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International Journal of
Population Studies A suggestion for future research

of care shortage alongside an overdependence on migrant for infants and during early childhood, as well as about
care workers at a global scale emerged with renewed the foreign domestic workers (FDWs) paired with the
vigor (Ng, 2022; 2023). In this fashion, population studies elderly are needed. I suggest that prospective research can
scholars have advocated for the wider society to challenge stay abreast of present trends by paying more attention
the dominant negative connotations associated with to: (1) the ongoing dynamics of changing age relations,
elderly citizens and migrant workers who are marginalized including the cultural role of Confucian values of filial
through derogatory population categories; “foreign others” piety, and (2) connections between ageism against the
and “unproductive” seniors who are part of an imminent elderly and education as care labor for children in social
“silver tsunami” are cases in point (Teo, 2023; Yeh, 2022). welfare attitudes and policy practice. While the former is
The underlying concern is the poor plight of social more pertinent to East Asian societies, the latter analytical
institutions for family care and people’s growing struggles angle has global resonances elsewhere that can inform
to secure adequate care in old age. In this perspective article, more expansive definitions of social reproduction in care
I do not offer detailed overviews of eldercare predicaments work studies that are of use for sustainable population
in specific locations but draw on observations from planning.
Singapore and the Taiwan Province of China (hereafter
Taiwan) in East Asia to point to broader global trends in 2. Ageism and filial piety: An unwelcome
market convergence of eldercare management. but necessary duo for analysis
In both cases, the government’s decision to expand care Compared to Western societies in Europe and North
labor migration for family care is primarily economic; a America where ageism is openly talked about in LTC
labor market strategy that draws on the availability of low- policy – such as the tightening austerity measures of
cost migrant labor for care service occupations shunned by governments, which offload the costs of caring for the
the local workforce (Chiu & Yen, 2024; Ortiga et al., 2021). population’s health onto households – and recognized at
This pivotal move enabled numerous post-war East Asian an everyday level (e.g., Herron et al., 2021 in Canada), East
economies to maximize national income by increasing Asian societies face different challenges in coming to terms
the workforce participation of female citizens, enabled with creeping ageism in intergenerational household units.
by the social and cultural positioning of eldercare as a In my fieldwork experience across Singapore and Taiwan,
“3Ds” (dirty, dangerous, and difficult and/or demeaning) Confucian cultural values of filial piety manifest rather
occupation (Munkejord et al., 2021; Rozario & Hong, 2019; specifically in the form of a dominant social preference
Teo, 2023). Rather and more than religious justifications for stay-at-home (live-in) care by adult daughters and/
for live-in care, especially for “Asian Tiger” economies, or daughters-in-law who are often assisted by FDWs in
people’s cultural belief in the importance of aging-in- middle-class households (Ng, 2023). Although elderly
place (i.e., stay-at-home care) for elderly persons remains institutionalization is gaining normative acceptance in
a strong social norm; the intense public stigma of elderly China, Japan, and South Korea among other cases where
institutionalization (nursing homes) is unique to this live-out care options are more established, this has not been
part of the world (Hung et al., 2021; Yeh, 2022). Even in the case in Singapore and Taiwan where nursing homes are
some southern European societies where tight-knit family still strongly stigmatized (Peng, 2018; Rozario & Hong,
cooperation is more commonly observed in eldercare 2019; Yeh, 2022). In my interviews with Singaporean and
arrangements compared to North American counterparts, Taiwanese adult children and family caregivers, I often
for instance, the general aversion toward long-term care heard negative comments such as “a place to die” and
(LTC) homes does not equate to the particular connotation “not an option” with regard to nursing homes; some made
of an adult child’s unforgivable sin of unfilial conduct references to the onset of elderly depression triggered
(Wang et al., 2023). These variations aside, I zone in on the by bleak environments and feelings of abandonment or
loneliness (e.g., Ng, 2023). Generally, at an emotional
imperative to unpack the complicated ethical and moral level, adult children who pledge allegiance to honor their
dilemmas arising out of dominant market imperatives that parents’ wishes of aging at home – grounded in seniors’
encroach on all corners and cultures of eldercare (Chew, familiar community and social networks – find it difficult
2022; Ng, 2023). Interrogating its customary lowly social to accept or even comprehend the idea that ageist processes
status is a first step beyond studies of different policy are occurring (e.g., Chiu & Yen, 2024). In other words,
trajectories toward enriched understandings of the social both adult children and their elderly parents subscribe to
constructs of care’s valuation.
a straightforward criterion of filial piety in which the 24/7
Deeper shifts in mentality about the “dirty” nature of availability of a foreign “maid’s” service at one’s beck and
care work, especially for elderly persons more so than call is key if not indispensable.

Volume 11 Issue 4 (2025) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.4971