Gender and transnational household strategies: Singaporean migration to China

Abstract

Increases in international flows of highly-skilled migrants have been characteristic of the economic globalization process. Professional and managerial employees are in increasing demand as transnational companies expand their locations of operation. However, research on these skilled migrants' movements has been predominantly linked to the firm itself, focusing on the productive sphere alone. This has led to a failure to consider the fact that migration decisions are usually made in the context of a household and that a separation of the productive from the reproductive elements fails to recognize the interdependence of the two sectors and how 'successful' migration depends on both the workplace and the home. This paper addresses this interdependence in the context of Singaporean migration to China using material from interviews with 130 Singaporeans.