Becoming Subject: Chinese Female Migrants in Switzerland within a Transnational Family–Individual Dichotomy

Abstract

This article argues that Chinese female migrants in Switzerland exert their agency to become the subject responsible for the care practices for their families in both Switzerland and China during their post-migratory lives. Based on fieldwork comprising 52 semi-structured interviews conducted with Chinese female migrants in Switzerland during 2016 and 2017, this article analyses the strategies Chinese female migrants develop to ensure their social role as woman, migrant, wife, mother, and daughter. Their self-development is also realized through the adjustment of their opinions about their roles and lives within household activities in Switzerland, and their strategies for making sense of the transnational parental care practice by overcoming difficulties induced by different social power relations during their post-migratory life from a gendered perspective.