Family relationships have been an important object of scholarly interest in the field of migration studies, notably in the case of labour migration. The impact of this migration phenomenon on family relationships has been investigated from different angles. Studies have shown how migration reconfigures gender relations at home, puts into question normative conceptions about the family and modifies intimacy in the parent-child and husband-wife dyads. These works mostly explore the perspectives of migrant parents with children “left behind” in their country of origin. Although there is a rich literature on the children of these migrants, particularly on the “second generation”, the focus has been on the social dimension of their experiences rather than on the intimate and relational ones. To fill this gap, this symposium will examine changing intergenerational relationships through the perspectives of children of Asian migrants – Chinese and Filipinos – in Europe and in Asia. Comparing their familial experiences will illuminate the challenges and contradictions they are confronted with as well as the strategies they adopt depending on the opportunity/constrain structures surrounding them. How do these young people experience and view the family? What are the factors affecting their relationships with their parents? How do the specificities of their respective countries of residence (e.g. gender norms) and of their families (e.g. class belonging) shape their decisions and viewpoints? In what way do they express their agency? Drawing from empirically based researches in the fields of migration and family studies, this symposium will address these questions while highlighting the subjectivity and agency of young family members. Its interdisciplinary character will provide different windows through which to view the family in migration context, whereas its comparison of case studies will expose the particularities of individual experiences and their connections with larger socio-structural factors.

Discussant: (associate professor, )

Based on a field survey carried out over a period of four years in the region of Paris and involving young people of Chinese descent who are seeing a psychiatrist in the private or public sector, the present communication is focused on the relationship between these young people and their parents, and more especially on the phenomenon of “inverted parenting,” showing how these migrant children help their parents enjoy the various resources acquired in or related to their host country. The author highlights that this phenomenon of “inverted parenting” could generate intergenerational conflicts between young people and their parents. Living in such intergenerational conflict situation, considered by some children as the sources of their mental health suffering, pushes them to turn to the outside world (school, work, care settings, associations, etc.) in the hope of accessing new possibilities.

Focusing on transnational family strategy, this paper aims to narrate the family stories of Japanese-Filipino children who were born to a Japanese father and a Filipino mother after 1980s. The author conducted in-depth interviews with 45 individuals aged 15-35 during a multi-sited fieldwork in Japan and in the Philippines. Many respondents enjoyed a high mobility across the national border of two countries because of their flexible legal status. They migrated during childhood because of the change in their family relationship and experienced transnational struggles, often as a consequence of the gap between the family norms of both societies and the reality they faced. However, these youths coped with these struggles by maintaining transnational ties through their frequent moves. The notion of youth migration represents the liminality of generations and also family and gender norms of two countries.

A dynamic, bidirectional understanding of adolescent resistance to parental authority is missing not only in the Chinese but also worldwide literature. There is scarcely any research on the adolescents’ own experience of their resistance, their perceptions on their role and influence while interacting with their parents in times of resistance. In response to the seriousness of adolescent resistance in Chinese society, a three-fold study is launched aiming for a comprehensive grasp of the nature of this phenomenon by comparing adolescents from similar Chinese backgrounds, namely mainland China, Taiwan and Belgium. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the migrant Chinese adolescents’ accounts from Belgium revealed adolescent resistance as a special state of mind with a weak sense of the future and an “inflated” sense of agency, the process of resistance was also a struggle with oneself to accept one’s own parents being different from their peers’ parents. Analysis of parents’ accounts revealed that parents were intentionally ready to adapt to their children’s reality, yet difficult to acknowledge their children’s agency and novelty in practice. Such a difficulty is however notably easier for parents with an open attitude for learning.

Parental migration from the Philippines has led to an increasing number of children “left behind”, generally under the care of a female kin. During family reunification, such caregiving arrangements change again, which entails emotional adjustments for the child and for his former caregiver. Examining the case of 1.5-generation Filipinos in France (i.e., migrants who were born in the Philippines but migrated to France before the age of 18) and their grandmothers in the Philippines, this presentation explores their linked experiences and the way they maintain their relationship. Results of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in France and in the Philippines show that the 1.5-generation Filipinos were able to cope with the pain of family separation due to the migration of one or both of their parents with the help of their grandmothers. After moving to France they became even closer emotionally to their caregivers; they idealized their past and hoped to be reunited with them in the future. This situation often caused tensions in their relationship with their parents, notably with their mother who was trying to make up for lost time with their children.