Revealing Young People's ‘Care-Full’ Migration Decision-Making: A Methodological Reflection

Abstract

Research has shown how care work and care responsibilities play important roles in mobility and migration decision-making process in China and the broader Asia Pacific region. Care, as both a deeply embedded ethics and a universally present practice, plays a vital role in survival and wellbeing, as well as mobility. Yet few studies have examined the role that care responsibilities play in impacting young people's mobility decisions—in particular the anticipation of care responsibilities as an important factor. Is it possible that the methodologies used in young people's mobility studies have not been fit to pick up this nuance? And what is the role of the researcher in seeking out and representing narratives of care? In this article, we reflect on the methodological decisions in an ethnographic fieldwork experience which examined the reasons behind young people's decision to relocate to ‘lower-tier’ urban places in regional China. We reflect on the methodological choices researchers make in intentionally making care visible, and the implications of doing so. Such implications are not only about understanding young people's migration decision-making, but about strengthening a more ‘care-full’ scholarly discourse and reality where care is a central fact of life.