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ll my shenfen (status) and guanxi (interpersonal relationships) so that I can come here. When you are here, if you go back with nothing, you can’t account for it from all aspects because you are not coming here to tour and see whether it is good before you come again. When you come, you have pulled all your roots; you have pulled your roots in China to come to Canada. But you realise that the water and soil are not suitable and the roots are not able to grow. There has to be a process. At this juncture, you have contradictory feelings. A third reason was the desire to yijinhuanxiang (return to their hometown in silken robes). To Evelyn, this meant ‘you only dare to go back to your hometown when you are grand or rich. You will have more face among your kin and relatives’. Zhiyang, originally from Taiyuan, mentioned a further concern about return migration: If you are returning to your country, you won’t want to return to a small city. Then you will just be going back to the original place. If you go to a big city, it will be just like an immigrant. When you go to Shanghai, you will be discriminated by others, and that won’t do. If you put the discrimination issue aside, you still have to integrate into the local society. You are a new migrant again. It is the same. For some migrants, a constant battle rages in their minds as these attenuating reasons are pitted against the challenges encountered in everyday life. Indeed for many, as Gerald commented, ‘the immigration decision is not a one-time affair; it is a continuous process’. Zhiyang, who had been in Vancouver for nearly three years, admitted: I have all along planned to stay but recently, these few days, I have thought that is not necessarily the case. I can’t say. It’s hard to say... Iris, on the other hand, had already made a decision: Since we have decided to move our family over and to be transplanted here, then our concern is how our roots should be grown here, how to flower, and how to grow joint by joint, like a bamboo. Thus we don’t think on the bitter side, we are quite optimistic. At the time of interview, seven of the 36 households in my research were astronaut families, with the wives in all except one case staying in Vancouver while the husband worked in China, and shuttled to Vancouver every four months on average. 7 All emphasised that this was only a temporary arrangement, and one that eventually
814 S.Y. Teo needs to be resolved (Teo 2007). Indeed, at least two of the seven families have returned to China, including Haiwen, the Beijing native who had left for Shanghai, and Huiling*whose daughter had wanted to remain in Vancouver. For these transnational families, almost invariably, ‘It is still the family that is important’. These dilemmas are echoed by the transnational childcare arrangements of some PRC immigrant families. When interviewed, 11 of the 29 households with children had sent their offspring back to China to be looked after by the grandparents or babysitters. Again, the long-term goal is for the family to be reunited. The phenomena of astronaut families and transnational families have brought to light the painful tolls of transnationalism. Arrangements that appear to be flexible initially turn out to have a more rooted goal of family reunion. Between Citizenship and Nationality When asked about whether they have applied for, or intended to apply for, Canadian citizenship, or ruji (be naturalised), as was the preferred term, there was a spe