Publication details
Children of Vietnamese Parents Brought Up by Czech Nannies: Reconstructing and Redefining Family Ties
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Gender and Migration : Critical Issues and Policy Implications |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.socialstudies.org.uk/Uploads/Documents/211d8a224e4b4256b8286b007b375e9f.pdf |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | nanny - family ties - Vietnamese immigrants - Czech Republic |
| Description | Vietnamese families in the Czech Republic often recruit Czech women to look after their children. Put in the context of the dominant scholarship, this is quite a unique case of care work in which the employers are immigrants, while the employees are women of the host country. At the same time, it is an exceptional child care solution in the context of the Czech Republic, where only 1-2% of population seek individual private child care. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted with Czech nannies, Vietnamese mothers, and their children, the article interprets the experience of Vietnamese immigrants with paid child care as an outcome of the post-migratory redefinition of family relations. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how family ties and child care arrangements are negotiated vis-a-vis the new life in the host country, where the different “normal caring biographies” are supported by the common-sense understanding of what care and/or mothering should be, by social policies, and by everyday practice). I argue that recruitment of the nannies is an essential part of these negotiations. I respond to the following question: How the family/kinship/intimate ties are negotiated between children and parents, children and grandparents in Vietnam, and children and nannies in post-migratory family resettlement? In my paper I put forward the thesis that the post-migratory challenges of family life lead to the recruitment of nannies, which further challenges the family lives of both nannies and immigrants. The paper sheds light on the children’s relatedness and family belonging negotiations in the context of paid caregiving and contributes to feminist discussions on gender and family relationships after migration, delegated child care, and generally the role of care in the establishment of kinship ties. |
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