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Research Articles

‘Forced’ family separation and inter-generational dynamics: multi-generational new Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand

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Pages 148-167 | Received 25 Mar 2020, Accepted 24 Jul 2020, Published online: 30 Jul 2020
 

ABSTRACT

In New Zealand (NZ), due to the immigration policy change against family reunifications, many ‘forced’ transnational immigrant families emerged between NZ and other immigration sending countries. Closely tied family members across generations now have limited choice but to live across different national, cultural, and linguistic localities. By taking the new Chinese immigrant families from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the case in point, and based on 45 in-depth interviews with their multi-generational family members, this paper examines how immigrant families adapt to the NZ immigration regime which does not easily accommodate their cultural preference to live as multi-generational families. It also demonstrates the importance of family reunification for immigrant families in NZ, and the changing inter-generational power relations caused by the evolving process of migration and settlement of these families.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘New Chinese immigrant’ in the NZ context is a term that usually refers to Chinese who emigrated to NZ after the introduction of the Immigration Act 1987, which abolished the ‘traditional origin’ preference term that favoured British immigrants. Among the new Chinese immigrants, the three major sources are immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the PRC. These three groups plus Chinese from other countries (e.g. Malaysia, Indonesia etc.) are all categorised as new Chinese immigrants in NZ. New Chinese immigrants are distinct from the earlier Chinese immigrants in NZ. The earliest Chinese immigrants to NZ were almost exclusively males, with little or no education, originating from rural Southern China, either directly or by way of other countries, and they immigrated primarily for the economic opportunities found in the gold mines in the Western world and the tin mines and plantations in Central America. The majority of the new Chinese immigrants are ethnically more diverse, as well as highly educated and possess specialised skills or financial capital, which lets them qualify and meet the entry criteria of NZ.

2 The two terms - ‘China’ and ‘the PRC’ refer to the same country. These two terms are used in the paper interchangeably.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund (Fast-Start) [Grant Number 16-MAU-023].