The End of National Belonging? Future Scenarios of National Belonging from Migration Experiences of Taiwanese Businessmen in Shenzhen

[[abstract]]Nation-states were usually understood as "Imagined Communities" (Anderson, 1991) with numerous people, having an undivided loyalty to a common government, and a shared past among its members. Hence, immigrants were forced to abandon or deny their ties to their societies of origin. Globalization and transmigrants, however, have greatly changed this situation. Transmigrants construct their simultaneous embedded social relationships in more than one society and preserve their culture and identity to the societies from which they first emigrated. This is the case presented by Taiwanese businessmen in Shenzhen. At the present time, many Taiwanese conduct businesses in China, especially in the city of Shenzhen (the first special economic zone in China). There was an assumption that through more interactions between Taiwanese businessmen or managers and local Chinese, a closer shared national identity would emerge. This paper disproves this assumption, arguing that the daily interactions between these two groups consistently showed a sense of remoteness. The net effect of such a type of migration is that multiple, transnational and sometimes hybrid national identities emerge. Is this the end of national belonging? What is the possible and desirable future scenario in terms of the notion of belonging and citizenship? This paper presents three possible future scenarios of national belonging and citizenship. These are: 1) territorialized national identities and singular citizenship, 2) hybrid national identities and denizenship, and 3) deterritorialized social identities and transnational citizenship