Leisure as a Constraint and a Manifesto for Empowerment: The Life Story of a Chinese Female Migrant Worker

Monica Z. Li, Monika Stodolska

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Using a series of life-story interviews with a female migrant live-in caregiver in Beijing, this study examined the history and evolution of the migrant worker’s migration and the impacts it had on her leisure experience, identities, values, and social positions. The findings revealed that migration imposed unique constraints on her leisure, such as those related to the overlap of work and leisure time and space, limited finances, preference for money accumulation over spending on leisure, illiteracy, alienation from the host population, and a breakdown of family ties. Migration to the city, however, also led to her economic and gender empowerment, presented new leisure opportunities, and contributed to the development of new leisure attitudes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)121-137
Number of pages17
JournalLeisure Sciences
Volume44
Issue number1
Early online dateSep 17 2018
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Keywords

  • Chinese internal migrations
  • Leisure
  • Rural-to-urban migration

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management

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