Publication details
Vietnamese families in CR: Imperative to work, imperative to hire a nanny
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Vietnamese immigrants are the third largest group of immigrants in the Czech Republic. Several studies have demonstrated that they are very ot en stall keepers selling so-called Chinese goods or food, whose work life outweighs their private life; while they worked eight hours a day in Vietnam, in the Czech Republic, some of them spend at least 11 hours at work, including weekends and most national holidays. Incorporation into the public sphere of work is imperative for both men and women, young and old, parents and childless persons. Private family life is minimized and Vietnamese parents have to hire Czech nannies to be with their children while they work, to care for them if they are a few months old or to do school homework with them when they are older. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted with Vietnamese working mothers and Czech nannies, the paper looks into the economic dimension of the decision to hire a care provider. In so doing, the paper addresses the tensions between dominant ideology of intensive mothering and pressures to/for work. h e paper argues that hiring a Czech nanny is not the evidence of social mobility but geographical mobility that changes family arrangements and pushes parents to the economization of childcare and generally, to some extent, of their private lives. |