In Pursuit of Children’s Education Abroad: China’s Middle-Class Families and Parental Flexibility in Transient Migration to Thailand

Abstract

This article explores education-led migration among Chinese families who pursue international education for their children in Thailand. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, with data collected from 220 Chinese respondents to a survey and by means of 12 semi-structured interviews. The Chinese families emigrating from China to Chiang Mai in Thailand are representatives of the largely urbanized, well-educated middle-class families that today practice a circulatory transnational migration for the purpose of obtaining an education for their children. The findings show that compared with the conventional pathway of upper middle-class Chinese families emigrating to Western developed countries, middle-class Chinese families in Chiang Mai have adopted transient migratory practices for enhancing their children’s international education. The article discusses the childcare arrangements, division of parental responsibilities, income-earning activities, and desire for a good personal lifestyle among Chinese parents with children undergoing education in Chang Mai.