Ageing and well-being in the transnational space of care: Exploring the narratives of Chinese migrant older parents
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
Based on semi-structured interviews with 24 Chinese older parents (9 in Canada, 9 in Australia and 6 in Scandinavia) who live or have lived abroad with their migrated adult children, this chapter explores how migrant older parents (MOP) abroad construct meanings of migration, transnational living and intergenerational relations, and how these meaning constructions are shaped relative to encounters with different cultural norms concerning care and intergenerational relations, and different welfare regimes’ institutional care arrangements. Adopting socio-narratology (Frank, 2010), it analyses how these elderly parents position themselves in a transnational space of care when telling their stories of migration and living abroad. Earlier studies on Chinese migrant older parents in the context of internal migration shows that this migration is a form of “descending familism” (Yan, 2016). It was triggered directly by the care needs within the family and was mainly perceived as an act to help the younger generation with childcare, indicating a shift in norms in intergenerational relations (Zhao & Huang, 2018, 2021). In comparison, migrant older parents abroad deploy multiple narratives that go beyond the discourse on care obligations, shedding light on multiple aspects of ageing and well-being.
Keywords
ageing and well-being, Chinese migrants, intergenerational ambivalence, narrative analysis, transnational space of care
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
Publication Title
Ageing and Transnational Lives: Negotiating Care, Mobility, and Belonging
Publisher
Springer
School
School of Arts and Humanities
ISBN
[9789819559022, 9789819559039]
Copyright
subscription content
Content Type
Metadata only
First Page
145
Last Page
168
Recommended Citation
Zhao, Y., & Huang, Y. (2026). Ageing and well-being in the transnational space of care: Exploring the narratives of Chinese migrant older parents. In Ageing and Transnational Lives: Negotiating Care, Mobility, and Belonging (pp. 145-168). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-5903-9_8