Subcontracting Filial Piety: Elder Care in Ethnic Chinese Immigrant Families in California
Journal
Journal of Family Issues
Journal Volume
23
Journal Issue
7
Pages
812-835
Date Issued
2002
Date
2002
Author(s)
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�Xwhere care takes places, who gives care, and who pays for care�Xand 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.
Type
journal article
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