Recent research argues that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) has created a new channel through which transnational mothers can fulfill their maternal duties from afar. However, the literature pays little attention to the diversity of mothering practices via telecommunication. To fill this gap, our qualitative research on Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong elaborates on the complexity and diversity of transnational mothering via mobile communication by demonstrating three patterns for the performance of maternal duties: intensive, collaborative, and passive mothering. We argue that transnational mothering via telecommunication is shaped by the intersection of mothers’ agency, children’s responses, and substitute caregivers’ role in child care.
In our study, we examine how prevalent the notion of filial piety remains in a modern Chinese society like Hong Kong as an initiative for individuals to become caregivers for their parents, and how it is practiced in actual caregiving scenarios. From the experiences of the caregivers analyzed in our paper, it can be seen that the Confucian notion of filial piety as a cultural norm still runs deep even in a post-industrial society like Hong Kong. However, the respondents in our study have adopted aspects of this filial norm to suit their own experiences and actual circumstances in their everyday caregiving practices. We also found that a relational approach to filial behavior with its emphasis on 'felt obligation' seemed to offer an apt interpretation of the respondents' motivations while engaging in caregiving for their parents. Specifically, caregiver obligations are negotiated commitments that can perhaps only be accurately interpreted in their highly personal family contexts. In addition, the notion of reciprocity, or giving back to one's parents, was also a prevalent factor, which reflected that emotional bonds binding the parents and children remained important, as was the empathy for elderly parents.
Our study investigates an understudied issue: care sharing and collaboration between migrant mothers and different caregivers of left-behind children in transnational childrearing. Using qualitative data obtained from 51 Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong, our study compares the problems and strategies of migrant mothers working with their left-behind husbands with those of migrant mothers working with female kin, especially grandmothers. It enriches the literature of transnational child care by demonstrating the complexity, diversity, and flexibility of migrant mothers’ cooperation with caregivers in the process of meeting left-behind children’s various needs.
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