Family finds a way : experiences of multigenerational transnational new Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Simple item page
dc.confidentialEmbargo : Noen_US
dc.contributor.advisorBelgrave, Michael
dc.contributor.authorRan, Guanyu
dc.date.accessioned2021-03-23T21:43:28Z
dc.date.accessioned2021-05-26T23:02:19Z
dc.date.available2021-03-23T21:43:28Z
dc.date.available2021-05-26T23:02:19Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionListed in 2021 Dean's List of Exceptional Thesesen
dc.description.abstractThe Immigration Act 1987 fundamentally transformed New Zealand’s immigration policy from one that was race-based to one based on economic needs of New Zealand society. It opened the borders to immigrants from much wider regions. As a result of this “open-door” immigration policy, a substantial new Chinese immigrant community from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established in New Zealand. Building a closely-tied multigenerational family is an important feature of family life for this immigrant group. Often, multiple generations live together or within close proximity with one another in highly interdependent relationships. However, a growing number have also started to maintain their family lives transnationally, with different family members across generations living apart but maintaining close ties, with frequent interactions across national borders. Given this transnational family arrangement is very different from Chinese traditional practices of family maintenance, the impact of this change on the wellbeing and functioning of these families and their individual family members is an issue of increasing academic interest. This thesis responds to these concerns and explores the relationship between people’s experiences of transnational migration and their multigenerational family dynamics. Through engaging with individual life stories and perspectives of 45 participants across generations from new PRC immigrant families living in New Zealand, this thesis seeks to understand how those families with closely-tied multiple generations cope with dislocation and relocation during the process of transnational migration. It also investigates how transnational migration experiences contribute to new emergent domestic dynamics, including the development of new strategies and practices to maintain family traditions, interests and coherence across national borders, as well as shifting intergenerational relationships. The empirical data demonstrates that despite the increasing proportion of new PRC families living transnationally, their experiences of managing family lives vary. I argue that this diversification of transnational family experiences is largely attributed to the interaction of various impact factors associated with both the internal dynamics of immigrant families themselves and external contexts where those families are closely related. My research also attests that family members’ transnational migration experiences accelerate changes to the way they perform family life, particularly amplifying intergenerational differences and altering intergenerational dependency. Even though those changes introduce vital challenges towards multigenerational family maintenance and coherence, my research reveals that families are resilient and able to actively forge multistranded resources as well as engage various transnational activities in response to those challenges. While this thesis poses intriguing perspectives and culturally-specific scenarios to study immigrant families in New Zealand society, more importantly, it also contributes to the broad theorisation of transnational family formation and maintenance in the increasingly globalised world.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10179/16377
dc.publisherMassey Universityen_US
dc.rightsThe Authoren_US
dc.subjectChineseen
dc.subjectNew Zealanden
dc.subjectSocial life and customsen
dc.subjectImmigrant familiesen
dc.subjectSocial conditionsen
dc.subjectImmigrantsen
dc.subjectFamily relationshipsen
dc.subjectTransnationalismen
dc.subjectSocial aspectsen
dc.subjectChinaen
dc.subjectDean's List of Exceptional Thesesen
dc.subject.anzsrc441013 Sociology of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalismen
dc.titleFamily finds a way : experiences of multigenerational transnational new Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealanden_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
massey.contributor.authorRan, Guanyuen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineSocial Policyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorMassey Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
RanPhDThesis.pdf
Size:
2.99 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Theses and Dissertations