Planning for a successful return home: Transnational habitus and education strategies among Japanese expatriate mothers in Los Angeles

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research of Japanese expatriate families in Los Angeles, this article explores how Japanese expatriate mothers, in dealing with globalization and transnational migration, develop transnational habitus and education strategies. These mothers attempt to assure their children’s successful reintegration into the competitive Japanese education system that is increasingly concerned with raising globally oriented, cosmopolitan Japanese children. Drawing on a transnational perspective, this case study illustrates how the global economy increasingly offers chances to live abroad, which in turn offer opportunities for families to cultivate their children’s academic proficiency, transnational competencies, and various cultural skills. Yet, this article also reveals a cost of such activities, namely the emotional burdens of the mothers, which derive from their increasing engagement in intensive mothering and identity management in a transnational social field. The findings suggest the importance of studying the intersections between globalization and women’s construction of race, ethnicity, gender, and emotion by focusing on their embeddedness in multiple sociocultural contexts.