Constructing a transnational childcare bricolage: Chinese migrant families in Italy coordinating transnational mobility and childcare

ABSTRACT

Research on the childcare arrangements of migrant families has primarily focused on transnational childcare practices or childcare-work reconciliation in the host society, without paying appropriate attention to the dynamic and complex negotiation processes that underlie mobility-childcare coordination. This study proposes the concept of transnational childcare bricolage to explore how Chinese migrant families in Italy mobilize and (re)assemble transnationally located and/or unconventional resources and constantly (re)adjust childcare arrangements to achieve a nuanced match between evolving childcare demand and capacity. The study draws on in-depth interviews with members from 50 Chinese migrant families in Italy, as well as participant observation and multi-sited ethnographic observation. Through analyses of their mobility-childcare negotiation processes, we illustrate how migrant families from different social class backgrounds navigate the complexities and contingencies embedded within a family-state-transnational triad. Additionally, our research questions the ethnicized division of care work between migrants and natives, highlighting common experiences of marginalization and work-care tensions faced by women of similar socio-economic positioning, regardless of their ethnicity and/or nationality.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational mobility
• childcare
• transnational childcare bricolage
• Chinese migrant family
• Italy

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the reviewers and Professor Francesca Alice Vianello for their thoughtful and constructive comments, which greatly contributed to improving the quality of our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 In this article, we use business ownership as an analytical marker for social class positions within the specific context of Chinese migrants’ childcare strategies. We acknowledge that class identities and distinctions can be fluid, multifaceted, and situated on a continuum, as well as shaped by various factors, such as occupation, income, education, social status, and cultural capital. Nevertheless, our analysis of the interviewees’ experiences revealed the influential role of family businesses in shaping Chinese migrants’ childcare arrangements, which is consistent with the findings from prior studies (e.g., Ceccagno 2007; 2016; Krause and Bressan 2018). In our analysis of 50 Chinese migrant families, we observed limited ambiguity in class distinctions based on business ownership, as none of the interviewed parents occupied white-collar or managerial positions. Such occupations only have minimal representation within the overall employment landscape of Chinese migrants in Italy (Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali 2022: 19).

2 http://dati.istat.it/, retrieved 2023, 04, 26.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Beijing Foreign Studies University, under Grant number 215500121003.

Notes on contributors

Ru Gao

Ru Gao holds a Ph.D. in social sciences from the University of Padua, Italy, and currently serves as a lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University within the School of European Languages and Cultures. Her research expertise lies in the field of population mobility and cultural interactions between China and Italy.

Devi Sacchetto

Devi Sacchetto is a professor of sociology of work at the University of Padua. His research interest is in labour migration and labour process. He has published widely on these topics. His book with Gabriella Alberti, The Politics of Migrant Labour, is expected to be published in January 2024 by Bristol University Press.