This article explores how suspicions of kala jaddu (black magic) restructure local and transnational
family networks among Pakistani immigrants in Denmark. The notions of ‘working’ and ‘stealing’ are
analysed as two idioms that sum up what it means to ‘be’ and ‘do’ family. ‘Working’ refers to the
expectations and moral obligations of the traditional patrilocal household, ‘stealing’ to the
appropriation of emotional and material means through the use of kala jaddu. It is argued that black
magic is employed to contest authority and reorganize transnational migrant networks, and that
growing anxieties about kala jaddu are due to intergenerational changes within Pakistani families, as
well as to the changing political climate towards immigrants in Danish society.