Professional Affiliation

Professor, Sociology and Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy, University of Toronto

Expert Bio

Ito Peng is the Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy and Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the Department of Sociology, and the School of Public Policy and Governance. She is also the Director of the Centre for Global Social Policy, University of Toronto. She teaches political sociology and social contexts of public policy, specializing in family, gender, and demographic issues, migration and comparative social policy. She has written extensively on family and gender policies, labour market changes, and social and political economy of care in East Asia. Professor Peng is the Principal Investigator of a SSHRC funded partnership research project called Gender, Migration and the Work of Care: International Comparisons, that examines how the reorganization of care influences the global migration of care workers, and how this migration in turn impact family and gender relations, gender equality, government policies, and global governance

Expertise

• Economics and Globalization
• Environment
• Gender
• Migration

Wilson Center Project

Future Care: Solving Global Climate and Migration Issues with Care (A Trade Book on the Care Economy and its Connections to Climate Change and Migration.)

Project Summary

The more visible, frequent and intense extreme weather events are reminding us of the climate change urgency. This proposed trade book, Care and Migration in Context of Climate Change, illustrates how desertification and extreme cold (Dzud) in Mongolia are destroying the grassland, killing animals and people, and making the country's traditional nomadic herding livelihood unsustainable. Since early 2000s, nearly 600,000 people have migrated from rural Mongolia to its capital city, Ulaanbaatar, to seek shelter, escape poverty, and explore new economic opportunities. This often means family separation and constant reconfiguration of household economic and care arrangements––women/children migrate, men stay; young migrate, old stay; family pool resources, send out young for education hoping next generation escapes herding life. Based on over 90 interviews, this book shows how climate-induced migration is changing family care dynamics, breaking down the traditional community-based care support crucial, and potentially erasing a core Mongolian culture and identity.

Major Publications

• S. Michel and I. Peng Eds. (2017) Gender, Migration and the Work of Care: a multi-scalar approach to the Pacific Rim, Palgrave Macmillan
• I. Peng (2024) "Mental and Physical Well-being of Carer-Employees in Canada", International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(12): 1611-
• I. Peng (2018) "Shaping and Reshaping Care in East and Southeast Asia", Critical Sociology, 44(7-8): 1117-1132