Floating grandparents: Rethinking family obligation and intergenerational support

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 761-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoying Qi
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Internal Migration ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Intergenerational Relations ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Workforce Participation ◽  
Family Obligation ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Left Behind

Discussion of China’s internal migration typically focuses on the movement of young rural workers to cities and, correspondingly, on the women, children and elderly who remain in villages and small towns, the so-called ‘left-behind’. This article fills a gap in the literature by examining the situation of grandparents who join their migrant adult children to facilitate their workforce participation by providing childcare. The article shows how grandparents and their adult children reinterpret and negotiate intergenerational family obligation in constructing their own lives. Based on extensive interview data the article provides a theoretically-informed and empirically-based understanding of intergenerational relations in China’s internal labor migration.

Floating Grandparents

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-81
Author(s):  
Xiaoying Qi
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Internal Migration ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Floating Population ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Filial Obligation ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Complete Representation ◽  
Left Behind

The chapter supplements the conventional image of vulnerable “left behind” children and elderly in the villages and towns in China from which mobile young adults depart to seek employment in urban areas. By showing an increasing propensity of aged parents to provide childcare in the cities where their adult children are employed, it identifies an intergenerational dimension of the floating population of migratory workers. The chapter provides a more complete representation of internal migration and urbanization in contemporary China by examining the childcare provided by grandparents as a form of reproductive labor that enables the labor-force participation of their adult children and thus contributes to social reproduction. The change in the notions of family obligation initiated by young people has received much research attention; the chapter shows, however, that grandparents frequently initiate renegotiations of filial obligation. The chapter reconceptualizes intergenerational support by considering the importance of pre-exchange obligation, emotional attachment, and symbolic values in intergenerational interactions, factors conventional approaches typically ignore.

Socio-economic effects of labor migration from small towns of Russia

2016 ◽  
pp. 103-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Mkrtchyan ◽  
Y. Florinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Spatial Mobility ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
High Labor ◽  
Standardized Interview

The article examines labor migration from small Russian towns: prevalence of the phenomenon, the direction and duration of trips, spheres of employment and earnings of migrants, social and economic benefits of migration for households. The representative surveys of households and migrant-workers by a standardized interview were conducted in four selected towns. Authors draw a conclusion about high labor spatial mobility of the population of small towns and existence of positive effects for migrant’s households and the economy of towns themselves.

scholarly journals The impact of living arrangements and intergenerational support on the health status of older people in China: are rural residents disadvantaged compared to urban residents?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Yazhen Yang ◽  
Maria Evandrou ◽  
Athina Vlachantoni
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Older People ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Psychological Wellbeing ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Rural Residents ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Research to-date has examined the impact of intergenerational support in terms of isolated types of support, or at one point in time, failing to provide strong evidence of the complex effect of support on older persons’ wellbeing. Using the Harmonised China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011, 2013 and 2015), this paper investigates the impact of older people's living arrangements and intergenerational support provision/receipt on their physical and psychological wellbeing, focusing on rural–urban differences. The results show that receiving economic support from one's adult children was a stronger predictor for higher life satisfaction among rural residents compared to urban residents, while grandchild care provision was an important determinant for poor life satisfaction only for urban residents. Having weekly in-person and distant contact with one's adult children reduced the risk of depression in both rural and urban residents. Older women were more likely than men to receive support and to have contact with adult children, but also to report poor functional status and depression. The paper shows that it is important to improve the level of public economic transfers and public social care towards vulnerable older people in rural areas, and more emphasis should be placed on improving the psychological wellbeing of urban older residents, such as with the early diagnosis of depression.

scholarly journals Migration Systems in Southern Portugal: Regional and Transatlantic Circuits of Labor Migration in the Algarve (Eighteenth–Twentieth Centuries)

2000 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo J. Borges
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Internal Migration ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Southern Portugal ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Migration Systems ◽  
Over Time

This article applies a systems approach to the analysis of multiple circuits of labor migration that emerged in the Algarve, southern Portugal, from the late eighteenth century to the mid 1900s, and their connections. Over time Algarvian migrants participated in three main systems of migration: internal migration and migration to southern Spain and Gibraltar, transatlantic migration to the Americas and Africa – especially to Argentina – and migration to northern Europe. Rather than an abrupt break with a sedentary past, the article shows how the beginnings of transatlantic migration at the turn of the century were the result of modification and adaptation of existing strategies of labor migration.

scholarly journals Intergenerational flows of support between parents and adult children in Britain

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIA EVANDROU ◽  
JANE FALKINGHAM ◽  
MADELIN GOMEZ-LEON ◽  
ATHINA VLACHANTONI
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Care Provision ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
National Child Development Study ◽  
Older Parents

ABSTRACTUnderstanding patterns of intergenerational support is critical within the context of demographic change, such as changing family structures and population ageing. Existing research has focused on intergenerational support at a given time in the individuals' lifecourse, e.g. from adult children towards older parents and vice versa; however, few studies have focused on the dynamic nature of such support. Analysing data from the 1958 National Child Development Study, this paper investigates the extent to which the receipt of parental help earlier in the lifecourse affects the chances of adult children reciprocating with support towards their parents later in life. The findings show that three-quarters of mid-life adults had received some support from their parents earlier in life, and at age 50 more than half were providing care to their parents. Patterns of support received and provided across the lifecourse differ markedly by gender, with sons being more likely to have received help with finances earlier in the lifecourse, and daughters with child care. The results highlight that care provision towards parents was associated with support receipt earlier in life. However, the degree of reciprocity varies according to the type of care provided by children. Such findings have implications for informal care provision by adult children towards future cohorts of older people, and by extension, the organisation of social care.

scholarly journals Family Practices Across Generations and National Borders

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-169
Author(s):  
Ionuţ Földes ◽  
Veronica Savu
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Intergenerational Support ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
Family Practices ◽  
And Migration ◽  
National Borders

Abstract Part of the mobility and migration process, family relationships and mutual support are subject of various transformations. Spatial separation between family members creates a specific setting for analysis which leads to the necessity of understanding how family practices are arranged and developed across time and distance. The present study focuses on the dyad emigrated adult children and non-migrated elderly parents living in Romania and on the types of intergenerational family practices that occur between these dyads across national borders. Our analysis of family practices relies on tracing certain set of actions taken by family members in order to maintain, consolidate, and ultimately to display family solidarity. We consider here various forms of practices, namely technological mediated contacts, visits, time-consuming practical support and financial assistance. Analyses are based on the national survey entitled Intergenerational solidarity in the context of work migration abroad. The situation of elderly left at home, which provides empirical data about the relationships from a distance between elderly parents living in Romania and their migrant adult children. Descriptive statistics are provided in order to assess the flow directions, the frequency and the intensity of each type of intergenerational support. Our empirical evidence highlights that transnational support is asymmetrical and multidirectional. Results also support that intergenerational support and family relationships can no longer be theoretically approached in terms of a simple dichotomy.

scholarly journals Women in foreign employment: Its impact on the left behind family members in Tanahun district, Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 69-90
Author(s):  
Kanhaiya Sapkota
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Migration Process ◽  
Female Labor ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Foreign Labor ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

Though, the migration process and its impact in the household economy has been extensively studied in the academic sectors, but much less attention has been given to the impact of female labor migration on the family members who are left behind at home. This paper attempts to determine socio-economic structure of female labor migrants from Tanahun District of Gandaki Province, Nepal. Similarly, it also attempts to analyze the causes of female migration, process and dynamics of foreign labor migration and its impact on the left behind family specially children and elder citizens at home. For this purpose, 180 households have been purposefully selected from three municipalities and conducted household survey through snowball methods. According to the survey findings, married women are preferred to go for abroad, whereas the age of migration is after 30 years. Literate are very less migrated for foreign labor. Majority of the female migrants preferred to go to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)countries and then other countries, i.e. Malaysia, Lebanon, etc. There are both positive and negative impacts clearly observed. The positive impacts of remittance to support for the poverty alleviation at household level, enhance educational and health facilities as well as improve housing conditions. But, the negative impacts, especially on children are appeared, i.e. care deficit, aggressive behavior, physical abuse, deteriorating health condition and school dropout. To, eliminate or reduce negative impact, government should take initiation and formulate effective policies that can maximize positive effects.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document