Chapter 8 Conclusion
8.1 Transnational family communication and ICTs
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Chapter 8 Conclusion
8.1 Transnational family communication and ICTs
The transnational family, in which familial relations reside and develop across borders, is becoming more common globally. The feminization of labor migration from developing to developed countries, often from Southeast Asian to Western countries, has increased female participation in the flows of transnational families. In recent years, female migrants from East Asia, such as Japan, China, and Taiwan have also caused the flow of transnational labor to become increasingly feminized, especially through the forms of study and work. Such migration has also become a common career move for women as the student diaspora from middle-upper class families. The increasing population of female migrants from Taiwan with high levels of education and skills have led to forms of transnational families.
With the convenience of overseas transportation and the advantages of ICTs, individuals who leave their countries of origin and work overseas adopt various ICTs with certain strategies to communicate with their family members and friends, to maintain intimate relationships, and practice familial and social roles in the context of transnationalism. Furthermore, the concept of polymedia (Madianou and Miller, 2012) highlights that users have the ability to adopt different kinds of media on the basis of their own personal and emotional reasons. Meanwhile, migrants intend to control ICTs to maintain their relationship with their families by taking advantage of what each medium offers beyond borders.
This study examines transnational intergenerational communication mediated by ICTs in the context of Taiwanese female migrants. To do so, this study focuses on
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unmarried adult female migrants who have stable jobs with permanent residence or permanent working visas in the Netherlands, which has the closest economic and social ties with Taiwan among other European countries. Enlightened by the implications of polymedia, this study has demonstrated that transnational daughters adopt various ICT tools to communicate with their parents. The rationales underlying their choice of tools include time difference, a daughter’s working hours, and the digital literacy of parents. Moreover, this study has also indicated that transnational daughters adopt various ICTs to satisfy different emotional needs. Text-based communication, such as text messages and emails, is generally used to express strong feelings clearly, while voice-based and video-based communication are adopted to satisfy the feelings of longing to see each other.
The daughters also adopt different ICTs for mother-daughter and father-daughter relationships. While father-daughter communication relies more on text-based media, mother-daughter relationships are more often mediated through voice- and video-based tools. This echoes the differences in family roles between mothers and fathers. As fathers tend to be less emotionally expressive, father-daughter communication less often involves direct, instant audio-visual interaction.
The contents of intergenerational communication are shaped by family expectations. Single adult daughters are expected to look for a boyfriend with the reason that daughters are perceived as dependent and needing to be taken care of by their partners. As for unmarried daughters with partners, they are expected to get married with their partners in the future, in line with the framework of a heterosexual family unit. Marriages in Taiwanese society are still perceived to be a relatively stable relationship with more security and guarantee for the future than cohabitation, which is more common and popular in the Netherlands. In order to respond to the parents’
expectations, transnational daughters have adopted multiple communication strategies,
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including informing family about their safety whenever they are available and reporting only good news. Avoiding the topic of cohabitation with their partners is required to reduce negative emotions and tensions from their parents in transnational intergenerational communication. Greetings on important holidays and contacting their parents whenever they are available serve to ease the daughters’ sense of guilt from being away from their parents.
This study draws on the concept of polymedia in transnational family and ICT studies. It focuses on unmarried adult females who are less prominently addressed in the context of transnationalism. Moreover, the comparison between transnational mother-daughter and father-daughter relationships, which is seldom addressed in the context of transnational intimate relationships, has contributed to relevant literature as well.
8.2 Limitations and Future Research
It is also important to note that this study is informed by qualitative interviews with a limited number of unmarried female migrants in the Netherlands. This study is also limited by the method of voice-call interviews, in that the facial expressions of the informants are difficult or impossible to be interpreted. For future research, it may be pertinent to explore the transnational communication strategies of individuals from various socioeconomic backgrounds and multiple sexual orientations. Transnational family relations that are embedded in the developing of applications are worth exploring. Future research will also require conducting interviews with parents in order to obtain a full picture regarding intergenerational communication in transnational families.
The findings of this research generally portray a loving, harmonious picture of
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transnational intergenerational communication. The primarily harmonious nature of these relationships may be a result of the selected sample of this study. These transnational families mainly come from a relatively high social economic status in Taiwanese society; therefore, it is not a necessary burden for these transnational daughters to contribute financially to their families across borders. The health conditions of the parents may also influence transnational intergenerational communication, and the parents in this study are generally healthy, which may cause less tension between the parents and children. The relatively harmonious intergenerational relationships may also be a result of transnationality. Previous studies have demonstrated that intergenerational relationships and their communication may be smoother and more peaceful due to transnational distance (Madianou and Miller, 2012). Future research may be required to examine potential conflicts arising from transnational intergenerational communication in diverse socioeconomic contexts.
The relationships between siblings and transnational daughters are important in shaping transnational intergenerational communication. In this study, most informants have close relationships with their siblings who become the mediators between parents and transnational daughters. For example, some informants contact their siblings in private messages to learn about the health conditions of their parents and other family issues. Some transnational daughters who are oldest siblings may remind their younger siblings of a parent’s birthday and important holidays based on the norms of oldest daughters in Taiwanese culture. While communication between siblings is not the central focus of my research, future studies are encouraged to conduct samples from more diverse populations to explore the possibilities of different transnational intergenerational relationships and their communication strategies.
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Educational background
Duration of stay in the Netherlands
Working positions and conditions
What ICT tools are adopted in
Do you encounter any difficulty when you are using ICTs?
The contexts of family relationships
What do you think the role of daughter?
How were your relationships with your father and mother before migration?
Do you think your family relationships have changed after migration?
What are the rationales behind choosing these ICT tools?
Why do/don’t you use this device?
Why do/don’t you adopt this application?
Why are you more likely to use this kind of communication?
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Do you have preference for ICTs adoption with different topics?
How are these rationales of ICT adoption embedded in the norms, values and power relations of these family relationships?
In particular, what are the differences between mother-daughter and
father-daughter relationships through ICTs?
How often do you connect with your mother and father?
How long do you connect with your mother and father?
What kinds of topics do you talk about with mother and father online?
What kinds of topics do you avoid telling your mother and father?
Do you have a preference for ICT adoption in terms of daughter-mother and daughter-father relationships?
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