Research (Week 2): Sending children back to China

Another interesting phenomenon I feel that is worth working on is the trend of Mainland Chinese immigrants sending their kids back to China to be raised by their grandparents or relatives.

Unlike the earlier Taiwanese immigrants, Mainland Chinese usually come alone or with their spouses. If they have children in Argentina, they don't have any family members to help take care of them while they're working pretty much 7 days a week in the grocery store. A large number of these immigrants actually send these children back to China. Usually this is done by paying someone who is on their way back, or it can be arranged with the airline.

The children usually stay in China for several years, and then the parents bring them back to Argentina, usually after elementary school. This is again related to the passerby attitude - the parents didn't plan on staying in Argentina for a long time, so they didn't feel the need for the kids to assimilate. However, most of them stay much longer than they had planned to.

Pastor Fan told me that while it is great that these children get to learn Chinese, this phenomenon also causes societal problems. These children are less inclined to listen to their parents after a long period of separation, and have trouble adjusting because they have trouble with Spanish. If they are brought back too late into their teens, many of them rebel, drop out of school, and in the worst cases, join the Chinese mafia.

I spoke to Su Shao Mei, a mother of three who had two of her children sent back to China. She came here in 1995 with her husband and now they run a Chinese delivery. They already had two children which they left behind in China, and when they had another child in Argentina, they sent her back to China as an infant. She stayed there for three years before she was brought back. Then Su and her husband brought the other two daughters to Argentina, but didn't have time to take care of all three, so they sent the second daughter, who was 8 at that time, back to China, this time for five years. She's back now and speaks Chinese at a high level, but Su said that she is having trouble with her Spanish.

"It's worth the separation," Su said. "We're here to make money, and we don't have time to properly educate our kids. We also want them to have a solid Chinese foundation, which makes it easier to communicate with the family."

She also says that age 6 is a good time to send the children back, and they should be brought back no later than age 15. If the children are gone for too long, there will be communication problems with the parents. She also mentioned that they prefer the medical system in China, so that is another factor in their decision. "Public hospitals are free here, but you have to wait forever," she said. "Plus, we have trouble reading the medical reports."

Cai Xiao Fang, a waitress at Todos Contentos restaurant simply left her children in China when she came here with her husband 3 years ago. "I want them to learn Chinese," she said. "Also, I don't like the education system here, it's too relaxed." She wants them to stay in China at least until they finish elementary school.

Whether this phenomenon is actually beneficial for the children should be an interesting topic to explore.