Transnational Kinscription: A Case of Parachute Kids in the USA and Their Parents in Taiwan

Abstract

This study uses ‘parachute kids’ in the USA and their parents in Taiwan as a case study to examine how cross-border kinship networks shape child-rearing strategies. The author argues that cross-border kin ties activated by parents are central to understanding the familial and cultural belonging of their children who are sent to study abroad. Drawing on 40 interviews with parachute kids and their parents, the author uses the concept of ‘transnational kinscription’ to demonstrate how non-migrant parents reconfigure kinship ideologies and relations to raise the next generation across borders. This article also highlights how parachute kids' emotional responses to growing up in their relatives' households often offset or even invalidate their parents' efforts to establish multiple homes transnationally.

Keywords:

• Kinship
• Parenting
• Transnationalism
• Migrant
• Parachute Kids
• Childhood

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the helpful feedbacks provided by the three anonymous reviewers and thanks Ms. Jenny Money, Dr Paul Statham and Dr James Hampshire for their helpful instructions regarding the revision. The author is also grateful to Karen V. Hansen, Wendy Cadge, Margaret (Peggy) Nelson, Pei-chia Lan, Yen-Fen Tseng, Jennifer Girouard, Roberto Tito Soto-Carrion, and Brian Fair for their insightful comments on this article. The author is also grateful to Tina Van Kley and Steven Pieragastini for their meticulous editorial assistance. The author completed and revised this article during his postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica.

Funding

This research is funded by Sociology Department and Women's and Gender Program at Brandeis University.

Notes

[1] To be sure, not every parachute kid is sent to a household of their relatives in the USA. Some of them are sent by their parents to boarding schools. Yet, this article focuses on transnational Taiwanese families where parachute kids were sent to stay with their overseas relatives in order to examine how non-migrating parents strategise cross-border kin ties to raise the next generation. It would take another study to examine the relationships among parachute kids who grow up in boarding schools to their parents and overseas kin members.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This research is funded by Sociology Department and Women's and Gender Program at Brandeis University.