Astronaut family is a term that is used to describe a family unit where the members reside in different countries across the world. The term is in contrast to the "nuclear family".[1][2] The astronaut family represents the growing transnationalism of peoples' identities that accompanies the growing globalization.
The term was coined by Aihwa Ong in his publication Flexible Citizenship: The cultural logics of transnationality in 1999.[3] The term is especially used to describe Chinese families, who have spread across the globe.[4]
Astronaut families was a new economic source started in the early 80s for Chinese to migrate abroad and work under contracts or settle down and then send money and earnings back home to support family left in the home land.[5] Hong Kong and Taiwan were the first centered astronaut families.[5] Leading destinies to migrate to include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA.[5] The unique characteristic of astronaut families is the distribution of multiple family members to other countries maintaining the links of all back in their original land.[5] The head of the family (father), usually travels to secure family interests.[5] Women stay in the home country to care for children, but in the case that they go to work, grandparents take the role for caring for children.[5] One main reason for the astronaut family is to promote foreign business and open international markets in key economic areas.[5] The Cantonese term "taai hung yahn" defines the families that sent a member abroad while they worked and had businesses at home in Hong Kong.[5] Two ironic meanings are "taai hung" as outer space and the whole phrase associated as the idea of a person located among different places.[5] Semantic play refers to astronaut as a man and in these families men often do leave, while women stay as housewives in the host country.[5] During the 1980s and 1990s, a substantial migration of Chinese families from Hong Kong and Taiwan brought a visible inux of wealth to Canada.[6]