Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
cities of East and Southeast Asia. Their motives for migration are frequently
complex, even contradictory. For many, geopolitical anxiety prescribes the
desirability of a second passport as 'insurance policy', a term widely used by
this population (Wong 1999). For others, the placement of a child in a west-
ern school or university provides a toehold that may draw other family
members (Waters 2006, 2008). In Vancouver, San Francisco, Sydney and
Auckland in particular, the celebrated scenery and quality of life are sig-
nificant attractions for those near retirement. In all of this, the role of eco-
nomic opportunity, as we shall see later, can be more ephemeral in selection
of a destination than host states expected or wanted.
The networked family has well-researched strategies toward space and
time, stations and seasons. Citizenship entails two years of residence in
Australia,
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three in Canada; business-class entrepreneur immigration to
the United States has required an investment of at least $500,000 and the
creation of 10 jobs, while its Canadian competitor has usually involved an
outlay of about $150,000 with the necessity of only one employee. Compared
to the Canadian programme, its American equivalent has been heavily
under-subscribed. Life cycle timing also matters greatly. There is a point in
a child's schooling when movement to a western education is regarded as
more favourable; for career development, young people are commonly
drawn back to East Asia; as retirement years approach the Canadian quality
of life becomes more attractive.
In this synchronization of stations and seasons one can see the careful
weighing of options by the travelling family, the deployment of human
agency to optimize family objectives, negotiating and where necessary
evading containment by national governments. In a neo-liberal era
homo
economicus
is cast as a heroic figure and the Chinese business family is
highly regarded. Ong (1999: 133-4) has noted how Chinese-American
businessmen in California are well aware of their resourceful reputation,
with a special skill in trans-Pacific deal making, and are not embarrassed
to take advantage of their calling. But Ong also deconstructs the benevo-
lent myth of the Chinese family as a business corporation, laying bare the
incivilities of
guanxi
and the bamboo network. It is a regime predicated
upon a patriarchy that can be very demanding of the emotional resources
of spouses and children. Employees and kin do not necessarily share the
freedom of the master, as Ong (1999: 116) detects 'the violence and
exploitation' that narrow the agency of others. As immigrant women learn
new gender roles in the West, challenges to patriarchy can lead to awkward
family relations (Waters 2002). Nor is the role of an absentee husband
inevitably one of dominance. Within the fragmented family, particularly
the so-called astronaut household with paterfamilias working in East Asia
while his family is domiciled overseas, vulnerability rather than victory is
an abiding trope. Electronic contact is always virtual contact and does not
