Performing everyday cosmopolitanism? Uneven encounters with diversity among first generation new Chinese migrants in New Zealand

Abstract

Cross-cultural living experiences may lead to the development of cosmopolitanism among people who are on the move. This article critically explores this proposition in relation to first generation Chinese migrants in New Zealand, focusing on, not only their opportunities but, more importantly, the barriers they encounter in terms of performing cosmopolitanism through an analysis of their everyday intercultural interactions. The key premise is that being able to engage in cosmopolitanism is not a given result of increasing levels of cross-border mobilities or intercultural interactions but occurs through, and relates to, social structures and power relations that individuals negotiate in different social settings. By drawing insights from ‘everyday cosmopolitanism’ and ‘contact zones’, this paper explores three factors that articulate the possibilities of becoming cosmopolitan: (a) everyday cosmopolitanism in contact zones; (b) the emotional dimension of encountering others; and (c) migration and family life challenges. In doing so the paper examines how the process of becoming cosmopolitan is entangled with migrants’ social-demographic characteristics, along with their individual self-perceptions, biographies, and personal relations with others. It highlights that cosmopolitanism is socially situated, subject to multiple pressures, and enacted within the uneven power relations of society. Moreover, it demonstrates that diversity encounters are inherently emotional and cannot be understood outside of the emotional dynamics from which they emerge.