Transnational Familyhood and Migration Strategies among Parachute Kids-turned-Parents from Hong Kong

Abstract

The impact of separation on children's well-being and family relations has attracted growing attention in the study of transnational families, but little is known about its continued effect on life-course transitions and pathways. Focussing on 25 returnee parents who as "parachute kids" had lived away from their families in Hong Kong, this study explores how their prior experiences of family separation affect how these parents plan for the emigration of their own children. Instrumentalism has been a common theme in the study of middle-class East Asian transnational families, but our findings reveal that emotions and cultural values, especially filial piety and family togetherness, are also integral to migration plans. Our discussion complicates the adverse impact of splitting the family transnationally, which is commonly studied at the point of separation. It unsettles the representation of East Asian transnational migration as an instrumental strategy for household accumulation. We argue that research into transnational migration benefits from a life-course perspective and more explicit attention to the emotional dimensions of migration. This is especially so when reverse migration to previous places of settlement is increasingly common among a younger generation of returnees.

Emotions and transcripts after a while: An interview with a ‘parachute kid’

“…Rereading the transcript brought tears to my eyes. I felt so sorry for these children (now adults, I hope living happily somewhere, their experiences a distant memory – although see Ngan & Chan, 2022, who have recently completed interviews with parachute children as parents about their reflections on these experiences). I also saw the much deeper emotional impact of feeling abandoned by your parents.…”

The Quest for Lifestyle: Reverse Family Migration among Hong Kong Returnee Parents

“…They also reveal that these young adults' acquired cultural values and transformed attitudes could clash with their parents' ideas around transnational mobility and the strategic accumulation of cultural capital, leading to emotional strains. Moreover, Ngan and Chan (2022) contend that the emotional conditions of Hong Kong immigrant youths can have long-term implications for migration trajectories in later life. Using the concept of "emotional geographies," Anderson and Smith (2001) called for an analysis of emotionally heightened spaces because they can help illustrate the ways that social relations are mediated by feelings and sensibility.…”

“…These emerging media reports and the research presented here suggest that with parenthood now a priority, a younger generation of returnees are departing Hong Kong in their mid-careers for their young children's education and family life and that some are considering long-term settlement back in the West, where they and/or their spouses previously resided (Westbrook 2021). Yet research on the reverse migration processes of a younger generation of returnees has been scant (c.f., Ngan and Chan 2022). This article examines the migration motivations of returnee parents from Hong Kong who were educated in the English-speaking West and are relocating with their children from Hong Kong back to the host countries.…”

“…We gleaned the insight from a few Chinese transnational migration studies (Tse and Waters 2013; Zhou 1998), that briefly referenced lifestyle as a theme in the narratives of immigrant youths from Hong Kong. In fact, changes in their attitudes toward quality of life during their youth abroad have much relevance to their migration trajectories in later life (Ngan and Chan 2022). Yet, little is known about the role of lifestyle in the migration decisions of a younger generation of returnees during the parenthood phase of their lives.…”

Hong Kong’s new wave of migration: socio-political factors of individuals’ intention to emigrate

“…Population figures also show that the net inward movement of the population after 1997 has mostly been positive (Census and Statistics Department n.d.). With immigration from mainland China dominating the movements of the population, migration studies in Hong Kong have primarily focused on immigration and Chinese immigrants (Chan & Ngan, 2018;Lee & Liang, 2020;Ngan & Chan, 2021), while investigations of emigration and relevant contributing factors are relatively scarce. As one of the few exceptions, a recent study by Lui et al (2022) investigates the relationships between emigration, politics and family decisions under the current macro-political conditions and climate of Hong Kong.…”