Negotiating Work-Family Transitions: Reverse Family Migration among Second-Generation Hong Kong Mothers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gendered and generational understandings of circular migration are scant in studies of Chinese family migration. Filling this gap, this paper draws on in-depth interviews with twenty-six returnee families to examine the work–family transitions of previously employed, overseas-educated mothers who have re-migrated from Hong Kong to Canada, Australia, the United States, or the United Kingdom. These overseas-educated returnee mothers possess transnational backgrounds that differentiate them from most first-generation immigrant mothers. This paper shows that, despite this distinction, reverse migration leads to compromised careers and domestication for these women, although they accept, and in some cases embrace, such compromises. This study elucidates how both husbands and wives in these families justify women’s post-migration changes in their work and caregiving roles. It argues that beyond economic rationalization, interrelated gender, cultural, transnational, and family lifestyle dimensions distinctively impact how second-generation returnee mothers negotiate work–family transitions. This paper offers new insights involving generational and gendered dimensions into the study of Chinese family migration. It also widens the discussion of the impact of family migration on skilled immigrant women in transnational circuits beyond its focus on the lives of first-generation skilled immigrant women.