Abstract
This study examines the role of the extended family in child-rearing practices among Buddhist families whose parents work as Indonesian migrant workers (PMI). The study is located in Sumber Kucur Village, Blitar Regency, East Java, which is a minority Buddhist community with a relatively high rate of labor migration. The study aims to identify the typologies of child-rearing practices carried out by the extended family and to analyze the mobilization of various forms of family capital in maintaining the continuity of child-rearing across distance and generations. The research employs a qualitative approach using the case study method. Data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation involving ten informants—comprising grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, and children from migrant families—selected via purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The findings reveal that the extended family plays a central role in maintaining the stability of child-rearing when parents migrate. Three main typologies of child-rearing were identified: the delegative pattern, the collaborative pattern, and spiritual-value-based child-rearing. Analysis using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital framework indicates that these caregiving practices are supported by the mobilization of four forms of family capital: economic capital through the distribution of remittances; social capital through kinship networks, neighbors, and the temple community; cultural capital through the transmission of Buddhist values such as sila, dana, and metta; and symbolic capital in the form of moral authority held by older family members. These four forms of capital dynamically interact within the family arena to sustain child-rearing and the reproduction of cultural and religious values. These findings confirm that the extended family in rural Buddhist communities’ functions not only as a practical substitute for parents but also as a resilient social actor in safeguarding the well-being of migrant children through complex capital mobilization strategies.