Canada history research paper 2000
Article The making of transnational social space: Chinese women managing careers and lives between China and Canada Hongxia Shan and Ashley Pullman The University of British Columbia Qinghua Zhao Western University Abstract China–Canada people flows are increasingly characterized by two-way movement, engendering possibilities and problems, particularly for women juggling careers and lives. Within this context, a qualitative study was conducted to trace the migratory and career trajectories of 15 Chinese migrant women between China and Canada. The study finds that to maximize their career and life spaces, the women endeavored to build and mobilize various forms of capital. Not only did they engage in migra- tory movement, but some of them also acquired Canadian credentials, moved into entrepreneurship and took up transient jobs. The utility and futility of women’s efforts point to ‘‘games’’ of differentiation emanating across fields, particularly along the lines of gender, race and class that were invoked to produce transnational spaces where existing power rela- tions were simultaneously challenged and reaffirmed. Conceptually, this paper is informed by the concept of transnational social field and gender, race and class analysis.
Corresponding author:
Hongxia Shan, Assistant Professor Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Studies, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
Email: [email protected] Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 2016, Vol. 25(2) 105–129 !Scalabrini Migration Center 2016 Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/ journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0117196816639056 apmj.sagepub.com Keywords capital, field, transnational space, women and migration, gender and work, women in sciences and engineering Introduction To sustain their economic development, and in some cases, also demographic growth, more countries today—ranging from traditional settler countries such as Canada to contemporary countries of emigration such as the People’s Republic of China (PRC)—have adopted preferential immigration policies for skilled workers (OECD, 2011; Wang, 2012). Related policies have served to pull migrants in different directions, contributing to the increasingly fre- quent transnational movements of people today. In the Asian Pacific area, migratory movements between Canada and the PRC, for instance, are increas- ingly characterized by two-way movements. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, between 2004 and 2014, each year Canada has admitted between 27,000 and 43,000 immigrants from China, the majority of whom arrived as skilled immigrants (CIC, 2015). Meanwhile, the Asian Pacific Foundation of Canada, citing census data, reported close to 20,000 Canadians living in Mainland China (APFC, 2011). This number may not accurately reflect the volume of people flow back to China as it does not account for those who returned to China without acquiring Canadian citizen- ship. This emerging trend of return migration is largely due to the booming Chinese economy and the policy incentives that the Chinese government has implemented to appeal to its diaspora population (Agunias and Newland, 2012; Ho and Ley, 2014; Lum, 2015). Migrants between China and Canada have formed what Woo (2009), the Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Foundation, calls a ‘‘human capital nexus’’ that policy-makers in both China and Canada try to tap into to boost the economic growth of the their respect- ive countries.
It has to be acknowledged that the policy turn to skill, particularly in trad- itional settler countries such as Canada, marks a historical departure from traditional immigrant selection practices that are discriminatory on the basis of gender and racial and ethnic origins. Among other effects, this may have contributed to enhancing the mobility and visibility of women as migrants in their own right. Prior to the 1970s, both immigration policies and academic studies framed women as secondary immigrants trailing behind their male spouses (Morokvasic, 1984). Today, women comprise more than 50 percent of the migratory population, with many moving across national borders by virtue of their training and occupational skills (UN INSTRAW, 2007).
Female migrants are not only trained in feminized sectors, but also found in traditionally male-dominated professions, such as engineering and sciences (Raghuram, 2008).
106Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) Although, to some extent, the policy turn to skill has equalized people’s opportunities to be mobile on a global scale, it has also been implicated in the perpetuation of existing social stratification and the production of new forms of social exclusion (Kofman, 2007, 2014b; Shan and Fejes, 2015). Immigrants often find themselves struggling on the peripheries of the host labor markets, especially if they have moved from a developing to a developed country (Guo, 2013; Maitra and Maitra, 2015; Shan, 2009a, 2013; Spring et al., 2015). Women, especially those trained in traditionally male-dominated professions, may find it even more challenging to reestablish themselves in the host countries in a career in their fields of training (Goyette and Xie, 1999; Tong, 2010). This picture is further complicated as women are often impacted by traditional and contemporary gender roles, norms and expectations emanating from both their home and host countries (Ghosh, 2014; Pio and Essers, 2014).
Although it is easy to celebrate transnational migration as a privileged form of movement, more attention is needed to address not only the possibilities but also the problems associated with the increasingly frequent movements of people across national borders (Kofman, 2014b). This paper begins with the position that it is problematic to see immigrants merely in terms of the human capital they offer; instead, it is necessary to understand the experiences of migrants as human beings with individual, familial, communal, career and other social needs to meet and fulfill. It endeavors to address the emerging opportunities and lasting challenges that women in applied sciences and engineering face as they stretch their lives and careers across the Asia- Pacific area. After first reviewing research on women in migrant studies, to which this paper contributes, we introduce the conceptual framework that informs this paper: Levitt and Glick Schiller’s (2004) transnational social field, Bourdieu’s notion of capital and social space and an understanding of gender, race and class as shifting relations of distinction and distribution.
Following that, we provide an overview of the research methods and intro- duce the migrant women who participated in the study and the findings. We conclude with a discussion of the significance and implications of the research findings. Women and migration studies Feminist scholars have endeavored to make visible women’s migratory experiences and integrate gender analysis into migration research (Kofman, 2014a). The literature highlights the significant roles women play in the main- tenance of their families (Landolt and Da, 2005; Parrado and Flippen, 2005) and the contribution they make to the interlocking spheres of productive, kin and caring work (Kofman, 2004; Ong, 1999; Zontini, 2004). Despite the wide- spread agreement concerning the roles women play and the work they con- duct, a mixed picture emerges as to how migration has impacted gendered Shan et al.107 relations and women’s experiences across space. Some studies suggest that migratory movement has offered women an escape from poverty and power- lessness (Levitt and Jaworsky, 2007) and helped free women from gendered norms and expectations rooted in their home countries (Ghosh, 2014). Others indicate that migration can be a process through which traditional gender roles are re-entrenched (Pio and Essers, 2014), which, coupled with larger social processes of deskilling (Man, 2004; Mojab, 1999), may lead to re-domes- tication (Yeoh and Wills, 2005) and compromised careers for women (Suto, 2009).
Earlier studies of immigrant women have mainly focused on women’s experiences in low-end occupational sectors, such as sewing, care, entertain- ment and services (Hochschild, 2000; Ng, 2001; Sassen, 2004). More recently, the literature has witnessed an emerging body of research on skilled migrant women (Gupta et al., 2014; Leung, 2014; Pio and Essers, 2014; Roos, 2013; Shan, 2009a, 2009b) and a consideration of women as members of skilled dual-earner and entrepreneurial families (Ghosh, 2014; Salaff and Greve, 2003; Shinozaki, 2014). Related studies have pinpointed that as migrant women move across diverse geopolitical and economic regimes, they may become more capable of ‘‘integrating diverse desires, motivations and obliga- tions by (re)configuring concepts, practices and relationships across time and space’’ (Cala´ s et al., 2013: 725). For instance, in Gupta et al.’s (2014) life history study, Chinese and Indian women are shown to face occupational and social inequalities upon landing in Canada, which, according to the authors, led them to reassess their class positioning. To maintain their social standing, the women reportedly avoided ‘‘menial’’ work, managed their expectations, crafted optimistic outlooks, and leveraged education, qualifications and tech- nical knowledge. Another life history study by Ding (2015) illustrates how some Chinese who returned to the PRC from Canada reintegrated through strategies such as self-adjustment, lifelong learning and ‘‘flexible citizenship’’ (Ong, 1999), that is, making citizenship decisions based on economic and social opportunities. These findings have also been corroborated by Huang and Kuah-Pearce (2015). Ding argues that using these strategies, her respond- ents (re)constructed the individual spaces through which they defined them- selves and their relationships to others. Women’s career and life strategies, however, may not be individualized endeavors. Both Shan (2009b) and Shinozaki (2014) find that intra-family gender and power relations are highly influential on how some women migrants navigate the labor market in which they find themselves.
Existing studies of migrant women are not only instrumental in articulating the translocational positionality of migrant women (Anthias, 2012), but also conducive to the development of transversal politics, centralizing issues of equity while pluralizing voices and complicating the relationship between social positioning, individual identity and value orientation (Yuval-Davis, 108Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) 1997, 1999). Yet, this body of literature can still benefit from development on at least two fronts. First, although professional immigrant women have become a focus of research, only scant attention has been paid to the experiences of migrant women in male-dominated sectors (Raghuram, 2008). Existing studies related to the topic mainly examine the career penalties experienced by women in fields, such as engineering and sciences, in host countries (Goyette and Xie, 1999; Tong, 2010). We know little about how these women manage their careers and lives in the context of transnational move- ment. On the other hand, understandings of women’s experiences tend to focus on individual or familial strategies, losing sight of the transnational social relations that converge to produce women’s encounters, struggles and strategies. This paper endeavors to start bridging these gaps in the literature.
With an examination of the experiences of transnational women trained in applied sciences and engineering, it not only explores women’s individual strategies, but also explicates the transnational social fields that are constitu- tive of their experiences.
Transnational social space and gendered geographies of power Conceptually, this paper is informed by Levitt and Glick Schiller’s (2004) trans- national social field, Bourdieu’s theories of capital and social space, and an understanding of gender, race and class as shifting ‘‘games’’ or relations of ‘‘differentiation or distribution’’ (Bourdieu, 1985: 724). Drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of social field and the work of the Manchester School of Anthropology on social networks, Levitt and Glick Schiller (2004) propose the notion of trans- national social field as the interlocking networks of social relationships that are constituted by and constitutive of migrants’ simultaneous embedment in more than one society. Transnational social fields are ‘‘created by the participants who are joined in struggle for social position’’ (Levitt and Glick Schiller, 2004:
1008) and by nature, the boundaries of such fields are ‘‘fluid.’’ When returning to Bourdieu’s original conception of field, it must be noted that the concept of field not only comprises ‘‘a relational form of epistemology’’ (Hilgers and Mangez, 2015: 5), but also designates marked sub-spaces within the global realm based on distinct activities and functions (Lahire, 2015). As will be shown below, in our study we find that transnational women often participate in different fields and sometimes draw upon diverse games to produce new spaces that defy the boundaries of nation-states. These transnational spaces could be considered emerging social fields where individuals strive for reward and recognition based on the mobilization of different capitals across place. Yet, compared with other fields that are more or less autonomous and durable, such transnational spaces are emergent, contingent and susceptible to change. Moreover, while the notion of transnational field delineates existing Shan et al.109 practices, the use of the term ‘‘transnational social space’’ aims to capture the productive nature of emerging practices.
Bourdieu suggests that within social spaces, individuals and groups are both objectively and subjectively defined by their possession of and distance from various forms of capital. Among these, economic capital ‘‘is immediately and directly convertible into money’’ (Bourdieu, 1986: 247). Cultural capital exists ‘‘in theembodiedstate, i.e., in the form of long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body; in theobjectifiedstate, in the form of cultural goods [...]; and in theinstitutionalizedstate, [such as] educational qualifications (Bourdieu, 1986: 247). Social capital is understood as the ‘‘aggregate of the actual or potential resources that are linked to possessions of durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recog- nition—or in other words, to membership in a group’’ (Bourdieu, 1986: 249).
Symbolic capital can be any kind of capital that accrues power based on rec- ognition and legitimization (Bourdieu, 1986). Social and cultural capitals can be converted to economic capital and vice versa. Conversions between forms of capital presuppose specific labor, involving expenditure of time, attention, concern, etc. (Bourdieu, 1986). Forms of capital, according to Bourdieu (1985), serve as the coordinates of power within social spaces, constituting symbolic systems of struggle or fields of forces in which power flows from an individ- ual’s ability to mobilize capital.
Transnational spaces, as conceived of in this paper, are spaces that span social, cultural and economic fields and that are built on, extend and yet, simultaneously challenge various relations of differentiation and distribution weaving through diverse and intersecting fields. By nature, transnational spaces presuppose intersecting sets of capital coordinates, which may com- plement as well as conflict with one another. As a result, the center of an established social space and the periphery may be both challenged and upheld within a transnational space. New games and different flows of power may emerge, although they are subjected to continued negotiation and reconfiguration due to possibilities and problems arising from previously unconnected fields and places. To fully grapple with the rise of transnational space, we emphasize the importance of teasing out how relations of differen- tiation and distribution intermesh, particularly along the lines of gender, race and class. By class, we wish to direct attention not only to the economic standing of individuals, as indicated by their possession of economic capital or their dispositions as signifier of embodied cultural capital, but also to how economic capital and cultural resources conjoin to make particular jobs and lives possible. By highlighting race relations in this paper, we hope to attend to the perpetuation of white supremacy of the West through new forms of sub- jugation and cooptation. We also wish to be sensitive to the changing social positioning of groups given the interplay of social, cultural, economic and symbolic capitals that compete for recognition.
110Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) To examine the role gender plays in the production of transnational spaces, we turn to Mahler and Pessar’s (2001, 2006) gendered geographies of power (GGP) which sensitize us to four dimensions of power. First, they consider how gender ideologies and norms operate within and between the geogra- phies of social and spatial scales, such as individuals, families, the labor market and the state. Second, they take into account social location, or how individuals and groups are situated in multiple intersecting and mutually constituting hierarchies of social differences. In this study, social differences are addressed in relation to various kinds of capitals competing for recogni- tion in transnational spaces. Third, they examine the agency exercised by transnational migrants. In this respect, our focus is on how women perceive and navigate capital coordinates in different fields to create spaces. Lastly, GGP considers imagination, a cognitive process through which cultural images, meanings and values circulate and get appropriated by individuals as they plan, strategize and move across places. Research methods To understand the production of transnational space from a gendered per- spective, a qualitative study was conducted between June 2014 and June 2015.
The study was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved life-history- style interviews with 15 Chinese migrant women who 1) were trained in applied sciences and engineering and 2) moved twice or more between China and Canada for settlement purposes. To further understand the consti- tution of migrants’ geographical and career mobility, the second phase explored the policies and practices across sites in both China and Canada.
This stage involved gathering data from event observations, textual analysis and 17 interviews with key informants, such as government officials, research- ers, educators, settlement workers, diaspora organizational leaders and work- place professionals from both China and Canada. However, this particular paper is solely based on interviews with immigrant women.
Following institutional research ethics approval, we located women through personal and professional networks and by advertising the study through posting flyers in community centers and popular Chinese social media such as QQ and WeChat. We received responses indicating interest in participating in the study from women both in Vancouver, Canada and in Beijing, China. We informed all potential participants of all aspects of the research study, including what their participation would entail and how their anonymity would be protected. Prior to each interview, a consent form and sample interview questions were provided and the method of interview and interview place were mutually agreed upon. All interviews were conducted in English and/or Chinese by two researchers based in Vancouver. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in the principal investigator’s office or a place of Shan et al.111 the respondents’ choice. Respondents from outside of Vancouver joined the interviews either through Skype or over the phone. The interviews ranged from 45 minutes to two hours.
Interviews with the women focused on their migratory and career trajec- tories, with particular attention paid to their transitional moments. During interviews, we traced how participants sought out or responded to opportu- nities and how they imagined, justified and realized their migratory and career moves in relation to the social, cultural, familial and economic contexts within which they negotiated their social positionality and professional oppor- tunities. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and returned to the women for validation. Where the women requested revision of original transcripts, we accepted the revised version as the basis of data analysis. All interviews were analyzed thematically by at least two members of the research team using the qualitative data analysis software NVivo. A pre-established semi-closed coding rubric based on the theoretical framework explored above formed a guideline for analysis; however, this heuristic coding framework was refined throughout the analysis to be inclusive of themes emerging from the process.
Women respondents and their migratory and career pathways Tables 1 and 2 summarize the basic demographic information of the women participants and provide a snapshot of their migratory and career trajectories.
To protect the anonymity of the women, pseudonyms are used. Of the 15 women, 12 were in their thirties and forties, two were above 50 and one was in her twenties. Thirteen women were married and had children, one was single, and one divorced. Prior to coming to Canada, seven of the women had experiences studying or working in a third country such as Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States or New Zealand. All women landed in Vancouver and their first entry to Canada occurred between 1996 and 2012. All moved to Canada as skilled immigrants (dependent or independent), except for Linda, who migrated as a business migrant, and Emily, who came as a dependent of her parents who immigrated as business migrants. After some time in Canada (between two weeks and four years), 14 women returned to China and one (Linda) to her daycare business in New Zealand. The majority returned to China due to dismal prospects of attaining a job in their field of training in Canada, the need to reunite with families and perceived career and business opportunities in China. At the time of the inter- views, however, only two women were still working in China and all others had migrated back to Canada. When asked about their future migratory plan, a majority of them were ambivalent or equivocal about where to settle in the future.
112Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) In terms of educational backgrounds, all women were trained in what is traditionally known in China asli-gong-keor applied sciences and engineering.
Prior to migrating to Canada, one woman earned a doctoral degree (Hong), six, a Master’s degree (Anna, Biella, Cindy, Emily, Gina and Nancy) and eight, a Bachelor’s degree (Deng, Fang, Irene, Julia, Kate, Linda, Mandy and Oprah). Seven women (Anna, Biella, Gina, Irene, Julia, Nancy and Oprah) were trained in architecture and engineering, three (Deng, Fang and Mandy) in computer science, one (Emily) in mathematics, one (Hong) in med- ical sciences, and one (Kate) in husbandry. Two other women (Cindy and Linda) had a mixed background in sciences and social sciences. Linda was trained as a chemistry teacher in a Normal University in PRC. Cindy obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English but started a professional Master’s program in aviation engineering while working for an airline company.
As the women moved from place to place, their career paths took different turns. At the time of the interviews, only two women remained in their ori- ginal fields of training. Hong held a researcher position in Canada. However, because her husband was not able to acquire a position comparable to his background, they decided to go back to China where Hong landed a position Table 1.Demographic information of study participants.
Name Field of training Age range Anna Vocational school in the PRC; MSc in Interior Architecture 36–40 Biella MSc Urban planning 36–40 Cindy BA English; Masters of Engineering; Diploma in adult edu- cation in process31–35 Deng BA Computer science; Real estate agent certificate 46–50 Emily MSc in Math 26–30 Fang BA in Computer Science 36–40 Gina MSc in HVAC; Certificate in immigration consultancy in process41–45 Hong PhD Medical Sciences 36–40 Irene BA in Civil Engineering; courses in architecture; Diploma in graphic multimedia design51–55 Julia BA in Structural Engineering 41–45 Kate BA in Husbandry; Certificate in accounting in progress 46–50 Linda BA in Chemistry Education 61–65 Mandy BA in Computer Science 41–45 Nancy MSc in Electrical Engineering Automation; BA in Electrical Engineering in progress31–35 Oprah BA in Topography 36–40 Shan et al.113 Table 2.Transnational and occupation mobility of study participants.
NameLast occupation before immigrating to CanadaFirst occupation after arrival in CanadaLast/current occupation in CanadaLocation at time of interview Anna Space planner in inter- national companyProfessional assistant to a builderCoordinator for a family builder (on maternity leave at time of interview)Canada Biella Owner of an engineering company and daycare center (maintaining company and daycare center after immigrating to Canada)Registered a company selling educational products in China (exploring the direc- tion of business at the time of the study)Owner of a company selling educational products in ChinaCanada (NOTE: Moved every few months between Canada and PRC—4x) Cindy Instructor, coordinator and supervisor at an airline companyCoordinator at an investment companyCoordinator at an investment company (on maternity leave at time of interview)Canada (NOTE: Moved every few months between Canada and PRC) Deng Sales and marketing man- ager at an international companyProgrammer Real estate agent Canada Emily Teacher at an international schoolPart-time tutor Part-time tutor Canada (NOTE: Moved between Canada and PRC—6x) Fang Business owner Did not join the labor market, took care of own childrenDid not join the labor market, took care of own childrenPRC (continued) 114Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) Table 2.Continued NameLast occupation before immigrating to CanadaFirst occupation after arrival in CanadaLast/current occupation in CanadaLocation at time of interview Gina IT sales person Clerk at a Chinese radio companyOwner of immigration consulting services companyCanada Hong Medical doctor Postdoctoral researcher Postdoctoral researcher PRC Irene Engineer Drafter in an engineer- ing companySenior web master and project managerCanada Julia Registered engineer for a construction companyOwner of immigration consulting companyOwner of immigration consulting companyCanada (NOTE: Stayed a few months in both Canada and PRC) Kate Worker at a state-owned company in rural developmentWaitress and cook Tutor Canada (NOTE: Moved between Canada and PRC every few months—5x) Linda Owner of after-school centerOwner of daycare centerOwner of daycare centerCanada Mandy Government employee at a hydro companyCashier and assistant cookCashier and assistant cookCanada Nancy Government employee in civil aviation administrationPart-time cashier Part-time cashier Canada Oprah Topographer Defined herself as a ‘‘housewife;’’ volun- teers on a farmLooking for a job Canada Shan et al.115 as a medical professor. Linda opened a daycare center featuring hands-on science education using pedagogies that she developed in China with the help of her husband and their daughter. Four others retained their connection to their fields of training while moving into entrepreneurship or lateral fields of practice. While taking care of her daughter in Vancouver, Biella still retained her ownership of an engineering company and a daycare center in China with the support of her husband who was working in China. Her major efforts, however, had shifted to setting up companies introducing educational products from Canada to China. Similarly, after coming to Canada, Julia provided consultancy for engineering companies in China, but she also opened a consultancy business with her friends in international education.
All the while, she was taking care of her two children while her husband was working in Vancouver. Irene was trained in architecture and worked in structural engineering in China and Singapore. After moving to Canada with her family, she switched to computer-aided graphic design. Anna lived in Canada with her two children while her husband remained in China.
Trained in interior architecture, she was working as a housing project coord- inator for a Chinese family in Vancouver.
If the above six women could be considered as more or less connected to applied sciences and engineering, the other women were out of their fields of training, at least for the time being. Deng, after a stint of IT programming in Vancouver, became a real estate agent. Gina, after a few managerial positions with Chinese companies in China and Canada, started her own immigration consultancy company. Cindy moved into investment through an executive position with a Chinese company in Vancouver. All other six women were in a state of transience, either working in what could be termed transient and precarious employment, jobs such as tutors or service personnel in low-end sectors, doing volunteer work or having returned home and exited the labor market at the time of being interviewed.
Constitution of the transnational space:
Career and life strategies The converging migratory pathways and the varied career trajectories of the women point to the constitutive power of a mix of social, cultural, economic, and symbolic capital that converge and compete for recognition in the context of transnationalism. As the women tried to make their life and career space across place, notably, they also contested and reinforced games of distinction and differentiation emanating from different fields. In this section, we explore the transnational spaces that the women participated in making and challen- ging. In particular, we address not only the strategies the women took to (re)build and mobilize various capitals to maximize their life and career opportunities, but also the games of differentiation and relations of difference 116Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) through which the legitimacy of particular capital is questioned, established and re-entrenched.
Capitals accrued: Articulation of the women to the transnational All the women easily fit into the profile of the Chinese intelligentsia; that is, those who have earned higher education credentials, engage in ‘‘mental labor,’’ and hence, command social respect in China (Shan, 2014). In most cases, the women in the study were able to immigrate to Canada precisely because of their educational backgrounds and prior work experience, recog- nized by Canadian immigration policies as symbolic of their potential to con- tribute to the Canadian economy. In other words, the cultural capital they accumulated in China readily articulated them to the field of migration. The official category through which the women immigrated, however, says little of their social positioning upon entering Canada. The women varied drastically in terms of economic standing and professional and personal biographies. The majority of the women emigrated from large metropolitan cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, while three came from medium cities in the developing areas. We also observed that the women who opened their own businesses prior to immigrating to Canada enjoyed a clear economic and perhaps emotional advantage over others—they talked more of long-term career plans rather than acquiring jobs immediately. Also, women who worked in foreign ventures in China demonstrated better economic security than those working in state-owned companies. The former group also tended to report good command of English, the language they often used at work.
The sole focus on cultural capital and economic status is insufficient to fully grasp the complex relations that produced opportunities and possibilities for the women within our study. In the case of Biella, although born in a rural area, she gained entry to a well-known graduate program in China, where she acquainted and befriended ‘‘people in the field’’—that is, professors and class- mates who turned out to be major players in her field of practice. As her cultural and social capital expanded simultaneously, she was emboldened to open her first engineering business and then a second one in Beijing.
However, the engineering business culture in China involved a large social commitment, later exhausting her. She gradually withdrew herself from the business, which she left to her husband. As her attention shifted to the edu- cation of her child, she started exploring business opportunities in education initially in China and then in Canada after she decided to immigrate so that her child could enjoy a more relaxed educational environment.
In contrast to Biella, Linda came from a highly educated family, a back- ground to which she attributed a cultivation of her scholarly attitude and passion about science education. Nevertheless, such an attitude did not fit within the institutional environment where she worked. As such, despite Shan et al.117 her outstanding work, she encountered administrative barriers. Although this workplace was described as unappreciative of her work, she gained media attention for the unique pedagogy she used in the field of early childhood science education. The work she produced, including books, essays and video- taped lectures—cultural goods in Bourdieu’s language—were also noted by international scholars. These international contacts prompted the expansion of her work and life space to the global realm: she opened a daycare center initially in New Zealand and then in Canada. Of note, Linda was one of the few women whose family remained together wherever they moved. In fact, her husband and daughter were instrumental in all her efforts to practice her play-based science education, which became a source of cultural and eco- nomic leverage for her and her family in Canada.
The circumstances under which other women migrated also differed from one another. Their migratory decisions were often implicitly or explicitly con- structed as a rejection of particular games deeply rooted in the fields within which they were involved. For instance, a few women referred to China’s one- child policy as the main reason to migrate to Canada. In cases like this, the women in our study attempted to leverage their cultural capital in the field of migration to maximize their life opportunities. However, as will be shown next, for most of the women, such forms of transaction between cultural and economic capital were by no means straightforward in Canada.
Capital lost, capital newly accumulated: Struggles and strategies in Canada Although their prior training and work experiences enabled the women to have a global imagination, it became clear that these forms of cultural capital, particularly degrees, professional titles and licenses acquired in China, were not recognized or were diminished in value in the Canadian labor market. As a result, participants in the study encountered tremendous difficulty main- taining their original career pathways. This was especially true for those who were trained in professions regulated in Canada, in particular engineering, architecture and medical sciences. Ironically, the cultural capitals that worked for the women in the field of migration became the ground on which the women were distinguished as the different others. Caught in the games of contradiction, the women developed varying responses which significantly impacted their career pathways. Irene, for instance, recounted how profes- sional regulatory practices in Canada impacted her career pathway: The policy here is that to write qualifying exams we need first work experience under the guidance of a registered architect. I thought it was a waste of time. I was interested in graphic design. I then signed up for the multimedia design program (in a university). I changed my field a bit. 118Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) Irene took a full-time university diploma program to shift to a lateral field of practice. Likewise, some other women also attempted to acquire certificates, diplomas, and even degrees recognizable in the Canadian labor market. For example, Cindy landed in Canada but returned to China to her previous job.
She did not move to Vancouver with her child until her husband settled first with a full-time job. After moving a second time to Canada, she enrolled in an online education program with the hope of becoming an adult educator.
Similar to Cindy, Nancy did not move to Canada until her husband was settled in the country. At the time of the study, she had decided to take a Bachelor’s degree program to hopefully become an electrical engineer again.
Likewise, Gina, whose husband was busy with their family business in China, took a certificate program to qualify as an immigration consultant.
The lack of recognition for their cultural capital acquired in China points to a game of distinction that orders migrants in the Canadian labor market based on place of education. This dominant practice constitutes a Western-centered credential regime (Shan, 2009b), maintaining the supremacy of education in the West and stratifying immigrants largely along racial lines. To better pos- ition themselves in this game, the women became committed to the labor of conversion (Bourdieu, 1986), converting economic and previously acquired cultural capital into institutionally legitimate forms of capital in Canada.
In addition to the devaluation in Canada of their prior cultural capital, the lack of a local social network or social capital was another challenge faced by the women. Although a few women had relatives and family ties in Canada prior to immigration, for the majority of the participants, personal and sup- port networks in Canada were built through meeting other parents at their children’s schools, through churches and at work. Others also discussed making friends through the training and educational programs they attended.
Curiously, many of the women in our study reported that their strongest communities of support were online, particularly alumni groups connected through QQ and WeChat, a finding that could be related to reliance on these media for recruitment. Of note, regardless of the channel through which the women expanded and sustained their social networks, their connections remained largely Chinese. Only one woman, Irene, reported that she held parties and made friends with not only Chinese but also Canadians, whom she referred to as ‘foreigners.’ However, this expansion of her social network was due, in part, to divorcing her husband, who decided to stay in China, and her marrying a local Canadian.
An examination of our participants’ job search experiences in Canada shows that it is a mixed blessing that the women’s social networks were largely Chinese. On the one hand, these social connections were important in facilitating their job search process. On the other hand, to some extent, they also limited the career and life space to Chinese communities for some of the women. For instance, Deng described stumbling into real estate through an Shan et al.119 opportunity that arose when her husband was looking for related jobs through their Chinese networks in Vancouver. In the case of Gina, it was through her circle of Chinese friends that she located her managerial positions with Chinese employers. Although Chinese social networks were instrumental for the women in our study to gain employment, in many cases such networks limited job search opportunities to ethnic business. None of the women made it to the ‘‘mainstream’’ Canadian job market through the networks that they built in Canada or found jobs in their original fields of training. In fact, at the time of the study, only Irene was working at a professional and managerial level in a non-ethnically Chinese firm.
Although niche employment within ethnic communities is a consistent find- ing within migration studies, our study also pinpoints the constitutive power of some emerging social and economic relations, signified by the ‘‘free-floating capital’’ in the context of globalization and migration. Some participants in the study spoke a great deal about economic capital that flowed to Canada from other parts of the world, particular China. Participants spoke of not only the large presence of Chinese businesses in Vancouver, but also described the large number of business immigrants seeking investment opportunities. For such capital to enter the market, it sometimes needs to connect with specialized knowledge, bilingual skills and bicultural awareness, which skilled Chinese migrants among others could supply. For example, Anna was trained in interior architecture in the United Kingdom and had gained professional experiences in space planning in foreign ventures in Beijing. After moving to Vancouver, she identified a niche in the Chinese community where her specialty in space plan- ning and architecture could be easily utilized. She saw such an opportunity in a job ad posted by a Chinese investor who was interested in the housing market, but who had no technical or language preparation for this field. She responded to the job ad and became the technical consultant, lending her skills for the investor to bid for construction projects. This interesting conjoining of economic capital with the cultural capital and skills that Anna brought created a unique dynamic. Although Anna worked for the investor she did not hold him in high esteem, describing him as merely a rich ‘‘Shanxi farmer.’’ Anna then moved on and became a housing project coordinator for another Chinese family. She decided not to look for jobs in the ‘‘mainstream’’ labor market because she believed that niche jobs could provide the flexibility necessary to care for her child while her husband continued living and working in China.
Although many participants gravitated toward niche employment oppor- tunities, the majority sought avenues to maximize their career opportunities through expanding their cultural and social capital within Canadian society.
Many found themselves in the middle of ethnic Chinese capital flows, creating opportunities to re-validate their previously accumulated knowledge, skills and capitals. The life and career opportunities of the women became inter- twined within the interplay and coordination of varying capitals emanating 120Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) from different fields. Although the economic capital flow offered participants additional career opportunities, it did not drastically alter their relative social positioning in the mainstream labor market where they were disadvantaged by virtue of being educated in a different place. Importantly, although emer- ging niche markets provide employment opportunities, gendered responsibil- ities toward families and children continued to shape career and mobility choices within their fields of practice.
Mobilizing capital beyond place Of note, migrating to Canada is rarely an end in itself but described as a means to access better career and life opportunities for the women themselves and their families. For instance, Gina decided to immigrate, in part, because she reached a career ceiling in the international company where she worked: It was a good thing to change your passport, to get Canadian citizenship. What was noticeable at that time is that Mainland Chinese, perhaps due to language reasons when it came to communication with the headquarters, rarely reached managerial positions. You would find a career ceiling [...] At that time, I felt that with a different passport, your opportunities and welfare in the company will improve. Gina undertook the labor of moving to Canada with the hope of gaining symbolic migratory capital that she could utilize when returning to China.
Indeed, a few years after she immigrated to Canada, Gina acquired manager- ial positions in China where she stayed for seven years before she decided to return to Canada to start her consultancy company. Yet, beyond just career advancement, she noted that a major factor informing her migratory decisions was that she would like her child to have a more relaxed education environ- ment. Although for most of her migratory life she was separated from her husband, she said that all was worth it for the sake of her child.
In part, several respondents have been going back and forth between Canada and China because of dismal career prospects in Canada and percep- tions of better career opportunities in China’s booming economy. Hong is one of two women who had returned to China (although neither was sure to settle for good in China at the time of the study). After working as a researcher in Canada, she was able to land employment as a medical professor in China when she and her family decided to return, a choice that was prompted by her husband not realizing his career aspirations in Canada. She is one of the few women who remained in their original career pathway. Hong stressed during her interview that although she returned to China, she had ‘‘not cut off her ties’’ in Canada. On the contrary, she maintained relationships and collabo- rated with her former colleagues in Canada on international projects. To a great extent, she was able to deploy the social networks and cultural capital Shan et al.121 she developed in Canada to further her professional practice in China through transnational engagement.
Not all women who went back to China to look for career opportunities succeeded. Deng, for instance, tried to introduce to the Chinese market the software-based management system she worked on in Canada. Despite her extensive social network in China, she failed. She had the cultural capital and offered a high-tech product. However, she learned that the economic arena in China operates differently from that in Canada. In China, industries are still reliant on mass labor rather than technology upgrade, which did not bode well for her plans. She subsequently tried to re-enter the labor market in Canada, but things did not work out either. A year later, she and her two children went back to China to unite with her husband. Yet, when her children faced difficulties adjusting to the Chinese education system, she migrated back to Canada again and started looking for alternative career opportunities.
If the majority of the women remained on the periphery of the Canadian labor market, some women tried to turn the periphery into the center of their transnational space through entrepreneurship. Out of the four women (Biella, Gina, Julia and Linda) who remained active entrepreneurs after migration, two (Gina and Julia) did so after they came to Canada. Julia, for instance, was a licensed engineer in China. When she moved to Canada, she initially became a stay-at-home mother because her husband had to take care of their family business in China. However, during this period, she continued to util- ize her professional title by providing consultancy work for engineering com- panies in China. Later on, she also collaborated with a Chinese partner and established an immigration consultancy company in Canada: What I do is to communicate with people [...] the information that you know [here in Canada] to people who need the information [...] our clients are those who trust me, because they came through my social network and sought me out [...Meanwhile,] you need to understand the most updated immigration policies here [in Canada]. On the one hand, Julia was able to make use of her established social network in China. On the other hand, she was able to apply her cultural knowledge of the immigration policies in Canada. Through establishing this company, Julia brought together her economic, social and cultural capitals rooted in different places and tried to turn them into a career opportunity.
Women’s place: Gendered ideologies shaping transnational spaces Clearly, the women in the study were apt at identifying problems and possi- bilities in their planning, reasoning and imagining in the transnational realm.
122Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) At all times, the women’s life and career strategies were deeply implicated in how they were positioned in the family as well as in the applied sciences and engineering labor market. Migration is rarely an individualistic decision. As noted briefly above, when participants explained their reasons for immigrat- ing to Canada, many referred to the opportunity to have more children and access a more relaxed educational environment. Migration altered the various roles the women played within their families. For instance, three participants (Cindy, Nancy and Oprah) let their spouses explore the foreign land of Canada while they continued their careers in China to maintain the economic base of the family. They subsequently followed the family to Canada, espe- cially when their spouses became relatively settled. In most of the cases though, the participants immigrated ahead of their spouses, either to attain their permanent resident status in Canada and/or to accompany their chil- dren. As a result, all women, except for Linda and Hong, lived separately from their spouses for at least a period of time. At the time of our study, four women were still living apart from their spouses.
Women’s career decisions, just as with their migratory decisions, were rarely individual choices; instead, they were often a part and parcel of famil- ial strategies. For instance, some women—particularly the ones who ven- tured into entrepreneurship—framed their career choices as partly, if not mainly, enabling their need and/or desire to balance career and familial responsibility, particularly caretaking duties for both children and seniors.
For example, Gina described how work–life balance influenced her employ- ment decisions: [F]or seven years I was tired of office jobs. I had spent too much time at work, leaving home early in the morning at 7 and coming back around 8 at night. I felt that I spent little time with my kids. I could not take care of them. [...] That is why I decided to work from home, starting the consultancy company. In the case of Gina, entrepreneurship became a means of work–life balance when available employment opportunities could not provide the necessary equilibrium.
Similarly, employment opportunities were not always the sole reason for participants to have returned to China. We found that many women also had family needs to meet, such as reuniting with spouses and their extended family and, in some cases, caring for elders. Indeed, as Gina explained, often multiple push-and-pull factors were in place for the women to return to China: There were a few reasons for me to return to China. First, my husband did not come to Canada. We were still moving back and forth. My kid was younger. It was a bit hard to have a job and to take care of my youngest at the same time. Shan et al.123 Meanwhile, my mom was sick, diagnosed with cancer. I was too far away in Canada. Because of these three reasons, I went back to China. Of note, women in the study embraced their role as a caregiver. It would be simplistic, if not erroneous, to characterize the family as an oppressive field for the women. In some cases, the family was also found to be an apparatus of support crucial for the women to continue careers. For instance, when Fang was presented with a managerial position in China, she jumped right at the opportunity, a decision that was enabled by support from her family: When my husband got his permanent residence, he could live in Canada and take care of the kids. I am one of those who never give up, trying to prove that we could still achieve something. I wanted to prove myself. I wanted to return. I felt that I wasted a lot of time when I had my baby in Canada. I wanted to prove myself. But I would not settle with just anything. I would not like my life to be routinized. It is this will [that drove me]. When people invited me to return, [I took the opportunity], it had to do with that will. While the circumstances within which Gina and Fang made their career and movement decisions were in stark contrast, together they show that when the women made their career and transnational movement, they invariably had to negotiate their place in the gendered field of the family, whether they submit to their traditional role as caregivers or transgress it as a result of family support.
Although the women did not question their role as caregivers, we found that they had mixed notions of the place of women in the fields of applied sciences and engineering. A few women evoked gendered discourses concern- ing intellect, citing women’s cognitive orientation toward detail and organiza- tion rather than ‘‘a global picture.’’ Another described how she, as a woman, faced ‘‘declining cognitive ability’’ associated, supposedly, with aging and childbirth. These gendered narratives provided explanations for being unable to maintain a position or move up the career ladder in engineering and sciences. Anna, for instance, said: You use a lot of brain as a woman engineer. That is, you expend much of your brain even if you work from the office. As well, it is not realistic for you to be a drafter all your life. You have to move up from junior level to senior level. You consume much more of your brain [as you move up]. The physical change for women cannot be changed. As they age, their career lives go down. The career lives of all women in this profession have to take a downturn. It was unclear if declining cognition is what the women firmly believed or if such a discourse was used to rationalize the lack of career opportunities for 124Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 25(2) the women in their fields of practice across China and Canada. In either case, such a construction of women greatly hampered an understanding of oppor- tunities for women within these male-dominated professions.
Conclusion and discussion In this paper, we examined the migratory and career strategies exercised by 15 Chinese women who were primarily trained in applied sciences and engin- eering as they moved back and forth between China and Canada. To maxi- mize their career and life opportunities, the women endeavored to build and mobilize various forms of capital across place. Not only did they engage in multiple migratory movement, some of them also acquired Canadian creden- tials, moved into entrepreneurships and took up transient jobs. Although the women were ingenious in identifying opportunities, marshalling resources and negotiating constraints and options, few of the women maintained their original career pathways.
The utility and futility of women’s efforts point to ‘‘games’’ of differenti- ation emanating across fields, particularly along the lines of gender, race and class. Differentiation was invoked to produce pockets of transnational spaces where existing power relations were simultaneously challenged and retrenched. To start with, the women entered the migratory tide itself as an endeavor to break away from particular politics within fields of work and life in China, be it business cultures, family planning policies, or institutional contexts. Although they were able to enter the field of migration by leveraging their training and work backgrounds, they soon found that in Canada place- based recognition of qualifications served as a mode of distinction. As such, immigrants are often ordered in the labor market based on their racial back- grounds. Although the women in the study tried to ‘‘compensate’’ for this ‘‘lack’’ by expanding their cultural capital recognized in Canada, at the time of the study, only one woman who acquired a Canadian degree or diploma was working in the mainstream labor market.
In contrast to the difficulty that the women faced in the mainstream host labor market, the women found their labor indispensable in a parallel and emerging labor market. The need for people with bi-cultural and bi-lingual skills to sustain the economic tides and ties between China and Canada, par- ticularly the flow of financial capital, was found to provide niche opportu- nities. Some participants played an active role conjoining economic capital from China and cultural capital recognized in Canada to build unique career spaces, often within transnational realms. In other words, the women bridged two spaces, translating practices across places. Nevertheless, it would be erroneous to assume this emerging center of work and employment has reconfigured the Canadian labor market, which, as shown above, largely excluded the women in our study.
Shan et al.125 Finally, although it is easy to celebrate what at least some of the women have achieved in the transnational space, it needs to be pointed out that the women were rarely imagining or planning their careers as individuals. At all times, they were simultaneously negotiating their roles and places at home and at work. Gendered ideologies were found to often shape the kind of work and life spaces that the women participated in making. Although the women were entrepreneurial in mobilizing capitals across place, few women remained in their original applied sciences and engineering career, a finding which has been connected to an interplay of gender, race and class relations.
We need to ask why, in a context where nation-states compete for talent and skilled workers in the pursuit of knowledge economy, we fail to retain well- trained and well-experienced women in male-dominated professions.
Acknowledgment The study is led by Dr. Hongxia Shan as the principal investigator. Co-investigators on the project include Dr. Thomas Tannert (Engineering, UBC), Dr. Samson Madera Nashon (Education, UBC), Dr. John Jenness (Engineering, British Columbia Institute of Technology), Dr. Yueya Ding (Education, National Academy of Education Administration, China) and Dr. Zhiwen Liu (Education, South China Normal).
Researchers associated with the study include Dr. Chris Campbell and Ms. Karen Sheehan. Research assistants who were integral to every aspect of this study include PhD candidates, Ashley Pullman (Project coordinator) and Yao Xiao; MA student, Yanxian Mo; and Master of Education graduate, Qinghua Zhao. Ms. Michelle Zeng volunteered on the project and Ms. Stephanie Glick and Mr. Tao Zhang aided in the transcriptions.
Declaration of conflicting interests The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this paper.
Funding This research was funded by a grant from the Hampton Fund at the University of British Columbia (UBC) (Project grant number 15R20980).
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