The Spatially Ruptured Practices of Migrant Families: A Comparison of Immigrants from El Salvador and the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

This study draws insights from scholarship on immigrant families and transnational migration to examine the multi-local transnational family practices of Salvadoran refugee-migrants in the US and middle-class emigrants from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to Australia. We compare the contexts of exit and reception and state-migrant relations that characterize the two migration flows; explore the elite and popular narratives in which family migration experiences are embedded; and provide a range of family biographies that capture some of the more emblematic long-distance practices and livelihood strategies of transnational families. The article examines three types of border-crossing family practices including long-distance conjugal relations, spatial ruptures in mother-child relationships, and caregiving arrangements that involve shuttling non-working-age members of the family across locations. PRC and Salvadoran migrant families navigate dramatically different institutional and discursive landscapes, which impacts the character and quality of the resources they bring to bear on their long-distance family arrangements. The findings challenge existing conceptualizations of the immigrant family, gender role performances and gender ideologies, and highlight the gendered aspects of the institutional landscapes and discursive narratives in which the livelihood and mobility strategies and long-distance practices of immigrant families are embedded.

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