Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781503606661
- eISBN:
- 9781503607460
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503606661.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
Counter-diasporic migration, or the return of diasporic descendants to an ancestral land, has become a noticeable global trend. This chapter troubles linear narratives of emigration and immigration ...
More
Counter-diasporic migration, or the return of diasporic descendants to an ancestral land, has become a noticeable global trend. This chapter troubles linear narratives of emigration and immigration by examining the re-migration of diasporic descendants. It focuses on Chinese diasporic descendants in Malaya, Indonesia, and Vietnam who were compelled to leave due to ethnic persecution between the years 1949 and 1979, a period that coincided with the inauguration of communist rule in China. The Chinese state resettled the refugees in state-owned farms and labeled them as “returnees,” legitimizing its reach toward the diaspora. But the social realities they experienced expose contestations over presumed kinship and co-ethnicity. After 1978 China’s diaspora strategizing shifted from privileging co-ethnicity to encouraging foreign investment and scientific skills transfer to benefit the country’s national development. This discussion foregrounds how citizenship formations in China were intimately connected to the experiences of the Chinese abroad and those who re-migrated to the ancestral land.Less
Counter-diasporic migration, or the return of diasporic descendants to an ancestral land, has become a noticeable global trend. This chapter troubles linear narratives of emigration and immigration by examining the re-migration of diasporic descendants. It focuses on Chinese diasporic descendants in Malaya, Indonesia, and Vietnam who were compelled to leave due to ethnic persecution between the years 1949 and 1979, a period that coincided with the inauguration of communist rule in China. The Chinese state resettled the refugees in state-owned farms and labeled them as “returnees,” legitimizing its reach toward the diaspora. But the social realities they experienced expose contestations over presumed kinship and co-ethnicity. After 1978 China’s diaspora strategizing shifted from privileging co-ethnicity to encouraging foreign investment and scientific skills transfer to benefit the country’s national development. This discussion foregrounds how citizenship formations in China were intimately connected to the experiences of the Chinese abroad and those who re-migrated to the ancestral land.
Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781503606661
- eISBN:
- 9781503607460
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503606661.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This book argues that analyzing emigration, immigration, and re-migration under the framework of contemporaneous migration directs attention to the citizenship formations that interconnect migration ...
More
This book argues that analyzing emigration, immigration, and re-migration under the framework of contemporaneous migration directs attention to the citizenship formations that interconnect migration sites, shaping the lives of citizens in motion. It departs from conventional approaches that study migration sites in isolation or as snapshots in time. Taking Chinese emigration as the starting point, the analysis becomes deepened by incorporating insights from migrant-receiving countries, namely Canada and Singapore, which are facing new emigration or re-migration trends among their own citizens. By analyzing shifts in migration patterns over time, we also come to understand how China is becoming an immigration country. The arguments offer new insights for researchers studying Chinese migration and diaspora. As an analytical approach, contemporaneous migration contributes to our theorization of citizenship and territory, fraternity and alterity, ethnicity, and the co-constitution of time and space.Less
This book argues that analyzing emigration, immigration, and re-migration under the framework of contemporaneous migration directs attention to the citizenship formations that interconnect migration sites, shaping the lives of citizens in motion. It departs from conventional approaches that study migration sites in isolation or as snapshots in time. Taking Chinese emigration as the starting point, the analysis becomes deepened by incorporating insights from migrant-receiving countries, namely Canada and Singapore, which are facing new emigration or re-migration trends among their own citizens. By analyzing shifts in migration patterns over time, we also come to understand how China is becoming an immigration country. The arguments offer new insights for researchers studying Chinese migration and diaspora. As an analytical approach, contemporaneous migration contributes to our theorization of citizenship and territory, fraternity and alterity, ethnicity, and the co-constitution of time and space.
