This study of privileged Japanese families in Hawaii revisits the claim that East Asian transnational families relocate overseas either to improve their well-being or to enhance their status through their children's international education. Existing scholarship has focused mainly on the second pattern of status-seeking migration, conceptualized as 'education migration'. By employing Benson and O'Reilly's concept of 'lifestyle migration', I consider the less widely studied case of migration strategies designed to increase well-being. The central difference between the two types of migrants lies in the way that migrant women construct their gendered identity through their transnational split-household arrangement - a freer self (lifestyle migrants) or a sacrificial self (education migrants). In conclusion, I call for further research on this neglected topic and propose an important dimension to facilitate lifestyle migration, gender. © 2014 The Author(s) Global Networks © 2014 Global Networks Partnership & John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Transnational families Hawaii Mothering Gender lifestyle migration education migration Japanese families

education international cooperation Japanese families mothering lifestyle migration Hawaii Transnational families gender