New Theoretical Dialogues on Migration in China

Hong Zhu, Junxi Qian, Hong Zhu, Junxi Qian

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781032427362
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000840223
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This edited book emerges from the observation that the current literatures on migration in China are constrained by a series of shortfalls, including a relative topical homogeneity centred on domestic labour migration; relatively narrowly conceived and institutionalist conceptions of migration and migrants, without adequate attention paid to the identities, agencies and everyday experiences of migrants; and finally a lack of engagement with theoretical models and paradigms in the broad discipline of migration studies. Assembling eight fine-grained research works engaging with a broad variety of migratory trajectories and experiences, this book addresses these shortfalls by: (1) investigating diverse forms of domestic and transnational migration in and to China; (2) problematising, rethinking and innovating well-established analytical tools and categories to move beyond their epistemological fixity and highlight their socially and dynamically constructed nature; and (3) underscoring the centrality of identity, subjectivity and everyday experiences, rather than mechanical causality between institutions and migration outcomes, to theoretical understandings of migration in China. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Sociology, Politics, Human Geography, Social Work and Urban Studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Migrant worker museums in China: public cultures of migrant labour in state and grassroots initiatives
• 3 Reconstituting the neoliberal subjectivity of migrants: Christian theo-ethics and migrant workers in Shenzhen, China
• 4 Agency and mobility in the context of development-induced migration: the case of Three Gorges out-migrants
• 5 Chinese ‘snowbirds’ in tropical Sanya: retirement migration and the production of translocal families
• 6 Circumstantial migration: how Gambian journeys to China enrich migration theory
• 7 Multiple precarity and intimate family life among African-Chinese families in Guangzhou
• 8 Dwelling-in-Travelling: Western expats and the making of temporary home in Guangzhou, China
• 9 Intellectual migration: considering China
• Index