Sexuality, Socialisation, and Inequalities on the Move: The Lived Experiences of Young Chinese Gay Migrant Men in France and Belgium

While gender has become a salient category of difference in the scholarly portrayal of new Chinese migrants, the sexuality of Chinese in Europe—let alone the Chinese gay diaspora—remains understudied. Drawing on data collected in two separate research projects on gay Chinese migrants in France and Belgium, this chapter explores the multifaceted lived experiences of young Chinese gay migrant men in Europe through the lenses of sexual (re)socialization and inequalities in a transnational context. First, this chapter gives an overview of the current research on queer Chinese migration, including in the European context. Second, it explores the processes of sexual (re)socialization of young Chinese gay migrant men in France and Belgium and the multi-level sources of this process. Finally, the last section highlights the health care and racial inequalities that gay Chinese migrants encounter in European host societies, as well as their agency, and delineates how these inequalities are produced and perpetuated within unequal power relations such as ‘race’, age, class, and migrant status. We conclude with a discussion that bridges studies on queer migration studies and Chinese diaspora studies, calling for more sexuality-inclusive research on Chinese migration to Europe.