's ontological theory of practices, and Shove, Pantzar, and Watson's structure of social practices to study the changes to migrant primary school children's social practices during distance learning in Poland. The data are derived from a subsample of a larger qualitative study of the transnational transition processes of migrant children in Poland. This paper investigates how the COVID-19 lockdown and distance learning have prompted migrant primary school children to reflect on the transformation of traditional social practices and the value of school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]