Morals on the Move: Immigration, Class, and Elderly Care

• In Event: 335 - Regular Session. Varieties of Asian American Experience: Qualitative Investigations

Abstract

This study examines elderly care arrangements of Taiwanese immigrants in the United States for their elderly parents who remain behind or came for reunification. Utilizing mixed methods, this paper argues that immigration has transformed practices and morals of elderly care by social class. Upper class immigrants not only are more likely to control elderly care but also tend to purchase intimacy for aging parents by rationalizing market services. Middle class immigrants experience struggled caregiving either in the United States or across borders while crafting care strategies to reset moral orders. Working class counterparts usually fail to deploy financial resources and time in overcoming the distant elderly care for the parents and, thus, bear moral hazards. Accordingly, through the window of Taiwanese immigrants, cultural practices of elderly care vary by social class along with the process of immigration. Patterns of transnational elderly caregiving articulate challenges and repertoire of morals regarding filial obligation.

Author

• Yu-Kang Fan, University of Southern California