Confronting linked immobility: how Chinese migrants managed family crisis during a global catastrophe

Abstract Drawing on qualitative interviews with 51 Chinese migrants who live in the US but strive to support frail parents back home, this article analyzes the impact of China’s zero-COVID policy on transnational family caregiving. We argue that the restrictions sending states enforce on individuals’ movement across locales affect migrants’ negotiation of critical family life transitions in unexpectedly complex and challenging ways. This article offers the concept of “linked immobility” to examine migrants’ immobility in relation to their loved ones’ spatial and social constraints. Such linked immobility exposes migrants and their at-home parents to risks, uncertainties, and anxiety. Concurrently, many respondents confronted China’s multi-scalar immobility regime, either from afar by coordinating the care and resources their parents needed, or by braving the trip. Our findings advance the scholarships on transnational migration and immobility by making visible how migrants react to situations where mobility is highly desired but difficult to achieve.