(Dis)Connected Parenting in Migration: Communities, Connections, and Concerns

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 20 parents who have migrated from the People's Republic of China and are living in Melbourne, Australia, this paper examines the complex roles of online parenting communities in migrant family life. Enacted on social media platforms, these communities significantly shape how migrant parents raise their children in the digital age by constructing and normalising good and bad parenting practices, as well as providing crucial information for parenting in migration. This paper focuses on how parenting in such digitally connected fashion is both enabling for first-generation migrant parents who are not familiar with the sociocultural and technological milieus of the host country, but also limiting in relation to the lack of diversity among migrant parents’ personal networks. Specifically, this paper unpacks two examples to illustrate its argument – the ‘mum groups’ (妈妈群 mamaqun) on WeChat (微信 Weixin) for Chinese migrant mothers and the impact of China-based online parenting experts/influencers. The WeChat mum groups, created and managed by volunteer mothers, provide important avenues for Chinese mothers to connect with other mothers at similar stages and with similar interests or challenges. The online parenting influencers, on the other hand, become sources of information and normative discourses around parenting. At the same time, both examples reflect the contradictory implications of online parenting communities for contemporary migrant parents – the challenges of misinformation and disconnection from the wider Australian communities. The paper goes on to discuss how China's unique sociotechnical contexts shape how Chinese migrant parents access information about parenting and build their relationships with the other overseas Chinese parents. The paper concludes with the argument that while the Chinese migrant parents are connected via social media platforms, it inadvertently disconnected these parents from the wider, diverse social relationships and information sources in Australia.