Gender, Migration, and the Work of Care

Centre for Global Social Policy

That’s after years of repressing religions during the Cultural Revolution. At the same time, China is experiencing a rise in religious sentiment.

Dr. André Laliberté wants to know if, and how, these two social changes relate.

His research team, in the Gender, Migration and the Work of Care sub-project Culture in the Framing of Care in Chinese Societies  is exploring how Chinese societies draw on the resources of their religious traditions when they build care policies. They’ll examine the People’s Republic, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Caregiving is poorly paid, and taking up caregiving work may be seen as “losing face” in secular Chinese societies.

But religious social service bodies, like the Hong Kong Buddhist Association, are encouraging paid care workers to practice acting with compassion like the Buddha.

Some temples are also offering philanthropy and charitable volunteering through foundations and even at the ground level of housing elders.

China’s ageing crisis has been shaped by a 1950s to 1970s baby-boom, followed by the one-child policy, and rapid demographic changes related to industrialization and globalization.

Laliberté teaches students at the University of Ottawa about caregiving in his Chinese and Asian politics classes.

Some sessions have sparked passionate dialogues when students speak from their personal and family perspectives.

“I have been witness to life-changing epiphanies for all involved, more than a more formal approach to politics would have achieved,” says the teacher and professor.