The whole and its parts. Care circulation and children’s life paths in qingtianese transnational families

Resumen

The metaphor of the whole and its parts serves to illustrate the various levels and layers of this research. The ‘whole’ of the title refers to care and its circulation in Qingtianese transnational families, that are split mainly – but not only – between China and Spain. Such circulation takes place within each country and across borders, the transnational dimension being key. The ‘part’ refers to the place of Qingtianese transnational families’ children within this circulation; but it also alludes to the place of care within these children's life paths. Moreover, in this research, the exploration of care – as a social fact (Durkheim, 1982)– becomes a means by which to describe the broader social dynamics articulating the QingtianSpain transnational space. This thesis is structured in three parts. The first part includes the theoretical framework, which takes a critical approach to the research on care, transnational families and childhood, and two additional chapters which serve to contextualise the research: an overview of the Chinese family as an institution, and an exploration of the history and main features of Chinese migration to Spain. The second part offers an insight into the research design and practice. The qualitative data was collected through a multi-sited ethnography carried out between Spain and China, lasting 6 and 13 months, respectively. In fact, the fieldwork was a continuous process, connected through ongoing participation in virtual platforms, such as the WeChat app. The final part includes two chapters that are driven by the ethnographic data. Drawing on Baldassar and Merlas’ care circulation framework (2014), the first of these provides an overview of how care circulates, from a multi-dimensional and multi-generational perspective – including four-generations families – in Qingtianese transnational families. This provides the foundation for the second ethnographic chapter, which reviews the paths these families’ children have taken through their lives so far: from their early years to their current position as adolescents and young-adults, combining their retrospective and present-day accounts with their expectations about care and family in the future. Taken as a whole, this thesis takes an alternative and novel approach to integrated research on transnational families and children’s life paths, in which care is the unifying thread. In the Qingtian-Spain transnational social space, social class, gender and the place of socialisation, have shown themselves to be essential categories for understanding most of the phenomena addressed. Moreover, field data posits the need of moving beyond the adult-centred perspective that dominates migration research to give a voice and visibility to other actors, and to situate practices and meanings in context. Firstly, it has served to question hegemonic models of family, childhood and care which sanctions alternative models as dysfunctional. Secondly, it has challenged prejudiced assumptions – based on the ageist stereotypes, ethnocentric conceptions and financially-focused models prevalent in migration research – regarding the direction of flows of care in transnational families. Thirdly, it has revealed the active care role of minor children and the grandparents’ generation, challenging the stereotype of both as being passive and dependent, and calling for the recognition of their contributions to families and societies. And finally, it questions the assumption that the descendants of migrants engage in a decreasing degree of transnational interaction and ties with the family’s origin country, suggesting that families’ social mobility and the ongoing development and affordability of transportation and communication technologies promote an increasing transnational interaction and new dynamics in the social transnational space.