Mengwei Tu
Mengwei Tu is interested in international migration: Why do people move? How do they move? And what are the impacts? She carries these questions when examining different cohorts: Chinese migrants in the UK, Chinese returnees in east China, international students in Shanghai and high-skill migrants in China.
Mengwei Tu has completed her PhD in Sociology in University of Kent (2016). Her thesis is titled: Middle class one-child migrants: Between transnational aspiration in the UK and family responsibility in China.
She holds Postgraduate Certificate in Social Research Method (qualitative and quantitative methods)
Before she joined Kent in 2012, Mengwei completed an MA in Public Administration and a BA in International Communications at the University of Nottingham. She spent an exchange semester in University of Technology, Sydney, where she studied Public Communication.
Mengwei was awarded Kent Hong Kong Alumni Scholarship in 2012 which covers a three-year PhD course. In 2013, she received Allcorn Box Scholar Award. In the same year, she was awarded scholarship to take part in Preparing Global Leaders Summit in Moscow.
Supervisors: Professor Miri Song and Dr Joy Zhang
Phone: +44(0)7557409502
Mengwei Tu has completed her PhD in Sociology in University of Kent (2016). Her thesis is titled: Middle class one-child migrants: Between transnational aspiration in the UK and family responsibility in China.
She holds Postgraduate Certificate in Social Research Method (qualitative and quantitative methods)
Before she joined Kent in 2012, Mengwei completed an MA in Public Administration and a BA in International Communications at the University of Nottingham. She spent an exchange semester in University of Technology, Sydney, where she studied Public Communication.
Mengwei was awarded Kent Hong Kong Alumni Scholarship in 2012 which covers a three-year PhD course. In 2013, she received Allcorn Box Scholar Award. In the same year, she was awarded scholarship to take part in Preparing Global Leaders Summit in Moscow.
Supervisors: Professor Miri Song and Dr Joy Zhang
Phone: +44(0)7557409502
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Conference Presentations by Mengwei Tu
However, to what extent does the strong presence of women in overseas education reflect the gender norm in today’s China? This paper explores the role gender played in this highly educated, transnationally mobile cohort, by examining 37 interviews with Chinese migrants (aged between 22-38) in the UK who arrived as students and remained to work as professionals, as well as some of their parents in China.
Focusing on the impact of gender during the migrants’ upbringing, their decision to study abroad, and their remaining in the UK, the findings show uneven changes of gender norm in China. From a macro-level, the traditional gendered social expectation is still pervasive among urban middle class families. Nevertheless, from a micro-level (familial level), the attitudes of gender between parents and children are more covert and complex. Both generations had to adapt to a new set of gendered expectations as a result of the one-child policy and the rapid economic development.
This research focuses on the post-study professional migrants from China, a growing demographic between international students and traditionally-defined migrants, yet overlooked by migration policies, which tend to treat migrants as static categories. Based on 27 interviews with professional migrants (aged 25-38) from China who came to the UK as students between 1997-2011, the findings reveal a complex decision-making process behind each individual’s transition from student to migrant.
By analysing the lived experience of post-study Chinese migrants, this research reveals the close connection between career prospects in the host country and an individual’s decision to study abroad, highlights these migrants’ continuing economic contribution to the UK beyond education, and raises the concerns about the negative impact the current UK migration policy may cast on the UK’s global competition for international students and talent/resource-bearing migrants.
In 2012 China ranked the top of migrant-sending countries to the UK for the first time. In the same year China also provided the largest number of international fee-paying students in UK universities. Furthermore, the latest wave of the new Chinese migrants is constituted mainly of the young Chinese of the one-child generation: the product of the One-child Policy (1979).
UK’s migration policy has become significantly stricter during the past decade. Non-EU migrants, including the highly-skilled, have experienced greater difficulty in securing jobs as well as bringing aged parents into the UK for family reunion. Given the obligation as the only child in the family and the rising economic opportunities in China, why do many highly-qualified one-child Chinese migrants choose to remain in the UK?
This qualitative paper is based on interviews with Chinese migrants across England who came between 2001 - 2014. Through the detailed accounts of the migrants’ decision to leave China, remaining in the UK, and future settlement, the paper aims to re-examine the role of family, personal aspirations and citizenship in migrants’ decision-making process. The paper will engage with the migration debate by showing how a migrant cohort with economic and social capital responds to the shifting power of the international order.
However, what happens to the one-child migrants’ family responsibilities in China? How do one-child families function on a transnational level? Being the only child can intensify crucial aspects of a migrant’s life in terms of emotion, care and expectations. Given the great emphasis on filial piety in Chinese family culture, how do one-child migrants in the UK and their parents in China negotiate family support and obligations for now and for the future?
This qualitative paper is based on in-depth interviews with one-child Chinese migrants in the UK and their parents in China conducted in 2014. The paper investigates the dynamics of transnational one-child families in terms of capital flow, responsibility allocation and emotional (in)dependence. By examining the “unspoken family contract” in the nuclear three-member-family, the paper presents a changing role of filial obligations in a traditionally family-oriented culture.
Being the only child can intensify crucial aspects of a migrant’s life. Such a nuclear three-member-family structure is likely to shape the way the one-child generation perceive the notion of family and their role within it. Furthermore, given the great emphasis on filial piety in Chinese family culture, and the difficulty of bringing parents to the UK, the cohort finds itself between their responsibility towards their parents in China and their home-making process in the UK: how does such a situation shape the migrants’ notion of home and how does it impact on their commitment towards their life in the UK? What’s more, how do the one-child migrants prepare for the possible difficulty when their parents in China get older and need looking after?
The cohort is mostly of people in their 20s and 30s, therefore the research is able to capture the transition period of these migrants’ lives, where they have completed degree education (mostly done in the UK) and are in the early stage of their career, marriage or/and parenthood. This paper aims to explore how being the only child impacts on these newly-established Chinese migrants’ home-making in the UK.
latest arrivals are the single-children generation: the product of the ‘one-child’ policy in 1979. As a result, average family size has become smaller. There is a trend towards ‘small-family culture’ replacing the traditional big-family
culture. Such change is likely to shape the way the single-children generation perceive the notion of family and their
role within it.
The single-children generation has been described as independent and high-achieving as well as spoiled and selfish.
However, growing up in a China where dramatic changes take place, it is not clear whether being the only child will
cause new patterns of family relationships.
Today, the single-children generation constitutes a significant factor among Chinese migrants. While traditional
Chinese migrant networks largely rely on extended families and kinship connections, how has the shrinking size of
families impacted on the future of the transnational Chinese migrant network?
In comparison with earlier Chinese, who have siblings and larger extended families, the single-children cohort is
arguably more closely tied to filial obligations and is disadvantaged with regard to establishing a transnational family
network. However, migrants’ mobility can be gained through concentrated parental investment.
How do single-children transnational families negotiate family relationships when the child is faced with overseas
settlement decision and their parents get older and need looking after? The Chinese single-children migrants is a new
demographic that requires research into its character, scope and significance.
Books by Mengwei Tu
Mengwei Tu conducted her study among both the one-child generation of Chinese migrants in the UK and their parents in China, who were separated from their only child. Her book takes its reader through the life course of these young migrants, including their up-bringing in China, their decision to study and then remain abroad, and their employment, marriage and parenthood in the UK. In their own words, these young people and their parents reveal the human complexity behind their transnational mobility and immobility. Their accounts reveal temporal and spatial changes that have challenged the basis of Chinese family values dominant for more than two thousand years.
Education, migration and family relations between China and the UK provides a fresh perspective on the understanding of transnational families. It documents the shifting multidimensional nature of individual identity at the intersection of transnational mobility and changing family relationships, and it points to the resulting need for a re-examination of the way we define international students, migrants, and family.
However, to what extent does the strong presence of women in overseas education reflect the gender norm in today’s China? This paper explores the role gender played in this highly educated, transnationally mobile cohort, by examining 37 interviews with Chinese migrants (aged between 22-38) in the UK who arrived as students and remained to work as professionals, as well as some of their parents in China.
Focusing on the impact of gender during the migrants’ upbringing, their decision to study abroad, and their remaining in the UK, the findings show uneven changes of gender norm in China. From a macro-level, the traditional gendered social expectation is still pervasive among urban middle class families. Nevertheless, from a micro-level (familial level), the attitudes of gender between parents and children are more covert and complex. Both generations had to adapt to a new set of gendered expectations as a result of the one-child policy and the rapid economic development.
This research focuses on the post-study professional migrants from China, a growing demographic between international students and traditionally-defined migrants, yet overlooked by migration policies, which tend to treat migrants as static categories. Based on 27 interviews with professional migrants (aged 25-38) from China who came to the UK as students between 1997-2011, the findings reveal a complex decision-making process behind each individual’s transition from student to migrant.
By analysing the lived experience of post-study Chinese migrants, this research reveals the close connection between career prospects in the host country and an individual’s decision to study abroad, highlights these migrants’ continuing economic contribution to the UK beyond education, and raises the concerns about the negative impact the current UK migration policy may cast on the UK’s global competition for international students and talent/resource-bearing migrants.
In 2012 China ranked the top of migrant-sending countries to the UK for the first time. In the same year China also provided the largest number of international fee-paying students in UK universities. Furthermore, the latest wave of the new Chinese migrants is constituted mainly of the young Chinese of the one-child generation: the product of the One-child Policy (1979).
UK’s migration policy has become significantly stricter during the past decade. Non-EU migrants, including the highly-skilled, have experienced greater difficulty in securing jobs as well as bringing aged parents into the UK for family reunion. Given the obligation as the only child in the family and the rising economic opportunities in China, why do many highly-qualified one-child Chinese migrants choose to remain in the UK?
This qualitative paper is based on interviews with Chinese migrants across England who came between 2001 - 2014. Through the detailed accounts of the migrants’ decision to leave China, remaining in the UK, and future settlement, the paper aims to re-examine the role of family, personal aspirations and citizenship in migrants’ decision-making process. The paper will engage with the migration debate by showing how a migrant cohort with economic and social capital responds to the shifting power of the international order.
However, what happens to the one-child migrants’ family responsibilities in China? How do one-child families function on a transnational level? Being the only child can intensify crucial aspects of a migrant’s life in terms of emotion, care and expectations. Given the great emphasis on filial piety in Chinese family culture, how do one-child migrants in the UK and their parents in China negotiate family support and obligations for now and for the future?
This qualitative paper is based on in-depth interviews with one-child Chinese migrants in the UK and their parents in China conducted in 2014. The paper investigates the dynamics of transnational one-child families in terms of capital flow, responsibility allocation and emotional (in)dependence. By examining the “unspoken family contract” in the nuclear three-member-family, the paper presents a changing role of filial obligations in a traditionally family-oriented culture.
Being the only child can intensify crucial aspects of a migrant’s life. Such a nuclear three-member-family structure is likely to shape the way the one-child generation perceive the notion of family and their role within it. Furthermore, given the great emphasis on filial piety in Chinese family culture, and the difficulty of bringing parents to the UK, the cohort finds itself between their responsibility towards their parents in China and their home-making process in the UK: how does such a situation shape the migrants’ notion of home and how does it impact on their commitment towards their life in the UK? What’s more, how do the one-child migrants prepare for the possible difficulty when their parents in China get older and need looking after?
The cohort is mostly of people in their 20s and 30s, therefore the research is able to capture the transition period of these migrants’ lives, where they have completed degree education (mostly done in the UK) and are in the early stage of their career, marriage or/and parenthood. This paper aims to explore how being the only child impacts on these newly-established Chinese migrants’ home-making in the UK.
latest arrivals are the single-children generation: the product of the ‘one-child’ policy in 1979. As a result, average family size has become smaller. There is a trend towards ‘small-family culture’ replacing the traditional big-family
culture. Such change is likely to shape the way the single-children generation perceive the notion of family and their
role within it.
The single-children generation has been described as independent and high-achieving as well as spoiled and selfish.
However, growing up in a China where dramatic changes take place, it is not clear whether being the only child will
cause new patterns of family relationships.
Today, the single-children generation constitutes a significant factor among Chinese migrants. While traditional
Chinese migrant networks largely rely on extended families and kinship connections, how has the shrinking size of
families impacted on the future of the transnational Chinese migrant network?
In comparison with earlier Chinese, who have siblings and larger extended families, the single-children cohort is
arguably more closely tied to filial obligations and is disadvantaged with regard to establishing a transnational family
network. However, migrants’ mobility can be gained through concentrated parental investment.
How do single-children transnational families negotiate family relationships when the child is faced with overseas
settlement decision and their parents get older and need looking after? The Chinese single-children migrants is a new
demographic that requires research into its character, scope and significance.
Mengwei Tu conducted her study among both the one-child generation of Chinese migrants in the UK and their parents in China, who were separated from their only child. Her book takes its reader through the life course of these young migrants, including their up-bringing in China, their decision to study and then remain abroad, and their employment, marriage and parenthood in the UK. In their own words, these young people and their parents reveal the human complexity behind their transnational mobility and immobility. Their accounts reveal temporal and spatial changes that have challenged the basis of Chinese family values dominant for more than two thousand years.
Education, migration and family relations between China and the UK provides a fresh perspective on the understanding of transnational families. It documents the shifting multidimensional nature of individual identity at the intersection of transnational mobility and changing family relationships, and it points to the resulting need for a re-examination of the way we define international students, migrants, and family.