Father is the Sky. Mother is the Earth: The Influence of Filial Piety in the Caregiving Experiences of Mandarinspeaking Chinese Caregiver-Employees in Southern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Caregiver-employees (CEs) are individuals who fulfill an unpaid caregiving role while simultaneously sustaining paid work. Managing these dual roles can place CEs at increased risk for caregiving burden, decreased workplace productivity and/or depressive symptoms. Few studies have examined immigrant CEs perspectives on caregiving in Canada and how cultural obligations shape caregiving in Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrant families. The purpose of the present study was twofold: 1) to understand the perspectives on caregiving of Mandarinspeaking Chinese immigrant CEs residing in Southern Ontario, Canada, and; 2) to explore how, post-migration, CEs manage their dual roles of unpaid caregiving and paid work. Data analysis of interviews from thirteen Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants, using Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory, revealed five themes: 1) Filial Responsibility; 2) Gender Roles; 3) Managing dual roles; 4) Family Conflicts, and; 5) Future Concerns. This paper discusses the first three themes. Participants' narratives suggest that there was excessive demand on CEs time to help Policies should seek to bridge Eastern and Western cultural gaps between seniors and their caregivers while facilitating more accommodating and understanding workplace environments for immigrant CEs.

Filial piety dilemma solutions in Chinese adult children: The role of contextual theme, filial piety beliefs, and generation

“…Filial piety, as the core value of Confucianism, plays an important role not only in Asian countries and regions such as Korea (Sung & Dunkle, ), Malaysia (Nainee, Aun, & Seng, ), Taiwan, and Hong Kong (Chen et al, ; Hsu, ; Yeh & Bedford, ; Yeh et al, ) but also in Asian communities in Western countries such as the United States (Guo, Dong, & Tiwari, ; Jones et al, ) and Canada (Sethi et al, ) because of massive immigration. The current research provides empirical evidence for the contextual variations of solutions to filial piety dilemmas and their association with filial piety beliefs, which could help explain the intergenerational dynamics in modern Asian families.…”

Cancer, a relational disease

“…A more inclusive healthcare, asks for a changed approach to both patient processes and in regard to a broader participation of the patient's social network. Intercultural studies add language barriers as another burden to the caregiving role (Sethi et al, 2017) which also has to be considered. Goren et al (2014) states "the need for enhancing our understanding of the caregiving experience and developing supportive and personalized multicomponent interventions for caregivers, given their pivotal role in providing support for patients" (p. 1637).…”

“…Cancer is on the increase and in Sweden we struggle with providing psychosocial support to both patients and family members. Migration and possible language barriers adds to the challenge (Sethi, Williams, Zhu, Shen, & Ireson, 2017). In order to be able to provide support to affected families, there is a general need to increase and adapt family support to this emerging situation of a slowly less fatal disease.…”

Caregiving Across International Borders: a Systematic Review of Literature on Transnational Carer-Employees

“…Others have focused on the experiences of formal/paid immigrant carers in their country of resettlement (e.g., Donovan & Williams, 2014 ; Ho et al, 2003 ; Ilegan et al, 2020 ; Lai, 2007 , 2008 ; Lai & Leonenko, 2007 ; Park, 2012 ; Turcotte & Savage, 2020 ). Except for scant literature (Sethi, 2022 ; Sethi & Williams, 2016 , 2017 ; Sethi et al, 2017a , b , 2018 ), research that exclusively focuses on the experiences of transnational carer-employees is absent.…”