The dual roles of transnational daughters and transnational wives: monetary intentions, expectations and dilemmas

Abstract

Utilizing in‐depth interview data from a larger study of Vietnamese transnational marriages, in this article I focus on how Vietnamese transnationally married daughters talk about their plans to provide financially for their elderly parents in the homeland. While single adult daughters from Vietnam are equally likely as single adult sons to provide financially for their parents, married daughters are much less likely to do so than married sons. Yet, paradoxically, a transnational marriage with the prospect of eventual international migration positions daughters as important potential financial providers, not because they are daughters, but because they are transnational daughters. When they eventually migrate, however, they will not only become transnational migrant daughters but also transnational migrant wives. These transnational daughters must, therefore, negotiate their intentions to provide monetary support, expected from them because they will become migrants, against their husbands' objections to the fact that their wives are daughters, and therefore, not responsible for monetary support to ageing parents according to traditional Vietnamese kinship practices.

Transnational migrant entrepreneurship, gender and family business

“…Transnational migrant entrepreneurs operate between home and host countries and have recently migrated (Brzozowski et al 2017), whereas transnational diasporic entrepreneurs, albeit engaging in similar activities, are by contrast second and third generation migrants (Elo 2016). While the literature on transnational migrant entrepreneurship highlights the duality of the everyday experiences of business people operating across transnational spaces (Brzozowski et al 2017;Drori et al 2009;Igrashi 2015;Thai 2012;Yamanaka 2005), to date very little is known about the intersection of transnational migrant entrepreneurship and family businesses.…”

“…Indeed, by running a business, fostering familial relationships, organizing reciprocal childcare arrangements, and sending remittances to the home country to invest in the family business (McKenzie and Menjívar 2011), they indeed became 'Jacquelines of all trades' (Tegtmeier et al 2016). Refashioning their maternal identity involved recognizing that a mother could engage in entrepreneurial activity and become a 'breadwinner' (Remennick 2016;Yamanaka 2005), as well as take on more traditional 'mothering' roles such as childcare (Thai 2012). Our biographical narratives demonstrate that transnational spaces can provide emancipatory avenues through which women can not only overcome existing constraints and develop their entrepreneurial skills but also redefine their positions within their families and family businesses.…”

International Migration Decision-Making and Destination Selection Among Skilled Migrants

“…British pre-departure migrants to New Zealand reported a drop in levels of social support from extended family when they informed the family of the planned move (Tabor & Milfont, 2012). But nowhere is the extended family likely to be as influential as in collectivist cultures, as evidenced by the continuing strong relationships, both financial and social, of migrants from countries such as Vietnam (Thai, 2012). This is also demonstrated in Indian rural-urban internal migration, which has been characterised as family decision-making, wherein the head of the household (the eldest male) makes the decision about which family members are to migrate (Bhattacharyya, 1985).…”

Mediated remittances: transnational economic contributions from second‐generation Filipino Americans

“…Studies on transnational first-generation Vietnamese women show that familial obligation varies across different life stages (Thai 2012). Before finding a partner, Vietnamese women regularly send remittances to their parents as an expression of familial piety.…”