The article examines young Europeans’ retrospective accounts of intergenerational caregiving during serial migration. It draws on interviews with 18 young people whose parents moved to Sweden from Poland or Romania before relocating their children. Theoretical lenses of care circulation in transnational families, generalised reciprocity, negotiating caregiving and fostering are applied to analyse three cases, each representing a specific type of care triangle. The first finding from the study is that the young people experienced emotional distress and feelings of abandonment as a result of their parents’ migration. Their stories exhibit resistance and the use of coping mechanisms to handle their feelings. In some cases, geographical distance and living apart weakened the emotional bonds between the parents and their children, whereas other relationships were strengthened. Second, the article shows how the young people engaged in negotiating and bargaining over how to be cared for and fostered. Third, it reveals that intergenerational care continued after the young people’s migration through negotiation of how to practise generalised reciprocity in relationships with parents and co-carers who remained behind in their countries of birth.