Transnationalizing the 'Asian' family: imaginaries, intimacies and strategic intents

Abstract

In this introductory article, we emphasize the significance of considering the politics and practices of transnationalism as they impinge on the social morphology of transnational ‘Asian’ families. Three strands of work in this arena are discussed. First, transnational families draw on ideologically laden imaginaries to give coherence to notions of belonging despite the physical dispersal of their members; these imaginaries may in turn act as a conservative force exerting control over particular female members, an increasing salient issue given the feminization of various streams of labour migration. Second, transnational families are also realized through lived experiences, where variants and degrees of intimacy are negotiated across transnational spaces with both ‘regular’ members and ‘irregular’ others. In the process, social identities may be reinforced or reconfigured. Third, families may assume transnational morphologies with the strategic intent of ensuring economic survival or maximizing social mobility. In this context, children's education has emerged as a particularly important project which provides strong impetus for families to go transnational.

Precariousness, Precarity, and Family: Notes from Palestine

“…single parents with children, queer couples). Yeoh et al (2005) argue that these patriarchal norms are also often reproduced through Singaporean transnational migration through discursively constructed ideals of the family as a site of morality, purity and tradition. In the context of the US, Cowen & Gilbert (2007) have shown how a particular normative family discourse, put to work in state policy making, constructs a 'national family' that is highly exclusionary of both 'foreign' others and 'deviants' within the national 'family' (see also Martin, forthcoming).…”

“…Valentine (2008) notes that geographers are only just beginning a sustained examination of the geographies of families themselves, which is to say geographies that don't subsume family within concepts such as social reproduction and care. Geographies of families themselves have explored how families are enmeshed in spacings of transnational migration (Waters 2002, Yeoh et al 2005, home (Harker 2010, Oswin 2010a, Stenning et al 2010, the (post)colonial nation-state (Oswin 2010b), law and borders (Martin 2011), while being part of a broader array of intimate relations and spaces (Valentine 2008).…”

“…Geographical research has explored how families are constituted by, and enmeshed within, particular geographies such as transnational migration (Waters 2002, Yeoh et al 2005, home (Harker 2010, Oswin 2010a, Stenning et al 2010, the (post)colonial nation-state (Oswin 2010b), law and borders (Martin 2011), while being part of a broader array of intimate relations and spaces (Valentine 2008). Reading these investigations of family spaces -the spatial formations, relations and flows that manifest and are manifested by familiesand family spacings -the processes through which family spaces emerge (see (Valentine 2008) and/or exclusionary national identity spaces (Cowen & Gilbert 2007).…”

Trayectorias y expectativas en China. Una aproximación descentrada a la movilidad internacional española

“…Además, los padres y madres profesionales con descendencia adolescente contemplan la posibilidad de que su vuelta al país no lo sea de toda la familia, pues los y las hijas al crecer y educarse en un ambiente internacional, tienen la expectativa de que su trayectoria educativa continúe con estudios superiores en países europeos o en universidades de Estados Unidos, opciones que implican la necesidad de ahorrar durante su estancia en China, habida cuenta de que sus excelentes condiciones laborales no se mantendrán a su regreso en España. En este sentido, la movilidad laboral de los padres incide en la movilidad educativa de los hijos e hijas, hecho que constituye un aporte de la movilidad española a la movilidad educativa internacional de infantes y adolescentes (Yeoh, Huang y Lam, 2005).…”

Mujeres chinas en España: El capital social y su impacto en las estrategias productivas y reproductivas

“…Se trata de una estrategia familiar y no exclusivamente individual, para adquirir un capital simbólico internacional. Con ello capacitan a sus hijos e hijas en el desarrollo de competencias cosmopolitas que gozan de un gran valor en el mercado laboral local e internacional de los ámbitos profesionales, financieros y empresariales (Yeoh, Huang y Lam, 2005).…”