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Who Cares for the Children and the Elderly? Gender and Transnational Families

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Childhood and Parenting in Transnational Settings

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Migration ((IPMI,volume 15))

Abstract

The constitution of gender in transnational families is explored in this chapter by asking the questions “who cares for the children?” and “who cares for the elderly?” The authors compare the experience of children of migrant fathers and mothers, as well as that of the elderly parents of immigrant sons and daughters. They find that there is a stalled gender revolution from the lives of left-behind children and elderly: the men who either stay behind or (im)migrate act as reluctant caregivers, while the women who either stay behind or (im)migrate remain obliged to undertake care work. As the authors illustrate, it is the women who maintain the responsibility for care work in a transnational family. Despite some scholars celebrating the transformation of gender notions that women’s migration has instigated in the gender division of labor within the family, the authors demonstrate that gender is stubborn rather than malleable. Lastly, the authors conclude by discussing the key social forces that are responsible for stalling gender transformation in the transnational family and end by identifying areas of research that can advance the knowledge of gender and its constitution in transnational families.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See blog: https://www.worldpulse.com/en/community/users/aberamy/posts/34607

  2. 2.

    See report: http://www.oecd.org/migration/mig/33868740.pdf

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Yu-Kang Fan & Rhacel Salazar Parreñas

Authors
  1. Yu-Kang Fan
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  2. Rhacel Salazar Parreñas
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Correspondence to Yu-Kang Fan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Population Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Viorela Ducu

  2. Institute of Sociology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Mihaela Nedelcu

  3. Center for Population Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Aron Telegdi-Csetri

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Fan, YK., Parreñas, R.S. (2018). Who Cares for the Children and the Elderly? Gender and Transnational Families. In: Ducu, V., Nedelcu, M., Telegdi-Csetri, A. (eds) Childhood and Parenting in Transnational Settings. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90942-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90942-4_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90941-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90942-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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