E.02Essay
Root index

The Left-Behind 1.5 Generation

A name for children who remain in the home country, then migrate later to rejoin their parents.

10 July 20268 min readWilliam Chen

This experience sits uneasily between two familiar categories. It is not identical to being a left-behind child, because migration eventually follows; nor is it the usual 1.5-generation story, because separation begins long before arrival.

Years of waiting can make independence necessary before it becomes a virtue.

The term is provisional. The interviews are meant to test what it illuminates—and what it still fails to hold.

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