“Who Should Care for Our Parents?” How the Perceived Achievement Hierarchy Complicates Transnational Family Relations in China?

Abstract

This article offers the concept of an “achievement hierarchy”—the symbolic meanings that families attach to siblings’ ability to convert education into professional accomplishments across borders—to examine how adult children caring for left-behind parents position themselves vis-à-vis their emigrant brothers and sisters. We argue that respondents’ characterization of siblings’ migration trajectories significantly shapes the dynamics within global care chains. Based on 95 qualitative interviews with family caregivers, our analysis delineates three scenarios where respondents manage a perceived achievement hierarchy in the context of long-distance eldercare: (1) hierarchical transfer, (2) contested sibling hierarchy, and (3) hierarchical collaboration. Many respondents believe that an achievement hierarchy among siblings paves the way for slotting them into a less desirable node in the global care chain. By contrast, some emphasize their status as the moral head of their family or China's global rise to challenge the family's symbolic distinctions. Others develop a collaborative relationship with emigrant siblings to care for parents at home, but this collaboration can either strengthen or soften the perceived achievement hierarchy between siblings. Our analysis shows that the pathways of emigration—as student, labor, and marriage migrants—mediate at-home caregivers’ feelings, emotions, and identities during family life transitions.