Floating Grandparents

Abstract

The chapter supplements the conventional image of vulnerable “left behind” children and elderly in the villages and towns in China from which mobile young adults depart to seek employment in urban areas. By showing an increasing propensity of aged parents to provide childcare in the cities where their adult children are employed, it identifies an intergenerational dimension of the floating population of migratory workers. The chapter provides a more complete representation of internal migration and urbanization in contemporary China by examining the childcare provided by grandparents as a form of reproductive labor that enables the labor-force participation of their adult children and thus contributes to social reproduction. The change in the notions of family obligation initiated by young people has received much research attention; the chapter shows, however, that grandparents frequently initiate renegotiations of filial obligation. The chapter reconceptualizes intergenerational support by considering the importance of pre-exchange obligation, emotional attachment, and symbolic values in intergenerational interactions, factors conventional approaches typically ignore.