"She Gave us Family Life"

Vietnamese Immigrant Families and their Czech Nannies Redefining Relatedness

Authors

  • Adéla Souralová

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14712/12128112.3484

Keywords:

nanny, family ties, Vietnamese immigrants, Czech Republic

Abstract

Vietnamese families in the Czech Republic often recruit Czech women to look after their children. Put in the context of the dominant scholarship, this is quite a unique case of care work in which the employers are immigrants, while the employees are women of the host country. At the same time, it is an exceptional child care solution in the context of the Czech Republic, where only 1-2% of the population seek individual private child care. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted with Czech nannies, Vietnamese mothers, and their children, the article interprets the experience of Vietnamese immigrants with paid child care as an outcome of the post-migratory redefinition of family relations. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how family ties and child care arrangements are negotiated vis-à-vis the new life in the host country, where the different "normal caring biographies" are supported by the common-sense understanding of what care and/or mothering should be, by social policies, and by everyday practice. I argue that recruitment of the nannies is an essential part of these negotiations. I respond to the following questions: What is the role of delegated child care in post-migratory family arrangements? What are the motivations for and consequences of recruiting Czech nannies in the context of Vietnamese immigrants' family lives? In my paper I put forward the thesis that the post-migratory challenges of family life lead to the recruitment of nannies, which further challenges the family lives of both nannies and immigrants. The article focuses both on the negotiations which result in hiring the nanny and the negotiations originating in the recruitment of Czech nannies.

Author Biography

Adéla Souralová

received her PhD in Sociology in 2013. Her doctoral thesis titled “Vietnamese Immigrant Families and their Czech Nannies: Mutual Dependency, Emotionality, and Kinship Ties in Caregiving” dealt with emerging relationships among Vietnamese mothers, children and their nannies. She is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno. In her research she focuses on the following topic: Vietnamese immigration in the Czech Republic (issue of citizenship and belonging) and delegated child care (Vietnamese immigrants recruiting Czech nannies and care placement agencies in the Czech Republic). She teaches courses in migration, ethnic relations, and feminist anthropology.

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Published

2013-07-01

How to Cite

Souralová, A. (2013). "She Gave us Family Life": Vietnamese Immigrant Families and their Czech Nannies Redefining Relatedness. Lidé města, 15(2), 257-278. https://doi.org/10.14712/12128112.3484

Issue

Section

Articles