satellite baby

It has become the practice of Chinese emigrants to send their very young children back to China to be looked after by their extended family while the parents are establishing themselves in their new country. In a sense it extends what is a relatively common practice in China of giving the young children into the care of the older members of the family while the parents work. 

 The term satellite baby was coined by researchers studying the phenomenon in North America. When these children reach school age, they return to live with their parents. While this is a practical solution to the problems of immigrants, there are questions about the effect on the children of the disruption in their lives caused by such a great geographical and cultural separation.

 The satellite babies have some things in common with the left-behind children. These are children left with family in rural areas of China while their parents go to the cities in search of work.  The other kind of child/parent separation comes later when the children are older and go overseas for their education. These children are referred to as parachute kids.  Australia is well aware of this group as we have quite a lot of them, arriving as international students, but, to a lesser degree, we are encountering the satellite babies as well as they are returned to their parents in Australia.