Title | Subcontracting filial piety: Elder care in ethnic Chinese immigrant families in California |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2002 |
Authors | Lan, P-C |
Journal | Journal of Family IssuesJournal of Family Issues |
Volume | 23 |
Pagination | 812-835 |
Date Published | Oct |
ISBN Number | 0192-513X<br/>1552-5481 |
Accession Number | Peer Reviewed Journal: 2002-18495-002 |
Keywords | *Chinese Cultural Groups, *Culture (Anthropological), *Economics, *Family Relations, *Immigration, Adult Offspring, Cross Cultural Differences, Elder Care, Human Male Female Adulthood (18 yrs & older), immigrant families, filial care, economic resources, Chinese immigrants, family relations, cultural meaning, adult children, Chinese family, cultural ideal, aging parents, Parent Child Relations, Social Processes & Social Issues [2900], us |
Abstract | Based on in-depth interviews with middle-class Taiwanese and Hong Kong immigrant families in California, the author examines how the cultural meaning and social practice of filial care for aging parents have been transformed in the U.S. context. The author analyzes the commodification of elder care from three dimensions-where care takes places, who gives care, and who pays for care-and examines its impacts on Chinese family relations. Although three-generational cohabitation may have declined on foreign soil, the family remains the nexus of care networks and economic ties among Chinese immigrants. Through recruiting home care workers as fictive kin, immigrant adult children are able to maintain the cultural ideal of filial care. The receipt of public care among immigrant elders does not necessarily indicate the diminishment of family bonds, but it reinforces kin connections as channels for circulating economic resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). |
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