Privileged Japanese transnational families in Hawaii as lifestyle migrants

This study of privileged Japanese families in Hawaii revisits the claim that East Asian transnational families relocate overseas either to improve their well‐being or to enhance their status through their children's international education. Existing scholarship has focused mainly on the second pattern of status‐seeking migration, conceptualized as ‘education migration’. By employing Benson and O'Reilly's concept of ‘lifestyle migration’, I consider the less widely studied case of migration strategies designed to increase well‐being. The central difference between the two types of migrants lies in the way that migrant women construct their gendered identity through their transnational split‐household arrangement – a freer self (lifestyle migrants) or a sacrificial self (education migrants). In conclusion, I call for further research on this neglected topic and propose an important dimension to facilitate lifestyle migration, gender.     

Migration,development and inequality: Eastern Punjabi transnationalism

Abstract Drawing on original, ethnographic research in India and the UK, in this article we discuss the impact of transnational activity on the Doaba region of East Punjab, India. We argue that some recent studies have underplayed some of the less progressive consequences of Indian transnationalism. In particular, we contend that they have underestimated the extent of division between transnational migrants and Indian non‐migrants and downplayed the relationship between transnationalism and caste inequality. This empirical study of transnationalism, when placed in the context of the dynamic caste relations of East Punjab, supports those who contend that access to international migration is becoming an increasingly significant component of contemporary global social stratification, with the ‘broad’ transnational processes of capitalist globalization driving the ‘narrow’ transnationalism studied here. In this article, we question any straightforwardly progressive relationship between transnationalism and ‘development’ within East Punjab, and suggest that the arguments presented have a resonance beyond northwest India.     

Consuming the transnational family: Indonesian migrant domestic workers to Saudi Arabia

Abstract There is heated debate in contemporary Indonesia about the rights and regulation of transnational women migrants, specifically about the ‘costs to families’ of women working overseas, but little attention has been given to women migrants' own views of family or women's own motivations for migration. In this article, which is based on field work in a migrant‐sending community in West Java, I focus on migrant women's narratives of transnational migration and employment as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. I contribute to the literature on gender and transnational migration by exploring migrants' consumption desires and practices as reflective not only of commoditized exchange but also of affect and sentiment. In addition, I show in detail how religion and class inflect low‐income women's narrations of morally appropriate mothering practices. In conclusion, I suggest that interpreting these debates from the ground up can contribute towards understanding the larger struggles animating the Indonesian state's contemporary relationships with women and Islam.     

Transnational families and their children's education: China's ‘study mothers’ in Singapore

Abstract For many middle‐income Asian families from the region's less developed countries, the education of children in a more developed country has become a major ‘project’ requiring the transnational relocation of one or more members of the family. As an aspiring global education hub, Singapore has been a recipient of many international students. In our article we examine the case of ‘study mothers’ from the People's Republic of China who accompany their children to Singapore during the course of the latter's study, while leaving their spouses at home. In the analysis we demonstrate that the transnational ‘project of education’ for these young Asian children hinges crucially on the notion and realization of the ‘sacrificial mother’. Unlike the women in elite Chinese transnational families who enter western countries as potential citizens and are able to regain their relatively privileged lifestyles after a period of transition, the study mothers are admitted to, and remain in, Singapore as transient sojourners whose lives are characterized by continuing challenges and fluidity.     

Revisiting 'communities in Britain'

In this article I re‐examine Frankenberg’s Communities in Britain (1966) and his use of a ‘morphological continuum’ within his analysis. This analysis is itself a re‐assessment of some influential community studies conducted within the British Isles. I look at some particular ideas within the more theoretical part of this book, especially the ideas of ‘social redundancy’ and the distinction between ‘complex’ and ‘complicated’. I then consider some themes arising from some more recent studies. These themes include identity, networks and social capital and time and I argue that Frankenberg's analysis can still provide the reader with useful tools to think through the ideas and practices of community.     

Assemblages and affect: migrant mothers and the varieties of absent children

Drawing from stories told by migrant women in Hong Kong, this article builds on previous studies of ‘left‐behind children’ and calls for greater attention to the spectrum of sorts of absent children and to the formation of queer or less normative forms of migratory families. Taking a two‐pronged approach, I present an on‐the‐ground ethnographic and affective approach through several vignettes, and consider key elements of a more mid‐range and distanced ‘global assemblage’ approach to the institutions and expert knowledge that shape the experiences and practices of migrant mothers, migratory families, and the spectrum of absent children. This article posits that one's biological children, perhaps the most familial of kin, can become familiar or even unfamiliar strangers through contemporary processes, technologies and practices of migration and separation, and that the process of migration makes and unmakes conventional and unconventional sorts of families. While affective and assemblage approaches are independently valuable, combined they offer richer understandings of the complex interplay of factors – at various levels – that shape normative and queer families and different types of children's absences.     

Science or liberal arts? Cultural capital and college major choice in China

Previous studies on major East Asian societies such as Japan and Korea generally fail to find a strong effect of cultural capital in educational inequality, partly due to the characteristic extreme focus on standardized test and curriculum. This study shifts attention to the horizontal stratification of education by investigating the association between family background, cultural capital, and college major choice in contemporary China. Based on analysis of data from the Beijing College Students Panel Survey (BCSPS), we found that, on average, cultural capital significantly mediates the relationship between family background and college major preference. Those with greater endowment of cultural capital are more likely to come from socio‐economically advantaged families, and, at the same time, demonstrate a stronger propensity to major in liberal arts fields rather than science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Further analyses reveal that the association between cultural capital and academic field choice comes into being by way of performance in the Chinese test in the national college entrance examination and of the non‐cognitive dispositions, such as self‐efficacy and self‐esteem. Our findings better our understanding of formation of the horizontal stratification of higher education.     

Re-centring ‘Race’ in Development: Population Policies and Global Capital Accumulation in the Era of the SDGs

Abstract

This article argues that contrary to some recent theorizing of contemporary development interventions, ideologies of race and discursive and material processes of racialization remain central to development and are embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals. This is explored through an examination of current population policies, and in particular the ‘global family planning strategy’ initiated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the British government. Population concerns are now routinely invoked in the context of neo-Malthusian discourses which relate migration, climate change, and conflict. This article argues however that contemporary population policies represent more than a discursive smokescreen for the destructive impacts of global capital accumulation—they are in fact deeply enmeshed in strategies for its expansion. As such, they rely upon embodied coercion and violence which is racialized and gendered, even as they invoke narratives of reproductive rights and choices.     

IM Special Section Introduction: Rethinking International Migration in China and India

China and India have the world’s two largest populations and have long been major sources of migrants to other countries. In recent years, movements of Chinese and Indians for study and work overseas have been affected by developments in policies at their chosen destinations as well as at home. The flows of Chinese and Indian students and skilled migrants in the second decade of the 21st century are occurring within quite different political and economic contexts from those that prevailed even as recently as a decade ago. In the first part of this brief editorial introduction, we introduce some features of contemporary Chinese and Indian migration. The four substantive papers in the special section are then introduced, the first two with reference to the changing Asian migration patterns, and the remaining two addressing the changing dynamics of migration.     

Recycled Odyssey: Creating Transnational Families in The Greek Diaspora

In this article I explore the types of transnational families forged by Greek Canadian women through cycles of migration between Canada and Greece. The focus is on how transmigrant women search for a spouse and heterosexual lifestyle embodied within a seemingly ‘authentic’ Greek experience. This recycled odyssey in which the women negotiate systems of gender and ethnic identification between two different social milieux highlights how parental guidance, class tensions and representations of gender and sexuality (re)form the Greek transnational family. These conflicts, and their resolutions, indicate how the ties of transnational families are negotiated to accommodate competing notions of sexuality, femininity, filial piety, parental investment and economic responsibility. Such cases are poorly documented since it is assumed that ‘white’ ethnic groups in North America are more assimilated. However, given the forces that drive transnationalism — such as global capital, cheap travel, telecommunications and European integration — belonging to an imagined community has different implications than it did in the past.     

The framing of return from above and below in Ecuadorian migration: a project,a myth,or a political device?

Although return migration is a significant topic in current policy, the competing interests of sending and destination countries in promoting it and the prospects of making return strategies ‘from above’ a viable and desirable option for migrants are relatively neglected topics. In this article, I explore the distinct agendas, meanings and expectations underlying the prospects of return migration from Ecuador to Italy. I approach this recent migration flow through ethnography and an institutional analysis of the policy strategies and discourses emerging in the source country. The Ecuadorian government has recently developed a Plan Retorno aimed at facilitating emigrants’ return and economic reintegration. The narratives of Ecuadorian migrants generally reveal a deep‐rooted expectation to return home. While initially hoping to return home ‘soon’, however, migrants systematically tend to postpone their homecoming. When it does take place in the short term, it is likely to be through migration ‘failure’ rather than an actual accomplishment of their earlier objectives. Given the distinct interests and expectations driving them, it is possible to assess the relationship between the two approaches to return. I conclude that return migration, irrespective of its actual accomplishment, is relevant to a better understanding of emigrant policies and of immigrant life trajectories overseas.     

Single Parenthood and Children’s Reading Performance in Asia

Using the data from Program for International Student Assessment, I examine the gap in reading performance between 15‐year‐old students in single‐parent and intact families in 5 Asian countries in comparison to the United States. The ordinary least square regression analyses show negligible disadvantages of students with a single parent in Hong Kong and Korea, once students’ demographic characteristics and socioeconomic background are held constant. Students in single‐parent families in Indonesia and Thailand outperform their peers in intact families. The negative effect of single parenthood remains significant in Japan, even after parent‐child communication is controlled. Interpreting the weak effect of single parenthood in the Asian countries, I consider extended family systems and the relatively high proportion of widowhood among causes of single parenthood.     

A ‘Minority’ on the Move: Boundary Work among Filipina Muslim Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East

This article analyses the migration of a religious ‘minority’ that is largely invisible within migration studies, namely Muslim Filipina domestic workers. More specifically, this research shows that the category of ‘minority’ is not fixed and is always negotiated through transnational spaces and boundary work. In doing so, the article highlights how religious belonging, the status of minority and migration intersect and are negotiated during the period prior to these women leaving their country, during their time in the country of destination, and when they return to the Philippines. How boundary work affects the religious belonging of this Muslim ‘minority’ is underlined by presenting the Middle East as an opportunity to perform norms of ‘Muslimness’. The performance of these norms as an opportunity for these women to challenge the status of being a ‘minority’ in the Philippines is also examined. Finally, this article shows how these Muslim ‘minorities’ gain access to a certain symbolic capital by becoming hajji and balikbayan (returnees) when they return home.     

Marriage Migration Policy in South Korea: Social Investment beyond the Nation State

This article seeks to contribute to understandings of South Korea's approach to marriage migration. Situating our analysis of marriage migration policy specifically within the recent emergence of a social investment approach to welfare, we bring together two bodies of literature that due to the methodological nationalism of much welfare state scholarship are usually treated separately. Through an examination of the policy framework governing marriage migration ‐ so‐called ‘multicultural family policies’ ‐ we find that successive Korean governments have actively sought female marriage migrants to perform various social reproductive roles as a means to secure the reproductive capacity of the nation, just as feminist scholars have argued the care work of citizen‐mothers can be understood. Our analysis also suggests that marriage migration policy in Korea constitutes a distinctly transnational dimension to its overall social investment approach, which is strongly motivated by concerns to reproduce the next generation of human capital.     

A configurational approach to transnational families: Who and where is one's family in the case of mobile older adults?

This article introduces a novel transnational family configuration (TNFC) approach to study the diversity of family forms across kinship and geographical boundaries. Integrating theoretical insights from family sociology and transnational family research, it examines contemporary families as personal networks that encompass both subjectively identified and potentially transnationally dispersed kin and non-kin members. Drawing on original survey data and in-depth interviews with adults aged 55+ living in Switzerland, it compares migrants’ and non-migrants’ personal family networks. The results indicate that these networks are both diverse and transnational. Although there is a strong correlation between transnationality and migration background, other life-course factors also contribute to the development of transnational family networks beyond the scope of migrant ‘exceptionalism’. By advocating the adoption of a TNFC approach to the study of contemporary families, in diverse population groups and various cultural contexts, this study paves the way for future research in this area.     

Seeking identity: the transborder lives of mainland Chinese families with children born in Hong Kong

Between 2001 and 2013, Hong Kong regulations permitted pregnant women from mainland China to travel to Hong Kong to deliver their babies. In this article, based on 30 in‐depth interviews, I explore the transborder lives and identities of these mainland Chinese families who, motivated by cost considerations, citizenship and anticipated benefits for their children, chose to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong. In some cases, family networks providing flexible residential practices and family care, supported these transborder activities. However, the complexities of transborder life reveal the diverse ‘identifications’ within Hong Kong society and mainland families. Because neither administration totally accepts them, they are not full members of either society and so the identities they form are both plural and fragmented.     

‘Here and There’: Children and Youth’s Perspectives of Borders in Mexico–United States Migration

This article explores children’s perspectives regarding migration and family separation on both sides of the Mexico‐U.S. border. ‘Transnational care constellations’¹ that connect separated siblings allow children to imagine the other side of the border and to explore their thoughts and perspectives through the lenses of inequality, as well as through a sense of belonging and family. This article presents ethnographic data of families that capture the dynamism of families that are both ‘here and there’ as children assemble their ideas and narratives of how transnational lives exist.     

Having the wrong kind of money. A qualitative analysis of new forms of financial, social and moral exclusion in consumerist Scandinavia

Consumerism not only promotes discourses emphasizing individualized consumer choices, but it also introduces new electronic, invisible and symbolic forms of money. The present article analyses social exclusion in contemporary Scandinavian society by focusing on patterns of consumption and the social meaning of money in low‐income households in Denmark and Sweden. Drawing on recent sociological theory on money and budgeting ( Pahl, 1999, 2002 ; Singh, 1997, 1999 ; Zelizer, 1997, 2005 ) and recent critiques of consumption studies ( Edgell, Hetherington and Warde 1996 ; Gronow and Warde, 2001 ; Lodziak, 2002 ), it argues that experiences of social and financial exclusion in consumerist society must be related to the amount of money available within the household, the social position that the household occupies, and the social form that this money takes. Pahl (1999 ) shows that the development of electronic money seems to alter and further constrain access to consumption for the ‘credit poor’ and ‘information poor’. To this ‘technological filter’, a ‘social filter’ may be added, as the results suggest that consumption patterns and the social meaning of money in low‐income families are largely incompatible with prevailing neo‐liberalist ideas of money and consumption in contemporary society.     

Cultural Responses to Changing Gender Patterns of Migration in Georgia

In this paper, we explore how individual women cope with the tensions between economic forces encouraging temporary labour migration and cultural norms tying “proper” women to their homes and families. Combining in‐depth interviews with returned migrant women in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi with secondary migration data for the region, we illustrate the recent increases in Georgian women’s participation in international labour migration. Deteriorating economic conditions in Georgia leave women with few local opportunities to financially support their families, while institutional changes have altered the accessibility and attractiveness of international destinations, leading to increasing motivations and opportunities for women’s migration. Focusing on the contradictions between growing female migration and persistent adherence to cultural norms stigmatizing migration in Georgia, we explore the cognitive strategies migrant women employ in an attempt to balance internalized perceptions of acceptable gendered behaviour with their migration choices. Two key pathways of adaptation emerge: framing migration as a necessity rather than a choice and stressing the unique and individually exceptional nature of their own migration experience. We posit that these strategies may serve to limit the norm‐challenging nature of women’s migration in Georgia. Although migration is often described as an empowering experience for women, if women migrants work to present their migration in a way that fits within the bounds of traditional gender norms, these norms may be strengthened rather than challenged.     

Geometries of ‘global’ evangelicalism

In this article, I explore the power dynamics at play in religious place‐making. I critically discuss the uneven co‐configurations of imaginaries of the ‘local’ and ‘global’ within global evangelicalism. Specifically, I analyse the recent recording of a live album by the famous charismatic Australian band Hillsong United (of Hillsong Church) at various locations in Israel‐Palestine, which was followed by a concert tour in Israel. Palestinian evangelical Christians were critical of this endeavour, for they felt that it marginalized and excluded them from their global evangelical faith family. The frictions between the Palestinian evangelical community and Hillsong United illustrate how dominant evangelical actors create an imagination of the ‘local’, which enters the imaginary of global evangelicalism (and bears material consequences). In the article, I thus argue that privileged financial and cultural resources and travel regimes lead to specific notions of geometries of power in global evangelicalism.