It is becoming increasingly common for current-day migrants to build transnational
connections transcending national borders. Amongst recent immigrants from Taiwan to
Canada, an "astronaut" type of family arrangement has emerged. In the "astronaut"
families, either one or both parents continue working in Taiwan to maximize the financial
resources of the family, while the children reside in Canada. These children affected by
transnational migration between Canada and Taiwan no longer experience a radical break
from their place of origin—Taiwan. Instead, both the settlement society and their ethnic
origin have continually informed the processes of these children's home-making and
identity development.
Based on eleven individual interviews conducted in Greater Vancouver regional
district of British Columbia, Canada between June and September, 2001, this study
explores the impact of transnational family arrangements on children's lives, and
children's.senses of home and identity. Findings suggest that the families of the children
interviewed undergo a reconfiguration of the traditional family structure, a reconfiguration
based on the establishment of various transnational connections linking family in Taiwan
and family in Vancouver. The new transnational family structure is operating within new
forms of interdependence between family members and within changing family
relationships. The transnational family arrangement has affected how the children define
"home" and where they consider to be "home". The children's senses of home are
influenced by the interaction between their quotidian experiences in Vancouver and their
transnational connections with Taiwan. In terms of identity, the children interviewed
reveal a persistence of Taiwanese identity over time and at the same time a fluctuation in
the intensity of their Taiwanese identity. The main factors affecting the children's senses
of identity are: cross-cultural contacts they have experienced in Vancouver, the significant
flow of people and cultural items from Taiwan to Vancouver, and the primordial
attachment to their place of origin. The children have learned to negotiate within
"astronaut" families. They have become new kinds of "transnational" people—those who
can situate themselves somewhere between being Taiwanese and being Canadian and yet,
be both.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/12099 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Hsu, Wei-Shan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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