Gender and diasporic identities in transnational migration : an ethnographic study of the phoenix chinese arts group in "Northtown" (Great Britain)

The dissertation aims at taking a close look at contemporary transnational migration and investigating into individual migrants' gender and diasporic identities through the window of a Chinese community group (the Phoenix Chinese Arts Group) in Britain. In detail, an ethnographic project was carried out, in which two methods (ethnographic observation and narrative interviews) were used to collect data. The main findings of the project are grouped around the following three theoretical perspectives: transnationalism, gender, and diasporic identities. Firstly, today's migratory system can be regarded as a boundary-breaking process, in which national borders have become porous as a result of individuals' increased mobility and their social networking; therefore, seemingly separated nation-states are now connected through various transnational social spaces; individual migrants are not confined in any spatially-defined minority communities, but they are engaged in a wide range of networking that goes across the boundaries of ethnicity and nationality, and thus their ways of balancing transnational connections and integration into the host society are rather complex. Secondly, as one of the key issues, gender works with other modes of identities and plays an important role in hindering or facilitating women's mobility and settlement in transnational migration. On a micro-level, the conventional nuclear family roles are redefined in a number of ways; some female migrants have started to challenge the gendered social norms in the traditional Chinese context, whereas others have achieved a complete role reversal with their male counterparts and become the main breadwinner of their families; however, changes in gender relations have not happened to all migrant women. Lastly, transnational migrants possess "dual or multiple identifications", which enable them to have de-centred attachments of "here and there" or "British and elsewhere". While enjoying the benefits of being transnationals, individuals may sometimes be regarded as second-class citizens in both sending and receiving countries. In addition, some individuals are able to move beyond a British vs. Chinese dichotomy and show a clear sense of cosmopolitanism, which has enabled them to possess a high level of intercultural competence and to move freely and smoothly between cultures.Keine Zusammenfassung vorhandenJin XujieAbweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des VerfassersKlagenfurt, Alpen-Adria-Univ., Diss., 2014OeBB(VLID)241613