Abstract
This study examines the phenomenon of Chinese families bringing their children to attend international schools in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, over the past 5 years. Positioned as a subgroup within the broader context of Chinese global education migration toward Southeast Asia, this research utilizes semi-structured interviews with 38 sampled families whose children are enrolled in 23 international schools in Chiang Mai. The findings reveal that urban middle-income Chinese families who establish their homes in Chiang Mai through sojourning differ from traditional border-crossing family arrangements associated with accompanied migrants. These families adopt a nomadic, sojourning lifestyle, relocating their households in Chiang Mai through transnational consumption practices. Their motivations go beyond the mere pursuit of international educational certification; rather, they engage in a process of household relocation for familial life-making. The primary motivation for their transnational mobility is to avoid social reproduction risks faced in their place of origin. These urban middle-income families reconfigure their family lives through household sojourning in Chiang Mai to meet their individualized social reproduction needs. This study argues that the mobility of these transnational families represents a form of transnational social reproduction mobility, influenced by post-patriarchal neo-familism.
Plain language summary
This study explores why Chinese families have relocated to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, over the past 5 years to enroll their children in international schools. Based on interviews with 38 families, the research reveals that these families adopt a nomadic, sojourning lifestyle, distinct from traditional patterns of transnational family migration. They are not solely focused on securing better education for their children but are relocating their entire households to improve their overall quality of life. The primary motivation for this mobility is to escape the social and educational pressures in China. Chinese urban families, who regard the individualized development of their children and the quality of family life as indicators of happiness, are experiencing a crisis in individualized social reproduction. Chiang Mai offers a more relaxed environment where international education can be pursued without the same level of economic and collectivist pressure. The research shows that this mobility extends beyond education. Relocation serves as a strategic way to reconfigure family life in response to changing social dynamics. These families are pursuing a better (individualised) lifestyle. Family sojourning reflects a shift from being centered on economic accumulation to focusing on life-making in social accumulation.and Chiang Mai provides the flexibility to meet these aspirations. These families embrace a post-traditional model that prioritizes children’s individual upbringing while negotiating the well-being of all family members. Their mobility is part of a broader trend of transnational social reproduction mobility, where education is one key factor in redefining family life according to evolving needs. In conclusion, the relocation of these families represents a multifaceted lifestyle choice that combines education aspiration, family well-being, and social reproduction. It reflects a shift in how Chinese urban middle-income families create a more flexible lifestyle through transnational mobility.
Keywords
Introduction
Recent Chinese migration, as a significant subset of global migration, has garnered considerable scholarly attention over the past decades (Chang, 2012; Chan & Koh, 2018; Hao & Leung, 2023; Nyiri & Saveliev, 2020; Park, 2009; Sinn, 2012; Wang, 2006; Yeoh & Lin, 2013). Unlike earlier movements, especially the flows of “new Chinese migrants” observed in the 2000s, recent trends since 2010 suggest that Chinese migrants are increasingly engaging in multiple and circular sojourns rather than unidirectional or final movements (Baldassar et al., 2015; Chan & Koh, 2018; Nyiri, 2003, 2004; Thuno, 2007). Guo (2021) characterizes this new pattern by unprecedented hypermobility, hyperdiversity, and hyperconnectivity.
Among various migration subgroups, Chinese educational migration has consistently been a focal point of scholarly interest. This phenomenon, especially among East Asian families, has developed over several decades, intertwining with broader family strategies aimed at securing social mobility and accumulating various forms of capital, particularly cultural capital. Johanna (2005) examines how middle-class East Asian families, especially from Hong Kong, have employed educational migration as a means for capital accumulation. Overseas educational experiences provide valuable cultural and social capital, making them a key objective for many middle-class families in East Asia.Migration often servesas a path way to achieve this goal. Waters highlights the pivotal role of education in the accumulation of “cultural capital,” with obtaining foreign educational credentials becoming part of a child-centered family capital accumulation strategy, often involving migration and transnational family arrangements.
Within this context, the role of accompanying mothers is a notable example of the gendered division of labor in the transnational family dynamics of East Asian educational migration. Mothers who accompany their young children abroad for education have received significant scholarly attention (C. Li et al., 2022; Huang and Yeoh, 2005). These mothers are often perceived through the lens of their anxieties regarding their children’s education and the personal sacrifices associated with intensive motherhood.
Since 2018, Chiang Mai has experienced significant growth in its Chinese immigrant population.As noted by P. Li and Siriphon (2022), the influx of new Chinese immigrants to Chiang Mai has doubled over the past two decades. Alongside Chinese students and work migrants, there has been a marked increase in the enrollment of young Chinese children in Chiang Mai’s international schools. Especially after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chiang Mai has become an increasingly popular destination for tourists and digital nomads, drawn by its natural landscape and cultural diversity. With 23 of Thailand’s 128 international schools located in Chiang Mai, the city provides a wide range of educational options,fostering diverse school culture, access to digital innovation, and an inclusive lifestyle, making it an attractive destination for Chinese urban immigrants organizing their transnational familial sojourns.
This study aims to explore the current landscape of Chinese educational migration to Chiang Mai by surveying Chinese families with children enrolled in international schools. It seeks to understand the motivations behind their relocation and the distinctive family dynamics they adopt. Are these Chinese families in Chiang Mai, who have relocated for their children’s education, part of the same phenomenon observed in Singapore’s single-parent accompaniment model? How do their transnational family arrangements in Chiang Mai contribute to their broader educational and life goals?
The study focuses on Chinese urban middle-income families who have enrolled their children in international schools in Chiang Mai and have either temporarily resided or relocated there within the past 5 years. Findings reveal that these Chinese families, primarily engaged in educational migration, differ from traditional models such as single-parent households. Instead, they relocate as nuclear units, embracing a nomadic, transnational lifestyle to organize their family lives.
This study argues that Chinese middle-income families residing in Chiang Mai prioritize education in ways differ from trans-Pacific middle-class migrants. This nomadic family lifestyle should be conceptualized as a form of temporary mobility undertaken by middle-income families to achieve individualized goals of social reproduction. The findings suggest that both before and after the pandemic, Chinese urban residents’ transnational family migration to Northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai represented a life-political strategic response to a crisis in social reproduction under neofamilism, rather than a model of flexible accumulation of family capital.
Literature Review
Migration studies that examine transnational families’ strategic deployment for educational purposes are common in the patriarchal cultural context of East Asian societies. Hong Kong’s “astronaut children,” Hawaii’s Japanese accompanying mothers, and South Korea’s “geese fathers” all illustrate the flexible accumulation of transnational educational capital (Abe, 2012; Finch, 2011; Kang, 2012; Kim, 2010; Kojima, 2008).
Focusing on Hong Kong and Vancouver, Waters (2005) moves beyond conventional “political” and “economic” explanations to explore contemporary trans-Pacific transnational mobility and the educational strategies of middle-class East Asian families. The empirical background of her study shows that, over the past three decades, trans-Pacific population movements have significantly increased within the immigration systems of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (Castles & Miller, 1993). Economic development in East Asia during the late 1960s and 1970s reshaped class structures, giving rise to a new middle-class with financial wealth and technical expertise (Chu, 1996; Hamilton, 1999; Goodman & Robison, 2013). This group continued to uphold traditional family values alongside principles of free-market capitalism (Ong, 1999; Ong & Nonini, 2003a,b). Migration thus became a collective concern“well-educated, well-trained, and highly skilled members of the Hong Kong population,” many of whom “possess considerable wealth” (Skeldon, 2014, pp.31-32).
Waters’ study found that overseas educational experiences were valued for demonstrating English fluency and less tangible qualities such as confidence, sociability, cosmopolitanism, and valuable social capital, acquired within specific transnational networks. The reproduction of middle-class status increasingly relied on obtaining formal educational credentials, while the competition from the local marketization of education in Hong Kong heightened the pressure on middle-class families. In this context, “overseas education” emerged as a rare and valuable commodity, serving as both a sought-after asset and a response to children’s perceived “failures” within the local education system. This dynamic drove Hong Kong Chinese families to disperse tactically, enabling them to accumulate various forms of capital across mutiple geographical locations. Education was perceived as a collective family pursuit and part of a familial capital accumulation strategy.
In recent decades, China’s urban families have replicated the Hong Kong model, aspiring to send their children abroad in the hope that a foreign university education will transform them into global citizens, regardless of whether they eventually return to China (Fong, 2011, p. 35). As a legacy of China’s policy of reform and opening up, the country has encouraged transnational mobility among its younger generation. Overseas Chinese have been celebrated as patriotic members of an imagined modernity community, representing a hybrid third culture that is mobile, deterritorialized, yet still rooted in China (Ong & Nonini 2003a,b Callahan, 2004, Santasombat, 2022).
Overseas education serves as a qualification that aligns with local economic demands but does not guarantee job opportunities or citizenship. For Chinese immigrants, the interplay between political loyalty, economic integration, and cultural assimilation is often contradictory. As China’s economic development and international relations contibue to evolve, the “special value” of overseas education and the significance of citizenship capital also shift accordingly. Unlike traditional one-way migration, patterns such as return, step-by-step migration, and transient sojourns have become increasingly common.
As “cultural capital,” overseas education is deeply tied to middle-class concerns about social reproduction (Bourdieu, 1984, 1986, 1996). However, research on China’s middle-class groups reveals that the characteristics and criteria for defining the urban middle-income class are complex and contested (Chunling, 2012; Li, 2010; Li, 2020; Zhao, 2015). Given China’s rapid modernization, there is debate over whether a conventional middle class exists in China (Ren, 2013; Sánchez-Romera, 2021). Therefore, whether contemporary urban middle-income families in China share the same concerns about family social reproduction as Hong Kong’s middle class in relation to educational capital accumulation is a question worth exploring. The value of overseas education, particularly its significance for family mobility, requires detailed examination.
Family strategies aimed at the flexible accumulation of cultural capital often deploy transnational living arrangement througha calculus that intertwines love and rationality. This model frequently entails prolonged family separation, with members dispersed across different parts of the world, requiring a complex reconfiguration of family relationships, communication, and emotional labor. Within this framework, the intersection of globalization and family life underscores the challenges of adapting to foreign legal and social systems while simultaneously grappling with the loss of cultural identity and maintaining ties to the home country.
Subsequent research on early transnational educational families has illuminated the impacts of East Asian transnational family strategies in areas such as family separation, cultural adaptation, and the development of individualism. Global transnational families demonstrate a long-term commitment to mobility, often spanning multiple continents. These families are increasingly inclined toward permanent or semi-permanent migration to destinationsoutside of Asia, such as the United States, Canada, or Australia. The global family model is typically accompanied by profound shifts in family dynamics, where issues such as cultural assimilation, economic integration, and evolving family roles become central. Transnational families face the challenge of maintaining family unity and relationships across distances caused by the dispersal of family members.
As a result, the well-being of East Asian transnational families has frequently been a subject of academic concern. The study of “study chaperone mothers” in Singapore (Huang & Yeoh, 2005) highlights the regional transnational family strategies employed by contemporary Chinese families in pursuit of flexible ways of accumulating overseas education.
A study on the same cohort of accompanying mothers in Chiang Mai argues that these mothers are a consequence of spillover from intensive motherhood practices within China. (C. Li et al., 2022). However, the decision to migrate is not made by an individual, but by the entire family, reflecting core family values and relationship dynamics.
To gain a deeper understanding of the transnational strategies of contemporary urban middle-income families in China, this study adopts a family-centered analytical approach . It focuses on Chinese families residing in Chiang Mai for educational purposes, whose children attend international schools, to explore and understand their motivations and mobility patterns as a subgroup of educational migrants.
Research Methodology
This study examines Chinese middle-income families sojourning in Chiang Mai, Thailand, viewing them as a subgroup of East Asian educational transnational migration. Chiang Mai serves as the primary research site and the central anchor for the multi-sited ethnographic approach. The study traces the origins of these Chinese families temporarily residing in Chiang Mai, their future destinations, and their circular mobility patterns.
A multi-sited ethnographic design was employed to capture the transnational mobility strategies of Chinese families. In recent years, Thailand’s international education market has expended rapidly, with Chiang Mai emergingas a key hub for tourism, transportation, and education in Northern Thailand. Recognizing Chiang Mai as a strategicl location for studying transnational educational movements, this research investigates how Chinese middle-income families navigate decisions related to sojourning, education, and relocation across different countries. The study utilizes qualitative data collection methods, including semi-structured interviews and participant observation, to examine families’ lived experiences and mobility trajectories.
A purposive sampling method was adopted to select participants. A total of 38 Chinese families participated in the study, comprising 64 adults and 54 children. Participants were selected based on the criteria that their children were enrolled in an international educational institution and that they had resided in Chiang Mai for at least one year, with some families’ relocations dating back to 2012.
The study employedsnowball sampling to identify participants, leveraging personal networks, educational institutions, and online social communities. This approach was crucial for accessing this population, as transnational family arrangements are often regarded as private matters. By relying on referrals from initial participants, the study successfully recruited additional families from this otherwise hard-to-reach group.
The sampling strategy ensured representation ofstudents and families from nearly all international schools in Chiang Mai. The international school market in Chiang Mai expanded from eight schools in 2013 to 17 in 2020, and the latest public data indicates there are currently 19 schools, excluding homeschools and other alternative educational organizations. The 54 children in this study are enrolled in 21 international schools, homeschools, and private educational institutions.
Fifteen key family cases were closely tracked, selected based on their mobility patterns and family structures. The sample includes three types of family structures: three-generation families, nuclear families, and single-parent families. The mobility trajectories identified among these families include short-term sojourning, return migrationafter sojourning, nomadic living between two locations, relatively long-term relocation, and migration to a third country. (Please refer to Table 1 for further details.)
Family Structure and Mobility Patterns of the Key Case Family Statistics.
Note. In this study, the privacy and confidentiality of all participating families were strictly safeguarded. Pseudonyms were used to replace real names and any personally identifiable information in the key family cases presented. All families were informed of these confidentiality measures before the interviews, and their consent was obtained for the use of anonymized data in research.
Method of Data Collection
The primary data collection methods for thie study includedsemi-structured interviews and participant observation, designed to capture families’ decision-making processes, migration pathways, and everyday experiences.
Interviews were conducted both face-to-face and online. In-person interviews took place in participants’ homes or schools, while online interviews were arranged for families temporarily away from Chiang Mai or residing in other countries.
In addition to interviews and observations, publicly shared information from social media, particularly WeChat Moments and other public social platforms commonly used by Chinese families, was collected and analyzed to help illustrate how families maintain transnational connections and share updates.
Besides Chiang Mai as the primary site for data collection on transnational education and family life, I also tracked some returning Chinese families to their departure locations, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Yunnan, and Hunan, to gather additional contextual data. For families who left Chiang Mai for destinations such as Finland, Australia, and the United States, data collection was primarily conducted through online contacts.
Foronline data collection, only self-disclosed information that individuals voluntarily uploaded to public and semi-public social media platforms was used. Specifically, only posts made by users with an audience exceeding 500 people were included, ensuring that the data collected was intended for a relatively public forum. Additionally, all interviewees were fully informed of the research objectives, and explicit consent was obtained. Participants were assured that their information would be used solely for research purposes, with strict measures in placeto ensure confidentiality and privacy.
Thematic analysis was employed to examine transnational family dynamics, mobility patterns, and daily familial lifestyles in Chiang Mai. These themes were then compared with traditional transnational family arrangements centered on education, enablinga comparative analysis of how middle-income Chinese families in Chiang Mai manage transnational migration. The study particularly emphasizes the role of international education and corresponding transnational family strategies, as these factors are essential for situating this groupwithin broader patterns of transnational educational migration across differentregions and countries.
Findings
Profile of Families: Demographic Characteristics of Urban Middle-Income Chinese Families in Chiang Mai
The survey results regarding the family structures of Chinese international students in Chiang Mai reveal a significant departure from common perceptions. Contrary to the prevailing view that educational migration primarily involves single-parent chaperones (Huang & Yeoh, 2005; Koo, 2012; P. Li & Siriphon, 2022; Waters, 2005), this pattern is not predominant among Chinese families at international schools in Chiang Mai. Instead, nuclear families are the most prevalent, with entire households engaging in cross-border relocation and transformation, rather than just single parents.
Due to Thailand’s strict immigration policies, these Chinese families achieve their residency in Chiang Mai by combining various visa products of different durations, rather than aiming to obtain potential citizenship. According to visa eligibility requirements, each child and one direct family member are permitted to reside legally through education visas and accompanying guardian visas. Elderly family members typically obtain residency through short-term tourist visas or retirement visas, while other adults in the family rely on short-term tourist visas to reunite with their families. Among the 38 sampled families, two families obtained business investment visa and elite visa to sustain their sojourning lifestyle. Additionally, two parents acquired permanent residency as parents of Thai citizens, having marriage Thai spouses during their stay in Thai.
Among the38 Chinese sojourning families in the sample, the family structures were categorized as follows: 19 nuclear families, 4extended families with two generations living together, and 7single (divorced) mothers who had taken their children abroad. These groups collectively accounted for 80% of the households relocating with their children. In contrast, families withtransitional separated chaperones residing in Chiang Mai comprisedonly 8families (five maternal chaperones and three paternal chaperones), representing20% of the sample (Please refer to Figure 1).
Distribution of family structures among Chinese children studying in Chiang Mai.
Among the 38 sojourning families interviewed in Chiang Mai, comprising a total of 118 individuals, only6 were grandparents. Of the parents, 3 were born in the 1970s, while the remainder were born after 1980. These parents belong to China’s one-child generation and represent urban middle-income residents who have benefited from the countries’ urbanization and opening-up policies. Although all families owned at least one property in their city of origin, they generally did not fall within the higher-income bracket of their respective cities. Notably, families from developed cities like Beijing and Shanghai exhibited significant differences in income levels.
An analysisof the primary economic status of these 38 families revealed diverse income sources. Aside from 11 families whose main economic support came from the salary of a parent working in China, the predominant income source for the others was passive, including savings, rental income, financial investment returns, and similar revenue streams. Some families engaged in small-scale economic activities catering Chinese customers during their sojourn, such as online transnational goods purchasing and local homemade food production. However, the income from these small ventures lacked long-term stability. Overall, the economic activities of Chinese resident families in Chiang Mai were more consumption-oriented than production-oriented.
Regarding occupational status, the majority of these 38 families were employed in non-government sectors. Apart from one individual who resigned from Party membership after a year in Chiang Mai, none held Party affiliations. Only four families had previously been employed by state government entities before resigning upon their relocation. Twelve families were engaged in self-employment or business ownership, while the remaining 12 were skilled professionals in fields such as IT, advertising, finance, and various training workshops.
These Chinese families temporarily residing in Chiang Mai largely belong to the generation of China’s one-child policy parents. They have witnessed the economic development and urbanization brought about by China’s economic reform and opening-up policies. While they have accumulated some economic capital during the country’s modernization and marketization processes, they are not among those who became significantly wealthy early on. Instead, they are urban, well-educated small business owners, mid-level technical professionals, and members of the unstable middle-income salaried class, with much of their wealth tied to urban property. Some younger parents had the opportunity to study abroad with their family’s supportbefore returninging to China, start their own families, and becoming parents of the post-only-child generation.
Briefly, the adaptation of Chinese parents from major cities in China to their new environment in Chiang Mai varies significantly. Some parents actively learn English and Thai, primarily to communicate with their children’s schools and the surrounding community. Chinese accompanying families have formed their own enclaves near international schools. Interaction with the local Thai community mainly occurs through neighbors, school communities, and religious groups, often facilitated by their children’s school activities. Chinese social media platforms, particularly WeChat, play a crucial role in connecting these families both to their local community in Chiang Mai and their relatives back in mainland China.
Sojourning as a Lifestyle: Household Relocation in Chiang Mai
An analysis of migration patternsover the past 5 years reveals a distinct trendof temporary and cyclical mobility among these families. They engage in continuous movements, using Chiang Mai as a central hub or “mooring” point, while moving nomadically between their homeland and other host countries. These migration flows include relocations to various destinations, with some families returning to China, others remaining in Chiang Mai, and some moving back to Chiang Mai after stays in countries such as the U.S. and Australia (Please refer to Figure 2).
Flow of migration based on Chiang Mai as a Central Mooring Hub.
Among the 38 Chinese families sampled in this study, the earliest arrivals in Chiang Mai date back to 2012, while the most recent arrivals were in 2023. Their length of stay in Chiang Mai ranges from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of 5 years. Almost all interviewed families indicated that continuous migration over the next 5 to 10 years would define their primary lifestyle, with their children’s educational needs at the center of their decision-making. These families strategicallyreorganize their lives around the international educational opportunities and resources for their children. Chiang Mai has been preferred as the destination, starting point, and mooring hub for their transnational household relocations.
Records of the mobility patterns of the 38 families over the past 5 years reveal diverse relocation routes. These include returning to their home country after staying in Chiang Mai, dual-city-living in both their departure city and Chiang Mai, transitioning toa third country from Chiang Mai, and settling in Chiang Mai in a travel-residency manner. Approximately 20% of these families have already invested in property in Chiang Mai, signaling a commitment to future residence, despite Thai property laws generally restricting foreign land ownership. However, this does not indicate integration into the local labor market. Among these families, only four are engaged in real estate brokerage, education consultancy (primarily targeting Chinese clients), or local tourism services in Chiang Mai. All other families lack work permits in Thailand.
Chinese middle-income families are transforming Chiang Mai into a new homing residency through transnational consumption rather than production, applying it as a flexible living hub to reconstruct a lifestyle distinct from their original urban environments. This allows them to achieve individualized family goals such as children’s education, elderly care, and maintaining a family-oriented lifestyle.
It is precisely Chiang Mai’s relaxed and familiar rural neighborhood atmosphere, combined with accessible international education resources, that fosters a sense of community closeness reminiscent of the past while simultaneously fulfillin the demand for international cultural experiences. This unique combination continues to attract Chinese urban residents.
The term “Mai village” (
Fish, who relocated from Shenzhen with her daughter to a house near an international school, expressed her appreciation for life in Chiang Mai: “Our neighborhood is very convenient. The Chinese store in the district can provide all the ingredients and seasonings needed for Chinese cuisine. And the neighbors are very close to each other; we all take turns picking up the kids and cooking. We all know each other when we go for a walk” (Interview, 19 May 2022).
Similarly, Cai, a single mother who traveled to Chiang Mai in 2016 and later decided to stay, reflected on her experience: “Life here is just like when I was a child. Sometimes, I watch my son and think that his childhood is just like mine, which I could never returnto, but even better—more international with lower costs. All my friends in China admire my life” (Interview, 5 April 2020).
The pursuit of a better quality of life or a lifestyle change is characteristic of lifestyle migration (Benson, & O'reilly, 2009; Benson & Osbaldiston, 2014). For families in Chiang Mai, their sojourning is not solely driven by the value of international school education or the international experience itself. A high degree of internationalization also implies gchallenges particularly for parents who lack proficiency in foreignlanguage, making integration more difficult. The families sojourning in Chiang Mai appear to be more drawn to the nostalgic, pre-modern social and neighborhood atmosphere.
In studies on transnational families, both “transnational family” and “global householding” are considered adaptive strategies that families employ to navigatethe processes of globalization. Douglass (2006) highlighted the strategy of “global householding” to underscore how the creation and maintenance of a household is a continuous process of social reproduction that spans all life-cycle stages and extends beyond the immediate family. Chinese families with young children have relocated their households trans-regionally into an accessible and culturally familiar environment. Rather than adopting transnationally separated family arrangements, they have established a second home in Chiang Mai, structured around their offspring’s overseas educational opportunities. In doing so, they extend the family’s social reproduction needs beyond the family structure.
Motivation: Nomadic Transnational Sojourning in Seeking for Individualized Social Reproduction Resources
When responding to questions about their reasons for moving to Chiang Mai, a lifestyle shift centered around education emerged as a common motivation mentioned by all families. Notably, references to travel and personalized education surpassed mentions of the pursuit of international curricula and prestigious schools.
A mother who is a freelance writer on WeChat, created a public social media account named “Wa Tai You” (“
Since the 1980s, despite being dominated by individuals from developed countries and elites from developing countries (Hall, 2005), travel and mobility have increasingly become everyday behaviors (Edensor, 2007). Previously, “casual” mobility, such as tourism and recreational travel, was considered from daily life: “Travel undertaken voluntarily with discretionary income left over after meeting basic life needs” (Cohen & Cohen, 2015, pp. 157–158). Today, travel has become an integral part of life, rather than just a break from it (Cohen, 2010) . This rapid growth in mobility is linked to a range of socio-political factors such as globalization, individualization, increased international experience, advances in wireless communication technologies, improved transportation systems, the digitization of real estate, work-life balance flexibility, and rising global wealth.
Transnational householding is a substantial endeavor. Familial flexible mobility is neither aimless nor romanticized. Like other transnational educational migrants, Chinese families accompanying their children in Chiang Mai for education engage in nomadic transnational mobility, driven by a combination of love and rational calculation. Family-based transnational mobility revolves around parents’ perspectives on their children’s educational needs, aspirations for individualized social reproduction and environmental resources, and the strategic allocation of family resources. Parents utilize mobility as a means to navigate the increasingly complex challenges related to their children’s education and private lives.
Qiao, a mother from Xiamen, relocated her family to Finland after living in Chiang Mai for oneyear. In 2017, when her son was 5 years old, she researched international schools in Xiamen and Shanghai. “I wrote a report on international schools to express my disappointment. In search of good educational resources for my son, I visited the most famous international schools and found that although the fees were high, the quality was poor. I wanted more than just an international diploma.” Qiao’s online sharing unexpectedly received hundreds of thousands of views overnight. Many parents seeking “better education” followed her to Chiang Mai. Regarded as an educational pioneer by her followers, her online journal about international education has become a study-abroad guide for many Chinese parents. “It takes a village to raise a child,” she emphasized, underscoring her expectation for socialization resources beyond international education certification (Qiao, interview, 15th February 2020).
Qiao’s educational anxiety aligns with perceptions observed by Waters (2005) in Hong Kong middle-class families, who viewed transnational education asuniquely valuable for providingaccess to international curricula, social capital, and character development in a globalized environment. However, rather thanchoosing the United States, known for its Ivy League institutions, Qiao opted for Finland for her son, attracted by its non-competitive educational culture. To fulfill their aspirations, Qiao and her husband adopted a nomadic lifestyle, resigning from their jobs, sacrificing the stability of accumulating family economic capital.
In contrast, Zhi and his wife moved to Chiang Mai with their son because they were exhausted by the intensive, child-centered education in Beijing. “Where we are (Beijing), first-grade students are already learning third-grade math. Kindergarten kids must enroll in tutoring classes that bridge kindergarten and elementary school. If they don’t, there’s no way for them to keep up with the teacher’s lessons. This requires parents to sacrifice everything for schooling. We realized we couldn’t handle this educational burden. We want to survive parenthood. Our lives aren’t solely for our child” (Zhi interview, 3 August 2019).
Zhi emphasized the importance of spousal and familial intimacy as well as their individualized approach to education: “My wife and I are always together. We were unhappy in the high-pressure environment. Traveling is our lifestyle, and it’s the family culture we want to educate our son in. We are a family, and we would never live in any form of separation” (Zhi interview, 3 October 2019).
Annie’s husband shared a similar belief, asserting that family unity holds greater value than children’s success in an international education setting. Like other Chinese families who relocated to Chiang Mai, their transnational family strategy is driven by the pursuit of balance between emotional intimacy within the family and individualized education for their children.
After settling in Chiang Mai, Annie’s husband quit his high-paying job and sold their house in China to reunite with his family. He explained, “I don’t want my son to be brainwashed by a high-competition education system. They don’t encourage kindness, cooperation, or reflection.…it’s not for us…we want to raise a sheep, not wolves. (And for the family) With a 996 job, you can’t be with your family even when you’re all in the same place. A family is supposed to be together. It doesn’t matter where you live” (Interview, 15 May 2021).
Chinese sociologist Zheng (2011) conceptualized China’s intense educational competition as an “educational arms race.” In this context, families are often swept into high-intensity, school-centered educational competition, with the national college entrance exam (Gaokao) as its focal point, leading to widespread dissatisfaction and exhaustion.
In contrast, Chiang Mai’s international education system offers a diverse alternative. Beginning with the Chiang Mai Children’s Center in the 1950s and expanding into the Chiang Mai International School (CMIS), international education in Chiang Mai offers various curricula, including American, British, German, and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Tuition fees range from 150,000 to 500,000 Thai baht per year, accommadating different budget needs.
The mobility of transnational sojourns from high-cost urban areas to more affordable rural areas like Chiang Mai has emerged as a viable strategy for parents seeking a lifestyle change, parental choice, and family cohesion. Scholars of nomadism argue that downshifting or departing from consumerism is a unifying characteristic of both global and digital nomads ((D'Andrea, 2006); Kannisto, 2014; Nash, 2018). Global nomads, as downshifters, “choose to spend more time with their families, enjoy healthier lifestyles, and do what they find meaningful rather than just earning money and paying bills.” (Kannisto, 2014, p. 118). The nomadic Chinese families relocating to Chiang Mai seek to reconfigure their family agendas, prioritizing children’s education and family cohesion.
The reflective critique of social reproduction conditions in their place of origin is evident not only within the education system but also in a broader critique of educational culture and social ethics based on diverse family values.
“My daughter was enrolled in a domestic kindergarten. Once I found out that her teacher had the entire class of 3-year-olds recite the Socialist Core Values, I immediately decided to withdraw her from the school and move to Chiang Mai,” White shared (interview, 30 August 2019). White relocated to Chiang Mai with her parents and two children. Having previously studied and lived in Singapore, the UK, and Australia, she already held Australian passports. Before moving to Chiang Mai, she had returned to China to settle down. As a 1.5-generation immigrant, White maintains a strong sense of Chinese identity but disagrees with the imposition of values on children. Consequently, she decided to move her children and parents to Chiang Mai, while her husband remained in China, working as a FIFO (Fly-in-fly-out) father.
Various individualized family values shape how these families define the success of their children and family life. However, the ultimate goal of all these efforts is to nurture the individualized development of their children. Nomadic families seek supportive social resources that foster their children’s personal growth beyond academic achievement and social success.
Mr. Sun and Mr. Kang are two entrepreneurial fathers whose children experienced contrasting academic trajectories in China—one excelling, the other struggling.However, their motivation for pursuing a transnational lifestyle was influenced not by their children’s academic performance but by broader concerns regarding the educational culture and social ethics.
“My son attended almost all types of schools in China…(and they all failed him). Finally, I asked his teacher to take special care of him by paying the teacher an extra salary. When I realized how problematic this was, I knew we had to leave this fetish culture. What I’m doing now will benefit my children and three generations after them. I ended my company; earning money is not more important than my kids' education,” Mr. Kang explained (interview, 8 November 2022).
In contrast, Mr. Sun offered a more radical critique of formal education: “I do not expect much from school education. My daughter was the top student at her school every year in China. Schools train children to be good employees, not employers. I can support her in pursuing whatever she likes. We moved here for a more relaxed and simple life. We prefer the lifestyle in Chiang Mai compared to Bangkok. People here do not worship materialism and pragmatism as much” (Sun, interview, 2 January 2023).
When discussing the motivations behind household transnational movement and individualized educational needs, various informants frequently cited factors such as dissatisfaction with the collective values of materialism or national identity, the intimacy of personal relationships, family cohesiveness, work-life balance, and aspirations for a particulaerretirement lifestyle. While education is a significant factor, it is not the sole driving force behind relocation decisions. Instead, these decisions often involve a negotiation process that considers each family member’s individual needs at different life stages.
Families in Chiang Mai hold diverse values and individualized educational aspirations regarding parenthood. Rather than exclusively choosing top-rated international schools, these middle-income families from China select from a variety of options, including church schools, multilingual schools, natural education schools, and homeschooling, to meet their specific educational goals. The focus has shifted from academic success to embracing multicultural values and individual development.
Families that engage in transnational sojourning as a unit aim to change their lifestyles. As both individuals and parents, they utilize mobility to navigate the increasing complexities of modern life (McIntyre et al., 2006). As parents, they reorganize family resources, leveraging transnational lifestyle to secure the future of the next generation. As individuals, they prioritize family cohesion and emotional intimacy by embracing downward consumption mobility. The negotiation between families’ individualized needs for social reproduction and the personal development of family members across various life stages has become a central theme in their narratives, simultaneously shaping their transnational mobility.
The individualization of children’s education, family lifestyle, and resource allocation determines the trajectory of this transnational social reproduction flow. Families seeking higher-quality international education often continue their children’s studies in third countries and regions, cycling between these destinations and Chiang Mai. Those prioritizing family reunification and a work-life balance tend to remain in Chiang Mai until their children complete primary and secondary education, only then reconsidering their future plans. Meanwhile, most transnational families in Chiang Mai who initially opted for a single-parent accompaniment arrangement eventually chose to return to their home country or relocate to new destinations. Unlike other regions, the presence of sacrificial educational agents and intensive maternal efforts in Chiang Mai’s accompanying families is marked by its short-term and temporary nature.
D'Andrea (2006, p. 100) asserts that the new nomadic lifestyle embodies “the mainstream (settled) society’s desire for and rejection of countercultural (nomadic) ways of living.” Deleuze and Guattari never claimed that nomads are free; rather, they argued that migrants are not nomads because they move in order to be re-territorialized. In contrast, the Chinese families in Chiang Mai rely on state mechanisms while simultaneously navigating strategies to distance themselves from the dominant structures. In other words, these families engage in a form of critical reflection that leads them to adopt transnational family strategies to mitigate risk and achieve their goals.
Regardless of their specific migration trajectories, the lifestyle mobility of these families represents a “movement of varying durations” negotiated around parental responsibilities and personal fulfillment, involving “multiple mooring points, with no immediate plan to return ‘home’” (Cohen et al., 2015, p. 159). Chiang Mai serves as a crucial mooring hub, playing a pivotal role in their ongoing nomadic social reproduction mobility.
Discussion
More Than Education: Transnational Life-Making for Offspring
In the past, traditional understandings of Chinese educational migration and transnational family arrangements focused on the flexible accumulation of transnational cultural capital by middle-class families and its role in ensuring the stability of family class status. The urban middle-income families from China in this study appear to adopt similar transnational family strategies. As Ong (1999, p. 95) stated, “For many ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, both the well-off and the not-so-rich, strategies of accumulation begin with the acquisition of a Western education.” However, these middle-income families in Chiang Mai originate from diverse regions of mainland China, and do not share the same class characteristics as the elite involved in past transnational flexible mobility.
Firstly, China’s economic transformation has rapidly created a large urban middle-income group, this group within a socialist state differs from the traditional capitalist middle class. Chinese urban middle-income families exhibit highly diverse and individualized expectations regarding family capital accumulation and social mobility.
Ran (2013), using Michel Foucault’s concept of “dispositif,” argues that the middle class in China is a state project aimed at managing social risks under specific historical conditions. Since the late 1970s, due to state-centered economic development—particularly the growth of large enterprises, urbanization, and the expansion of national economic activities—the new middle class and working class have rapidly expanded. However, this middle-income group differs in terms of capital accumulation methods, industry composition, and cultural and educational levels.
At the same time, a normative, people-centered political culture is deeply rooted in China, in stark contrast to the institutional individualism and democratic cultural atmosphere seen in Europe’s modernization process (Beck, 1992). For the state, the middle class is a crucial project for maintaining stability and managing risks under neoliberal globalization. The Chinese middle class has emerged as a “dispositif class,” whose “harmonious” normalization is achieved through the neoliberal configuration of sovereignty, political representation, and government.
As a result, individual families are systematically caught between the materialism driven by neoliberal marketization and the nationalist governance demands of state political normalization.
On one hand, during the “harmonious society” era, power, wealth, and risks were systematically arranged through a neoliberal economic framework. Neoliberal civic consciousness—characterized by entrepreneurial lifestyles, self-reliance, and personal responsibility—developed rapidly across society. The political capitalization of this era led to widespread corruption and severe social inequality, fueling materialism and compelling individuals to navigate mobility across social strata. This process has eroded the ethical values associated with pre-modern and modern public rationality.
On the other hand, this shift diverged from the socialist practices of providing standardized living conditions. In response, the state has integrated the previously individualized public sphere into a normative discursive framework, emphasizing state-led values and the revival of traditional culture. Strict restrictions imposed by the state’s internet firewall further isolate the public sphere. As Ong and Zhang (2008, p. 14) pointed out, “While encouraging self-reliance and entrepreneurship, political control is exercised by qualitatively categorizing different groups that are perceived to align more or less with new forms of competitiveness and profitability.” Consequently, state-led power has reshaped the behavioral patterns of China’s middle class through the reconfiguration of infrastructure and normative discourse.
Within this framework, China’s urban middle-income group, especially those in the lower tier, finds them caught between the privileged class and the low-income proletariat. As citizens, they are compelled to address the dual economic pressures of high-intensity labor and the need for consumption upgrades through neoliberal entrepreneurial methods. At the same time, within the socialist nation-state framework, they are expected to align ethically and politically with the party, their peers, and other groups to avoid marginalization.
As residents, individuals perceive the family as the most trusted private sphere, the sole domain where consistency and stability converge, and where personal health, happiness, and meaning are nurtured to the fullest extent. Parents of the post-one-child generation, now entering the parenting phase of life, face significant challenges and pressures related to social reproductive labor, which encompassescaregiving, upbringing, safety, health, emotional well-being, and the nurturing of sexuality. Familial social reproduction becomes the most critical agenda for ensuring the sustainable development of both offspring and the family unit, addressing the risks of modern life. Their broader and increasingly diverse individualized expectations for the next generation highlight the need for more supportive educational resources and improved conditions for social reproduction.
Chinese parents who adopt a flexible sojourning lifestyle have restructured their family resource allocation based on pragmatic individualist familism. More specifically, these middle-income groups have reallocated resources between the economic reproduction of the family and its social reproduction. Their goal is to reconstruct family-centered transnational lifestyle through transnational consumption (investment). Nomadic mobility is aimed at seeking natural environmental resources and cultural education resources that better align with the family’s individualized needs.
Compared with the aggressive accumulation strategies of transnational family companies that prioritizemarket and citizenship value, Chinese families in Chiang Mai are primarily driven by dissatisfaction and critique of the educational and social reproduction conditions in their place of origin. To fulfill their individualized familial social reproduction needs, trans-regional householding has been adopted as a risk-avoidance option, adapting their mobility according to their offspring’s educational requirements. This form of mobility is more closely tied to life politics within national and regional contexts than to the accumulation of educational capital within an economic framework.
Secondly, followingthe global public health crisis and shifts in international relations, social turmoil has heightened the sense of crisis among urban families. The need for risk avoidance has surpassed the desire for the stable accumulation of family capital. Transnational mobility has served as a risk management strategy for families. Unlike traditional migration, which often involves uprooting and permanent relocation, nomadic mobility offers a flexible means of crisis avoidance and temporary refuge. For middle-income families with limited access to conventional transnational migration pathways, this approach represents an experimental strategy for optimizing their social positioning.
Yan and other scholars have outlined the contours of Chinese neo-familism, providing detailed ethnographic descriptions of certain practices of neo-familism in daily life (Harrell & Santos, 2017, pp. 31–32; Yan, 2010, 2018, 2020). The family, as a private domain providing vital support, is valued as the only reliable resource for ordinary individuals navigatingan increasingly competitive, risky, and unstable society. This discourse of neo-familism results from the intersection of public political governance in the modern state and the traditional Confucian cultural heritage. In terms of social reproduction, it is believed that family problems are resolved within the family unit.
As previously discussed, families caught between the pressures of materialism and the instrumentalization of governance by state politics oftern struggle to find supportive social resources to accommodate their ideal family life. With the onset of crises, families became increasingly motivated by individualized needs and aspirations for autonomy. During the pandemic, Chinese families continued to relocate to Chiang Mai. The increasingly challenging societal environment intensified the average person’s need for practical security within the private sphere. In response, Chinese individual family mobilized all available resources with creativity, flexibility, and persistence to enhance their family lives.
Thirdly, tracking data on Chinese families living in Chiang Mai indicates that in pursuit of individualized social reproduction goals, trans-regional household strategies come at the cost of reducing economic reproduction activities and reallocating family resources.
To achieve a balance between family cohesion and their children’s education, families adopt a mobility strategy that involves relocating the entire household, frequently leading to a reducin or withdrawing from previously stable economic activities. Despite paying taxes in their home country, they may not receive benefits such as healthcare there. They bear the costs of education and mobility independently and often remain marginalized in the host country, contributing mainly through economic consumerism. Their downward mobility and reduced consumption align with their financial situation.
The social integration vulnerability of transnational families pursuing social reproduction cannot be overlooked, which helps explain why single-parent study-abroad families eventually return to their place of origin. Among the 15 families I closely followed, five had to seek new employment, four established small self-sustaining businesses through transnational entrepreneurship, and the remaining four ended their nomadic mobility due to financial constraints. Annie’s husband, for instance, had to return to China to seek employment after his family settled in Chiang Mai. Despite becoming fluent in Thai, he still could not work in Thailand, resulting in reverse transnational family separation.
Nomadic movers are not tourists; as “they seek resources that enable them to carry out their nomadic work” (Nash, 2018, p. 214). For middle-income families whose primary motivation for mobility is access to better social reproduction resources, their “nomadic work” is social reproduction itself. They leave their original region searching for a better environment but may still encounter contradictions between economic reproduction and social reproduction after relocating.
Chinese Post-Patriarchal Neo-Familism and Transnational Social Reproduction Flows
As Lipietz’s (1997, 2001) research on global pseudo-Fordist regions highlights, neoliberal economic policies have exacerbated the burden of social reproduction on families worldwide. This economic shift has dismantled welfare systems, devaluingfamily activities within the sphere of social reproduction in a marketization framework centered on economic reproduction. In Asia, the process of compressed modernization and economic reform has not led to the restoration of the welfare state. On the contrary, the persistence of traditional patriarchal cultural legacies has intensified the naturalization of the process in which families are exploited, reshaped, and colonized by the market in the accumulation of economic capital. Feminist scholars refer to this process as “housewifization” (Fraser, 2017; Mies, 2014).
According to Mies (2014), socialist accumulation did not resolve this issue. Activities traditionally associated with human reproduction within the family domain—such as childbirth, parenting, household chores, education, caregiving, emotional labor, sexual satisfaction, and other life-making activities—have been instrumentalized, naturalized, and colonized. The housewifization of women, families, and their social reproduction labor has not only been systematically ignored by economists but has also been reinforced by state political systems (Chizuko, 2020; Ochiai, 2011).
In this study, urban parents from the one-child generation exhibit neoliberal individualism within the framework of a post-patriarchal family structure shaped by a period of rapid economic development. Through intergenerational support, these families has nurtured their children with the tradition of neo-familism.
Yan (2018)conceptualized Chinese neo-familism asa distinctive familial structure in whichthe prioritization of children’s welfare and individual family member needs surpasses traditional patriarchal authority. In the context of an aging population and China’s one-child policy implemented since the 1980s, Chinese families have transitioned into an inverted post-patriarchal family structure.
Unlike the rigidly hierarchical norms prevalent in many East Asian migration contexts, as the focus of family life shifted from honoring ancestors to benefiting the younger generation, the core values of filial piety no longer demanded self-sacrifice from the younger members. Instead, a child-centered approach has fostered a new sense of intergenerational identity (Liu, 2016) . The success of offspring and family intimacy have become the central indicators of family prosperity, with family affection (kinship) now widely recognized as the most important value in a person’s life (Hsu, 2019).
In this context, the decision to migrate as a familial relocation is not solely about securing education for future generations but ultimately reflects an agenda of family social reproduction, encompassing decisions about the allocation of family resources, family autonomy, and overall family lifestyle. Urban post-one-child parents adopt clear neo-familism views regarding their parental duties and private family life. Individual families must organize their individualized social reproduction within the context of both the colonization of the family by market mechanisms, which prioritize economic reproduction, and the instrumentalization of the family by state-led collectivist governance. This complex dynamic creates significant household burden and potential crisis.
According to Ochiai’s (2011) study on social sustainability in four Asian countries and regions—Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore—reveals that all types of familism-based national welfare policies have failed. Neither socialized nor marketized models of social welfare haveeffectively ensured social sustainability. The social reproduction crisis faced by parents of China’s one-child generation is not only widespread but even more severe than thatexperienced in other East Asian countries. The state’s relaxation of birth restrictions has further intensified the caregiving pressures on this generation. These families, engaging in transnational nomadic mobility with a downward consumption approach, are essentially seeking better social reproduction resources for the survival of individual family units, driven by neo-familism.
Chinese urban families’ transnational mobility, facilitated by consumption, may appears similar to capital’s flexible accumulation through geographic arbitrage. However, in their pursuit of individualized social reproduction, these nomadic, transnationally separated, or householding families are, in reality, confronting a crisis of downward social mobility, rendering them marginalized and vulnerable at the edges of stable social systems.
Conclusion
Transnationalism theory (Schiller, 2021) emphasizes that global mobility stems from widespread dispossession and displacement. A new generation has lost hope for future security, and working people—including locals, migrants, farmers, laborers, and white-collar employees—face increasinglyinstability, debt, and downward social mobility. These underlying processes of deprivation shape the potential crisis faced by specific populations and profoundly influence their transnational mobility.
This study explores the phenomenon of middle-income urban Chinese families sojourning in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, for their children to receive an international education. These families adopt a nomadic lifestyle centered on their children’s education. Unlike traditional Chinese educational migrants who flexible cross borders to accumulate cultural capital, these families prioritize a downward transnational resettlement to establish another home, aiming to avoid the risks associated with social reproduction in China. This study suggests that these modern urban families face the crisis of individualized social reproduction as they enter the parenting phase of life.
The study seeks to deepen the understanding of Chinese social reproduction migration and transnational family strategies, emphasizing that this phenomeno represents a downward trans-regional, nomadic householding strategy rooted in Chinese post-patriarchal neo-familism. It demonstrates that their sojourning is not solely for access to global education but also to reconfigure family life in response tothe crisis of social reproduction and to enhance a sense of security. These transnational family strategies are dynamic and individualized responses to modern challenges.
This research highlights the impact of Chinese neo-familism on transnational social reproduction mobility. Future research should explore the long-term effects of transnational migration on family dynamics and children’s development. Additionally, the influence of such social reproduction mobility on both the sending and receiving societies, particularly within the evolving global political and economic landscape, warrants further investigation.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the CMU Presidential Scholarship.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.