Canada history research paper 2000

Working and Caring: Examining the Transnational

Familial Practices of Work and Family of Recent Chinese

Immigrant Women in Canada

Guida C. Man, York University, Ontario, Canada

Abstract: Recent studies on Chinese immigrants in Canada have indicated an increasing prevalence

of transnational migration practices amongst this immigrant group. However, little research has focused

on middle-class immigrant women, particularly regarding the transnational migration practices of

highly educated and skilled immigrant women professionals. Drawing on empirical research, this

paper illuminates highly educated Chinese immigrant women’s transnational familial practices in

Canada. It explores how after migration, the women’s marital relationships and their household re-

sponsibilities are transformed as a result of their diminished labor market opportunities, in the context

of globalization and economic restructuring. The paper elucidates the various transnational familial

practices employed by these women to accommodate the challenges of working and caring in the new

country.

Keywords: Transnational Migration, Chinese Immigrant Women, Transnational Mothering, Family,

Gender Relations

Introduction

HE DISPLACEMENT AND

movement of people from one place to another has

always occurred due to environmental, social, political, economic, and cultural pro-

cesses, and as a result of droughts, famines, wars, political and religious persecution,

or simply the search for a better life. But the scale whereby vast numbers of people

migrate is unprecedented. Levitt (2001) contends that this phenomenon has been facilitated

by technological innovations, improved transportation systems, mass communication networks

and changing national and international policies and practices in migration. However, many

migrants do not necessarily uproot and sever their ties with their place of origin when they

move to a new country. They keep their linkages, networks, relationships and sometimes

their possessions in their home country, while at the same time, settling and developing new

contacts, associations, and building assets in their adopted country. With the emergence and intensification of globalization and the concomitant transnational

processes in the last two decades, scholars have been scrambling to explain the transformation

and changing realities of more recent developments in migration practices. The movement

and transmission of people, things, knowledge, and cultural practices back and forth between

their homeland and the new country have been observed and captured by recent migration

scholars. A growing literature on transnationalism and transnational practices has emerged

in recent years (see e.g., Levitt 2001; Landolt 2001; Portes 2003; Goldring & Krishnamurti

2007). Schiller, Basch, and Szanton-Blanc (1995: 48) conceptualized “transmigrants” to be

“immigrants whose daily lives depend on multiple and constant interconnections across in- The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Volume 6, Issue 3, 2011, http://www.SocialSciences-Journal.com, ISSN 1833-1882

[email protected] ternational borders and whose public identities are configured in relationship to more than

one nation-state”. The conceptualization of Schiller et al. (1995) contests the previously held

dichotomized notion which situates the country of origin and the adopted country as two

separate spaces with no linkage between them, and the migrant as connected only to the

latter, but not the former. Their definition allows for the fluidity of migration processes

between the place of origin and the place of settlement. However, while this conceptualization

paid attention to individual immigrant’s agency and identities, it de-emphasizes the structural

processes which have impact on individual migrant’s decision to adopt transnational practices,

and which affect his/her ability to develop linkages across national/international boundaries.

Thus the power relation inherent in the micro-macro interface is left un-interrogated. In this

paper, I adopt the conceptualization of Schiller et al (1995), but with the caveat that

transnational migration is mediated by external processes (such as immigration policies, labour

market conditions, employment practices) and the interactions of gender, race, class, as well

as individual immigrant’s agency.

Since 1971, the Chinese population in Canada has been increasing steadily. With the

changing immigration policy which further prioritizes economic immigrants (i.e., immigrants

who have skills or other assets that will contribute to the Canadian economy) in recent years,

there has been a surge of Chinese immigrants to Canada. While in 1971, the total Chinese

population in Canada was 119,000 (Li 2007), by 2001 the Chinese population in Canada

had increased to over one million. The 2006 Census enumeration gave a total of 1.22 million

Chinese in Canada (Canada 2006), many of whom were recent immigrants. More recently, social science studies have begun to examine transnational migration

amongst Chinese immigrants (Lam 1994; Man 1995a, 2007; Preston, Kobayashi and Man

2006; Skeldon 1994; Landolt and Da 2005; Waters 2005; Wong and Ho 2006; Salaff, Shik

and Greve 2008). Since immigration policies in immigrant receiving countries such as

Canada, Australia, and the United States favour wealthy entrepreneurs and business immig-

rants, much attention has been paid to Asian business transnational migrants (Ong 1999;

Wong and Ho 2006). These immigrants’ financial resources, and their ability to obtain

passports from multiple countries enable them to be “hyper-mobile”, and have “flexible”

citizenships (Ong 1999). But transnational migration also occurs amongst poor racialized

men and women. These groups historically have always had to adopt transnational familial

practices (Man 2006), and they continue to do so in contemporary Canadian society. “Transnational familial practice” is a form of transnational migration. I define “transna-

tional familial practices” as the strategies and practices utilized by immigrant family members

who reside in different national and territorial boundaries, to accommodate their productive

and reproductive demands transnationally. For example, between 1886 and 1947, many poor

Chinese worked as indentured laborers in Canada, while their wives and children remained

in China due to racialized Canadian immigration policy which barred them from entering

the country. The Chinese laborers sent remittances back to China to support their families,

and returned to visit when they have saved up enough money. They had to endure lonely

bachelors’ lives in Canada, separated from their wives and children (Chan 1983; Man 1995b,

1998). More recently, due to their “temporary foreign worker” status, women from the

Philippines and the Caribbean who work as domestics in Canada have had to leave their

families behind in their country of origin in order to care for the families of their employers.

The impact of state processes on these immigrant women, as well as their trials and tribula-

tions have been well-documented (Arat-Koc 1990; Bakan and Stasiulus 1997; Cohen 1999).

200 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES There is an emerging literature on gender and transnational migration which suggests

gender differences in transnational activities. Many of these studies examine working class

or undocumented migrant women (see e.g., Levitt 2001; Goldring 2001; Wong 2003). A

body of work by transnational feminist scholars has also explored the intersections of gender

and race to examine borders and the linking of spaces and bodies, particularly in the realms

of asylum seekers, prostitution, and refugees (see e.g., Spivak 1995; Elabor-Idemudia 2003).

With the exception of a few (see e.g., Mahler & Pessar 2001; Kobayashi et al. 2006), little

research has focused on middle-class immigrant women, particularly regarding the transna-

tional migration practices of highly educated and highly skilled immigrant women profes-

sionals. Nor has this research explored how gender, class, race, and immigrant status interact

in complex ways to shape women’s transnational experiences. Based on empirical data, this paper explores highly educated Chinese immigrant women’s

gender relations, and household and childcare arrangements in the new country, and elucidates

how the women’s adoption of transnational familial practices are shaped by these processes.

In this paper, I will first discuss the methodology used for my research, and then explicate

the women’s narratives for immigrating to Canada. I will further present my analysis by

delineating it into two conflicting yet interlocking areas of contention which arise as a process

of migration and the women’s diminished labor force participation: marital relationships,

and household labor. Finally, I will discuss the transnational familial strategies and practices

employed by these women to accommodate the challenges of working and caring in the new

country.

Research Methodology

This study analyses research data based on a small-scale research project which was explor-

atory in nature. 1

The study adopts a feminist research methodology developed by Dorothy

Smith (1987, 2005) called “the standpoint of women”. It is a method designed to “create an

alternative to the objectified subject of knowledge of established social scientific discourse”

(Smith 1987:10). This method of inquiry starts from the woman’s actual everyday lives and

experience, but goes beyond it to discover the social organization of society. Instead of

treating Chinese immigrant women as objects of the study, I place them as the subject of the

research and start from their actual, everyday world. While the study focuses on individual

immigrant women’s changing marital relationships and household work participation, at the

same time, it also investigates how women’s lived experiences are articulated to the social,

economic, political and cultural processes in society.

The Sample

The interviewees were recent Chinese immigrant women who came to Canada between 1998

and 2002. One group of women came from Hong Kong (HK) and another group came from

Mainland China (People’s Republic of China). In their countries of origin, both groups of

women were middle-class skilled professionals. However, the two groups of women had

lived under different social, political, and economic systems. The Hong Kong immigrants 1

The research project entitled “Chinese Immigrant Women in Toronto: Precarious Work, Precarious Lives” was

funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Small Grant (2004-05), and an Atkinson

Minor Research Grant (2004-05) at York University.

201

GUIDA C. MAN were recent post-colonial subjects who had lived in a capitalist system under British rule for

99 years (from 1989 to 1997). On the other hand, immigrants from Mainland China had

lived under a fast-growing and changing economy under a communist regime. In this study,

the Hong Kong immigrants tend to be more affluent, while the Mainland immigrants tend

to be more highly educated.

The data for this paper is derived from two focus group interviews. One focus group is

comprised of 4 immigrant women from Hong Kong, and the other focus group is comprised

of 8 immigrant women from Mainland China. In addition, individual in-depth interviews

with 7 Mainland Chinese immigrant women and 4 immigrant women from Hong Kong who

were engaged in precarious employment in Toronto were conducted. All the women were married and have at least one child. Those from Mainland China all

have either a BA or MA, while only half of the Hong Kong women have a BA. Two have

tertiary education. Those from Hong Kong are older, ranging from 29 to 53, while those

from China range in age from 25 to 36. I use a purposive sampling method. Chinese women from Hong Kong and Mainland China

who immigrated to Canada with their families since 1998 were selected with the assistance

of a community agency that services these immigrants, the Centre for Information and

Community Services. The interviews were taped, translated, and transcribed, and the data

analyzed.

Immigration to Canada

Why do highly educated professionals immigrate to Canada? It is often assumed that immig-

rants, particularly those who are highly skilled professionals, migrate for economic reasons.

It is unquestioned that they do so to improve their employment opportunities and their ma-

terial well-being. However, my research data disclose a far more complicated trajectory, and

does not bear out those assumptions. Here is a typical response from a woman from Hong

Kong:

I immigrated to Canada because “almost everybody” did so. My third brother immigrated

first. Since his wife was a dental hygienist, scoring 10 points in the immigration applic-

ation, they managed to immigrate to Canada after they applied for less than one year…

And one night at a wedding banquet, my husband met some friends who were planning

to emigrate. One of them was so kind-hearted as to give us an application form with a

sample and commented that the 1997 issue was such a nightmare. He persuaded us that

we should consider immigration [to Canada]. [HKFG: N1]

This Hong Kong women’s narrative revealed that similar to other Hong Kong professionals,

this couple was caught up in the “immigration wave” at the time. Since many of their friends

were emigrating, they felt propelled to do so as well. However, what her narrative did not

reveal was the social and political undercurrent which spurred the immigration wave from

Hong Kong to Canada between 1986 and 1997 due to the reversion of Hong Kong from

British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. During the Qing dynasty, China’s determination to

stamp illicit smuggling of opium by the British into Chinese territory culminated in China’s

defeat in the Opium Wars, and the cessation of Hong Kong to the British in 1898 for ninety-

nine years (Chan 1983). When China came under communist rule in 1949, the reputation of

202 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES the British colony as a capitalist free port attracted a mass exodus of Chinese industrialists,

merchants, skilled workers and refugees into its territory. The decade prior to 1997 saw an-

other exodus of Chinese from Hong Kong to countries such as Canada, Australia, and the

U.S. Many middle-class professionals who were eligible to emigrate left Hong Kong in an-

ticipation of the social, economic, and political uncertainties under communist rule, and

sought “safe havens” in desirable countries such as Canada, Australia, and the U.S. But the

emigration tide tapered off and subsided after 1997, when negative news of unemployment

and underemployment in the host countries trampled the migration tide, and the smooth

transition to Chinese rule and China’s economic boom apparently restored people’s confidence

in Hong Kong.

Many Hong Kong women also mentioned concern about their children’s education as one

of the primary reasons for emigrating. During much of British colonial rule, the pyramid

educational model was adopted whereby only a small select group of top students were

provided the privilege of a university education. By the time the political transfer of power

of Hong Kong took place, higher education has expanded considerably. Nonetheless, it re-

mains the domain of an elite group, and is far from being universal. Accordingly, competition

for placement in top schools is fierce. For many Hong Kong immigrants, the belief that the

Canadian educational system is good for their children is a huge factor in their decision to

emigrate. For the Mainland Chinese women, their motivation to emigrate was somewhat different.

In the past two decades, Mainland China has slowly emerged as an important world economic

power. It was relatively recent that its affluent middle-class professionals were permitted to,

or have the economic means to travel abroad. The Mainland Chinese immigrant women in

this study were generally younger, in their late twenties and early thirties, many grew up in

an era of harsher economic climate and less individual freedom. Many cited multiple reasons

for immigrating to Canada. They expressed the desire for adventure, to travel and see places

outside of China, and the longing to experience other cultures. The severe competition even

for young children in getting into good schools in China was also a motivating factor for

some to find better education for their children abroad. A few of the women and/or their

husbands had been working for international/transnational corporations in China, and they

imagined a higher standard of living in the west. The women often mentioned that their

husbands were the ones who initiated the move. In some cases, knowing others who planned

to emigrate, and learning about the immigration processes gave the husbands the idea to

immigrate to Canada. As one Mainland women reflected:

… We just wanted to travel around. One of my friends wanted to emigrate, and she has

two friends working in the [Canadian] immigration agency. [She] showed us some

documentation about immigration requirements. When my husband saw it, he told me

that “it calls on me to emigrate.” [MLI: N1]

The women’s narration of seemingly individual migration decision belied the social, eco-

nomic, and political situation in Mainland China and Hong Kong, which also contributed to

their decision to emigrate. Futhermore, many of the women interviewed came to Canada

with their families in the 1990s and early 2000, when globalization processes were deepening

and the rippling effects of the Asian economic meltdown were still palpable. Restructuring,

downsizing, and lay-offs became common practices in both public and private institutions,

203

GUIDA C. MAN undermining people’s working conditions and sense of well-being, and could also impact

their decision to emigrate.

Marital Relationships

Mei

, a Mainland woman, whose husband worked in a foreign investment company in China,

and who spoke fluent English, contend that it was her husband’s idea to immigrate to Canada.

However, after immigration, she became unemployed and felt distressed. She told me:

After moving here my husband was very actively seeking a job and [he] got a job in a

software company as a software engineer. As for me, I don’t have much confidence in

my language so I’m still studying the language. Sometimes I wonder whether I should

have come here or not. (MLFG: N5)

It has been well-documented that immigrants as a whole do not fare very well in the Canadian

labour market. Unemployment rate amongst immigrants are much higher than those of Ca-

nadian-born, and immigrant women have higher unemployment rates than Canadian-born

women (Boyd 1992; Badets and Howatson-Lee 2000). Specifically, Chinese immigrants lag

behind the general population significantly in terms of employment income, and Chinese

immigrant women’s employment income is not comparable to either their female counterparts

in Canada, or to their male counterparts from China (Lo and Wang 2003). Predictably,

studies on Chinese immigrant women found them to be susceptible to underemployment or

unemployment (Preston and Man 1998; Salaff 2000; Man 2004a). These studies have also

found that immigrant women’s employment opportunities in the new country are contingent

on labor market conditions and gendered and racialized institutional processes, as well as

the demands on their reproductive labor in the home (Man 2002, 2004a, 2004b). Although

the women in this study were highly educated professionals in their home country, in Canada,

they encountered considerable difficulties in finding employment commensurate with their

experience and qualification. Some immigrant women professionals who became unemployed after immigration found

themselves relegated to the home, performing housewifery duties, and becoming economically

dependent on their husbands. Whereas in their home country, both husband and wife parti-

cipated in the work force and contributed to the household income, the changes these immig-

rant women experienced in their paid work transformed their relationships with their spouses. Many husbands, on the other hand, did not fare any better. Employers’ preference for

Canadian credentials and experience invariably channeled new immigrants into menial,

precarious work which requires working long “flexible” hours, with no benefits or job secur-

ity. This kind of work generates a high level of stress for workers (Vosko 2006). For these

immigrant husbands, they often found the demands of living in a new country, and the burden

of being the sole breadwinner overwhelming. The wives often had to absorb their husbands’

stress from work. The husbands felt justified in passing their stress onto their spouses since

they felt that they had to work hard to support the family. This is not dissimilar to Luxton’s

(1980, 2009) study on working class families which found that husbands who were the sole 1

All names used are pseudonyms as interviewees were assured anonymity.

204 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES breadwinners asserted their power over their wives. Invariably, the couples’ relationships

deteriorated as a result. As one Mainland woman lamented:

My husband…works 12 hours every day, and works over time during the weekends

without any extra pay. My husband puts too much stress on himself, and as a con-

sequence, he passes the stress onto me. I haven’t achieved anything since I came and

I have had enough stress myself. So I feel really frustrated. (HKFG: N5)

While new immigrants’ employment woes could adversely affect immigrant couples’ rela-

tionships, one Hong Kong woman savored the escalated intimacy with her husband due to

his downward employment mobility, thus providing him more quality time with his wife.

They were able to share their newly discovered recreational interests in the new country,

such as hiking, playing tennis, and skiing, activities they had never had the time to engage

in when they were in Hong Kong. Their middle-class status and assets sustained their eco-

nomic well-being despite the decline in their earning power, alleviating them from the worries

of daily sustenance. Other new immigrants reported more difficulties. They experienced

isolation and ostracism from mainstream society, as well as encountering racism and discrim-

ination. The absence of social networks and social capital, the strain of their employment

difficulties compounded their isolation and exacerbated their incompatibility, resulting in

constant fighting and bickering. They blamed each other for their failures, and their feelings

of helplessness and frustration threatened their marriage Some immigrants tried to improve their economic and social conditions through formal

retraining processes by returning to university so as to gain formal Canadian education,

knowledge and skill. Others volunteered in community agencies or participated in other career

related activities. In such circumstances, women were often the ones who took up the respons-

ibility of being the sole breadwinner in order for their spouses to pursue higher education

and training in Canada.

Household Labor

It has been demonstrated that gender relations and husbands’ participation in household

labor is contingent on women’s labor force participation (see e.g., Luxton 1990, 2010). The

following is an example of the transformation of the division of labor in the household for

this Mainland Chinese woman after immigrating to Canada:

There is a huge difference to me and it greatly changed my life. In China we [husband

and I] both worked and both had a not too bad income. We shared our housework. Now

although I feel reluctant to be a housewife, I have to do all the housework. He doesn’t

have the time to help me, neither does he want to. He thinks it’s natural that I take over

all the housework. I feel very depressed. That’s why I’m desperate for a job, not only

because I need the money, but because I need to get back my self respect and confidence.

[MLFG: N5]

This woman has a bachelor’s degree. She and her husband had both worked as software

engineers in China for three years. Since immigrating to Canada, she became unemployed

and financially dependent on her husband. Her husband, on the other hand, was able to

205

GUIDA C. MAN reenter the labor market in Canada. In China, both husband and wife participated in paid

work, and shared their household responsibilities. Her unemployment and hence lack of

financial independence in Canada made it difficult for her to negotiate an equal division of

labor in the household. She became very depressed about her current position as a “house-

wife”.

Although Mainland China still maintains a communist political structure, it simultaneously

embraces an active market-oriented economy under a one-party rule. Hong Kong adopted

a “pure” capitalist economic model while under British rule, and it continues to do so after

1997, when China granted Hong Kong a Special Administration Region status for fifty years.

Hence both Mainland China and Hong Kong have a high demand for workers, especially

for cheap labor. The participation of women in the labor force has remained high in recent

years. Accordingly, recent research has focused on women’s increasing participation in the

labor force in China (Fan 2004; Lan et al. 2010). As well, much attention has been paid on

the linkages between work and family for Chinese women, and particularly on how the care

of children impact women’s labor force participation (Chin-Chun & Wen-Yin 2002), and

the gendered division of labor (Zai et al. 2000). In Hong Kong, gender relations have improved

in recent years in part because advocacy of equal rights and equal pay have promoted gender

equality (Cheng & Kwong 1992). But despite these advances in gender equality, housework

and child care remain primarily women’s responsibilities in both Hong Kong and China, as

in most western industrialized countries. In Canada, women’s participation in the labour force has been rising rapidly in the last

few decades. For example, between 1951 and 1971, the participation of married women in

the paid labour force increased from 11.2 per cent to 37 per cent. By 1991, that number has

gone up to 61.4 per cent, and by 2006, 72.9 per cent of women with children under 16 were

employed (Statistics Canada 1953; 1974; 1994; 2006; as quoted by Fox & Yiu: 160). How-

ever, the high rate of labour force participation of women in Canada did not spur the govern-

ment to provide better family support initiatives. Structural inequality in the labor market

and gender ideology guarantees that Women are still responsible for the bulk of the work in

the home, particularly in childcare activities (Michaelson 1988; Luxton 1990; Lero et al.

1992; Luxton and Reiter 1997; Waring 1999; Doucet 2001, 2006; Palameta 2003). Under

pressure from feminist activists and childcare advocates pushing for change, successive

governments have promised but failed to deliver adequate, affordable and licensed childcare

facilities for families, particularly new immigrant families. Globalization and the concomitant economic restructuring since the 1980s have hollowed

out the Canadian welfare state and dismantled the social safety net. This further pushes the

work of caring for children, the infirmed and elderly onto the family and the shoulders of

women, exacerbating women’s work in the home. Despite the fact that men are contributing

more to housework and childcare now than ever before, women still do the bulk of the work

in the home, whether or not they participate in the paid labour force (Gelfand and McCallum

1994; Weber 1994; Marshal 2006). Some Chinese husbands do contribute to housework and

childcare, and their help does alleviate the women’s work somewhat. But like other women,

the Chinese immigrant women bear primary responsibility for the day-to-day housework

and caring responsibilities. Furthermore, in Hong Kong and Mainland China, traditional Chinese beliefs in Confucian-

ism and filial piety ensured the reciprocity of caring for family members (i.e., children are

obliged to take care of aging parents, and in return, grandmothers often help care for grand-

206 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES children). The institutional agenda for the revival of Confucianism and filial piety in Mainland

China in recent years is not unrelated to population aging and the demand for care work.

While working women in China were typically able to procure household help and childcare

from members of the extended family, due to the uncertainty of their future in the new

country, many Chinese immigrant families came to Canada as nuclear family units, leaving

extended family members such as grandparents behind. Without support of the extended

family members or household help to mitigate women’s productive and reproductive work,

the transformation of gender relations, and the unequal household division of labor become

inevitable.

Transnational Familial Practices

The demands of settling in a new country, the difficulties for immigrant women and men to

obtain positions that enable them to utilize their prior knowledge and experience posed tre-

mendous challenges to immigrant couples’ relationships. The time consuming and demanding

task of searching for work conflicted with women’s household and childcare responsibilities.

This was exacerbated by the dearth of government funded and regulated childcare facilities

which are affordable for new immigrants and the absence of social and familial support

network in the new country. Given the difficulties the women encountered in the paid labour

market and in the home, how do these women cope with their multiple and conflicting de-

mands? My study found that both the Mainland and Hong Kong immigrant women engaged

in transnational familial practices to cope with their settlement challenges in Canada.

Tien, a Mainland woman in her early thirties who was a medical doctor in China told me

about sending her daughter back to China:

When we first came, I was pregnant with my daughter…We were unemployed. Then

my husband’s friend took us to the factory where he worked, and we both got jobs in

the factory. After my daughter was born, I couldn’t work because I couldn’t get subsid-

ized childcare. So we decided to send my daughter back to China to be taken care of

by her grandma… [ML1:N6]

This transnational familial practice, also known as “transnational mothering”, is not uncom-

mon amongst Mainland Chinese immigrant women. Transnational mothering entails organ-

izing the work of caring for children (including emotional and material caring) across inter-

national borders. I use the term “transnational mothering” rather than “transnational parenting”

not to essentialize women’s natural ability for childcare and mothering, but rather, to em-

phasize the structural inequalities as well as socialization processes in society which relegates

women to take up the role of being primary caregivers and nurturers. In Tien’s case, she sent remittances back to China to pay for the sustenance of her

daughter. She talked on the phone daily with her mother to keep abreast of her daughter’s

development, and she visited her daughter in China once a year when she had holidays.

Transnational mothering is usually a temporary solution to immigrant families’ economic

insecurity, and immigrant women’s conflicting paid work and household demands. It is not

seen as a long term solution. Tien planned to bring her daughter back to Canada when she

or her husband has found a better paid permanent position.

207

GUIDA C. MAN To resolve employment difficulties, many Hong Kong women were also engaged in

transnational familial arrangements. These women are often engaged in “astronaut” familial

arrangements. “Astronaut families” are families in which one spouse (typically the husband)

returns to Hong Kong for paid employment to support the family, leaving the other spouse

(typically the wife) and children in Canada. Periodically, the astronaut would fly back to

Canada to visit the family, or, the wife and children would return to Hong Kong for a visit

when the children have their holidays (see Man 1995). However, astronaut wives who were

formerly professional women often became full-time mothers. The difficulty of being a

single parent in a new country was often overwhelming for these women. In some cases, the

parents would leave their children (often teenagers) for schooling in Canada, while they

themselves return to Hong Kong to take up employment which commensurate with their

qualifications and experience. These “parachute” or “satellite” children were often left with

relatives or guardians in Canada, while the parents cared for their well-being transnationally. Since transnational familial arrangements can have adverse consequences, some Chinese

immigrant families planned their transnational strategies carefully before embarking on it.

As a response to the uncertainty of finding a secure and permanent position in Canada, one

Hong Kong couple in the study told me that they planned their transnational familial arrange-

ment prior to immigrating to Canada. They traveled back and forth between Canada and

Hong Kong to accommodate their work and household circumstances, leaving their children

in Toronto to be taken care of by their grandmother. Eventually, the separation took its toll,

and the couple decided to curtail their transnational arrangements in favor of family togeth-

erness.

Conclusion

For both the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese women, their lack of employment opportun-

ities, and the deterioration of their material conditions of their families in the new country

transformed their relationships with their spouses and their childcare and household arrange-

ments, and in turn shaped their decisions to adopt transnational familial practices. In most western industrialized societies, the “myth of the natural mother” involves the

belief that women are naturally mothers, and that they have “an innate desire and instinctive

disposition to nurture children” (Hall 2006 p. 438). This myth simultaneously serves as an

implicit justification for governments’ lack of provision for adequate publicly funded

childcare support, and at the same time, instills feelings of guilt in mothers who are not able

to care for their own children. Hong Kong immigrant women who leave their children

(satellite children) in Canada to be cared for by others, and Mainland immigrant women

who send their children back to China to be cared for by grandparents or extended family

members are therefore perceived as anomalies, and whose transnational practices are being

challenged. While every mother supposedly has the right to choose her own parenting ar-

rangements, for immigrant women professionals, it is a false choice between lack of job

opportunities and diminished material well-being, or being able to raise their children in

Canada. The women do not make the decision easily, and they are not freed from feelings

of guilt. In adopting transnational familial practices, they suffer the loss of enjoyment and

intimacy with their children, but hope to gain long term occupational and economic stability

so they can provide materially for their family’s well-being. To fully understand the women’s

208 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES complicated and contradictory relationships with their family and the labour market entails

interrogating the power inequalities of gender, race, class, and citizenship.

Immigrants come to Canada as ready made workers. The Canadian state benefits from

the productive labour of immigrants, but is exempted from having to bear the cost of social

reproduction of these workers. It is evident from this study that immigrants bear the economic

and emotional cost of their transnational familial practices. Sending their children back to

their home country to be nurtured by other family members enables immigrant mothers to

be productive workers, to engage full-time in the paid labour force and to pursue better job

opportunities. Paradoxically, this practice also ensures that the social reproduction of the

next generation is again borne by their country of origin, but not their adopted country.

209

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About the Author

Prof. Guida C. Man

Guida Man is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at York University. Her

areas of interest include immigration and transnational migration; families; women and work;

and qualitative research methods. She has been involved in a number of research projects

which address the concerns of Chinese immigrant women in Canada. Her more recent research

examines transnational migration, particularly as it intersects with gender, race, and class

relations in the context of globalization and economic restructuring. Based on her research

analysis, she has published in numerous refereed journals, monographic series, books, and

conference proceedings.

212 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES

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