Parental migration and the mental health of those who stay behind to care for children in South-East Asia

published_or_final_versio

The cultural and economic logics of migration

The logic behind why people move is a question that continues to puzzle the field of migration studies. Historically, research largely focused on the economic logics of migrants, suggesting that utilitarian calculations largely structure people’s motivations. More recently, the role culture plays in perpetuating these initially economic logics of migration has attracted greater attention, particularly in relation to transnational patterns of human mobility. This chapter introduces readers to the historical foundations underpinning approaches to the cultural and economic logics of migration in the social sciences and humanities. After this introduction it continues the debate by destabilising the clear division between cultural and economic life, which is often perpetuated in migration studies. Taking the history of Chinese migration within East Asia as its example, this chapter demonstrates how migrants’ economic logics can also be understood as a form of cultural imagination. It shows how cultural and economic phenomena are increasingly entangled in our world, and also questions whether they were ever distinguishable

'I'd do it for love or for money': Vietnamese women in Taiwan and the social construction of female migrant sexuality

Drawing on an ethnographic research in Vietnam and Taiwan, this article seeks to contribute to the global scholarship on migration and sexuality. It reveals interesting contradictions between the seemingly homogeneous stereotypes of Vietnamese women's sexuality, on the one hand, and the multiplicity and fluidity of actual sexual practices in real-life contexts, on the other hand. First, the presence of a number of chaste migrant women in our study challenges the common stereotype of female migrants as hypersexual and promiscuous menaces on the loose. Second, we question the emphasis on women's material greed and instrumentalism in normative discourses about Vietnamese women's engagement in extramarital relationship. While for some women in our research, sexual liaisons outside marriage are indeed orchestrated for financial gains, for others, extramarital sex is principally sought as a form of self-actualisation or an exploration of sexual pleasure and freedom that is absent from their marriage. The article emphasises the highly contextual nature of sexual norms and practices as well as the intersectionality of race, class and gender in the social construction of female sexuality in the context of transnational labour migration

Values, change and inter-generational ties between two generations of women in Singapore

Personal values are framed by social contexts and carried through a person's lifecourse, but are sufficiently malleable to adapt to changing conditions. The dynamic character of personal values should be more frequently recognised in studies of inter-generational ties. This study examines the relationships between two generations of Singaporean women and their divergent values about gender roles, preference for the gender of children, family formation, care-giving and living arrangements. Younger women embrace more western views, while their older counterparts uphold Confucian values. Previous studies have tended to characterise inter-generational ties as conveying 'conflict' or 'solidarity', but here the concept of 'ambivalence' is employed to show that contradictory values coexist, and that inter-generational ties encapsulate the negotiated outcome of complex attitudes, values and aspirations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

‘Cukup for me to be successful in this country’: ‘staying’ among left-behind young women in Indonesia's migrant-sending villages

10.1111/glob.12238Global Network

Migration and new racism beyond colour and the “West”: co-ethnicity, intersectionality and postcoloniality

10.1080/01419870.2021.1925321Ethnic and Racial Studies454585-59

Effects of International Migration on Families Left Behind

Recent increases in the volume and diversity of international labour migration, and in particular the feminisation of these movements, suggest that the number of families fractured by migration is also growing tremendously. Gender-differentiated transnational migration is no doubt an increasingly significant driver of contemporary social transformation of the ‘family/household’ in sending communities, as clearly seen in its impact on changing familial arrangements and relationships of care. Research has shown that labour migration is often a family livelihood project rather than an individual strategy and socio-economic outcomes of labour migration, therefore, affect not only the migrant but also the left-behind family as a whole. In this paper we set out to: (1) review the academic literature on the effects of international migration on left-behind families; (2) point out major implications and challenges for migration and development policy, and the practices concerning left-behind families of migrants; (3) provide recommendations to different social actors including the state, civil society and corporate entities; and (4) highlight questions for discussion during the forum. The review of selected academic literature on left-behind families is centred on the effects of international migration on: (a) the household structure and relationships within the transnational household; (b) remittances and the family’s well-being; (c) gender roles, identities and relations; (d) intergenerational relations; and (e) left-behind children’s health and well-being (including educational outcomes). Although findings from academic research are generally mixed, one salient observation that emerges from the literature review is that while international labour migration generates substantial economic resources that contribute to left-behind families’ improved access to healthcare and education, the social costs it brings about are equally significant. The literature shows that children and the elderly are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of international migration and hence, require special attention in development policies and practices. The major challenges for migration and development policy, and practice that arise from academic research findings include: (a) supporting the elderly grandparents who themselves need care and support but are often called to substitute for migrant parents in childcare and domestic work; (b) helping migrants and their families sustain their relationships across transnational spaces in order to minimise the negative impacts of migration on family relations; and (c) minimizing migrant families’ economic stress and debts caused by exorbitant broker fees. It is important for the government of labour-sending countries to acknowledge not only the benefits but also the costs of international labour migration so as to create an effective legal and institutional framework as well as suitable supporting mechanisms for left-behind families. In minimising the negative impacts on both migrants and left-behind kin, especially children, migration can then be a sustainable development strategy. In considering policy interventions relating to left-behind families, we emphasize that the impact of migration is highly variable and complex. Left-behind families can be, and are, affected not only by the migration process itself but also by circumstances and policies relating to broader processes including development and urbanization at different levels. Issues discussed in the paper cannot be handled singlehandedly by the state but require the involvement of different actors including civil society, businesses and local communities in labour-sending areas in supporting left-behind families. Therefore, different sets of recommendations are offered to the various groups involved. Recommendations to the state include: (a) Sending nations should be united in applying pressure on receiving nations to sign and ratify the United Nations’ 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICMW); (b) More effective regulation and control of the ‘migration industry’; and (c) Establishment of support schemes directed at left-behind families including provision of medical benefits and counselling services for children and the elderly, and offering academic support to children. Recommendations to the civil society (and even businesses) include: (a) Offering left-behind families free or cheaper access to internet so that they can communicate with migrants easily and regularly; (b) Providing training on remittances management and consultation on investment strategies; (c) Giving both left-behind children and adults psychological counselling and any other necessary intervention; and (d) Engaging both migrants and families in pre-departure briefing to prepare them to cope with any problems relating to long-term separation. Recommendations to banks include: (a) Providing prospective migrants with low-interest loans, not requiring collaterals for small loans, simplifying procedures, and relaxing eligibility criteria to prevent families from taking highinterest loans from exploitative moneylenders; and (b) Reducing remittance charges and offering migrant families specialized investment products and services such as insurance, pension and real estate advice

Irregular Migrant Workers and Health: A Qualitative Study of Health Status and Access to Healthcare of the Filipino Domestic Workers in Mainland China

10.3390/healthcare10071204Healthcare (Switzerland)1071204

Migration infrastructures and the production of migrant mobilities

Recent studies in mobilities have shown a growing interest in the myriad of infrastructures that daily support the movements of people, objects, and even Internet signals (see Crang, Crosbie, and Graham 2006). Taking the view that moving is umbilically tied to critical moments of fixity that organise, sort and order otherwise amorphous flows, this recent corpus has cast into sharp relief a whole host of ‘moorings’, or physical and organisational architectures, responsible for structuring, mobilising and giving meaning to movement through their particular arrangements (Lindquist, Xiang, and Yeoh 2012; Urry 2003). In fact, infrastructures can most broadly be understood as socio-technical platforms for mobility (Larkin 2013) thus disturbing any easy distinction between movement and materialit