Caregiving In Transnational Context

Abstract

Migration often requires the renegotiation of familial and gender roles as immigrants encounter potentially competing values and demands. Employing ethnographic methods and including in-depth interviewing and participant observation, the authors explore the experiences of 29 South Asian and Chinese Canadian female family caregivers. Caregiving was central to their role as women and members of their ethnocultural community. The women were often engaged in paid labor that compressed the time available to fulfill their duties as caregivers. Women’s role in the transmission of cultural values that serve to shore up the boundaries of their ethnic community did not allow for significant renegotiation of their caregiving responsibilities despite disrupted family networks and increased demands. These caregiving arrangements are more costly to women in Canada than in their countries of origin.