When a student moves abroad to pursue their studies, a transnational family begins to exist. Sociological literature emphasises the issue of transnational families. This remarkable phenomenon is not new in itself, however, the way these families communicate has developed extremely over time. Due to the radical development of mediating technologies family members might enjoy the virtual presence at each other’s lives (Baldassar et al., 2014). My research project is devoted to understanding the contacting habits of students who live abroad in the UK to study at the London School of Economics. In the beginning of my project, I formed the research question in the following way: How do LSE students – who are detached from their families by borders – keep contact with their families?

This topic is a sociological area of interest as shedding light on how tech-mediated communication may help the maintenance of ‘familyhood’ (Bryceson and Vuorela, 2002) in this particular form of transnational situation when parents stay at the home country and children temporarily leave (Baldassar et al., 2014). Using a qualitative research method, I would like to find out how, when, and in what ways students keep in touch with their families, and how it helps to sustain ‘familyhood’. I am interested in whether there are some similarities and differences in the contacting habits of families, and what can account for