Emotional transnationalism in multigenerational parenting: Chinese grandparenting migrants in Singapore and intergenerational ambivalence

Research on transnational families has considered the dyadic relations between migrant parents and left-behind children and provided insights on the emotional negotiations of parenting from afar. While such research is important for understanding transnational familyhood, they focus on the parenting practices of nuclear families. Our paper analyses the triadic relations between grandparenting migrants, their migrant adult children and grandchildren to reveal two entwined dimensions of migrant parenting practices: first, the changing relations between grandparenting migrants and their adult children, and second, their perceptions of the adult children’s parenting practices towards the grandchildren. Informed by interviews with 41 Mainland Chinese grandparenting migrants, this paper draws out multigenerational dynamics on how grandparenting migrants continue to provide care for their adult children and the way they contest and negotiate the parenting practices of the latter. Their time abroad is limited by restrictive migration policies that classify them as temporary migrants. We engage with the literature on emotional transnationalism and add nuance to it by drawing out the emotional subjectivities and emotional labour that underpin (grand)parenting work. The paper also demonstrates how the grandparenting migrants experience intergenerational ambivalence as they negotiate the changing power relations in their families.