Asian Migrants Research Articles

Pidgin as a counterlanguage

AbstractA close-up on the linguistic interactive scene between Arab employers and Asian migrants communicating today in Asian Migrant Pidgin Arabic shows that migrant talk and native Arabs’ foreigner talk are different but interdependent. Here, it appears that the interactants are constantly navigating across one of two continua which sometimes meet and overlap. Arabic Foreigner Talk is further analysed from the perspective of the linguistic strategies deployed by Arabs to exert power over the migrants: self-facilitating, excluding, and mocking strategies. However, from a tool of communication and/or exclusion, the pidgin is also becoming one of transgression used by both Arabs and the migrants to oppose their respective hegemonic cultures – that of the masters for the migrants, that of religion for the Arabs.

Review: The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States by David C. Atkinson

Review: The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States by David C. Atkinson

Imagined mosque communities in Russia: Central Asian migrants in Moscow

ABSTRACTThe article aims to shed light on mosque communities in Russia through the example of mosques frequented by Moscovites and by Central Asian migrants. I will make use of Anderson’s theoretical framework of ‘imagined community’ in analysing the material presented in the article. The main argument is that there are no real mosque communities and rather that the sense of community formed around mosques is imagined. There are nevertheless a variety of networks, groups and institutions within and around mosques. The article is based on fieldwork conducted in 2016 and 2017.

Age schedules of intra-provincial migration in Kenya

Background: Migration today is a complex process determined by inter-related historical, geographical, economic, sociological and political factors. There are linkages between life-course transitions and patterns of movement necessitating estimation of migration propensities by age, sex and other characteristics. However, analysis of age specific migration propensities has been limited in developing countries. Data source and methods: Data was derived from the 2009 Kenya population and housing Census via the IPUMS data Series. The standard 7-parameter age migration schedule due to Rogers and Castro (1981) was fitted using Microsoft excel workbook using solver. Results: Large volumes of movements occur between ages 17 and 24.The peak ages at migration are similar to those observed in Asian migration patterns. The age pattern for all the regions had two peaks contrary to the standard with four. Conclusion: The results suggest that the main contributory factors behind migration schedules are schooling, labour force and associational moves.

Chinese and ‘self-segregation’ in Africa

ABSTRACTChinese are often said to ‘self-segregate’ in Africa. Chinese ethnocentricity is typically offered as an explanation for the putative non-interaction. Meanwhile Chinese are not compared to other non-indigenous people in Africa, implying unique Chinese self-isolation. Due to China’s semi-peripheral dynamics however, the contemporary Chinese presence in Africa cannot be generalized into a single category. Based on surveys, interviews, and documents, we examine the varied presence of Chinese in Africa, including residential patterns acquisition of local African languages, and socialization patterns, and draw distinctions between Chinese expatriates and Chinese migrants. Factors affecting Chinese adaptation include local political environment, recentness of migration, language barriers, and corporate policies to mitigate crime and conflict. We argue that most Chinese in Africa are not self-isolated and not more isolated in Africa than are other Asian migrants and whites there. Claims of Chinese self-isolation reflect a longstanding, global Yellow Peril discourse that persists despite discrediting evidence.

Travelling castes: Nepalese immigrants in Australia

ABSTRACTCaste among South Asian migrants remains under-researched. Some past studies of caste among indentured Indians in the former British colonies show that it, by and large, failed to revive abroad. Researchers of post-World War II free migrants in the West have remarked, albeit tangentially, that caste has remained salient. There is a need to further explore the problem of caste for a better understanding of migrant living. An unprecedented movement of overseas Indian Dalits in Britain, demanding caste legislation, also proves the significance of the issue. In this ethnographic research into Nepalese migration and settlement in Australia, I seek to understand how Nepal’s caste hierarchy has shaped the process of migration, as well as the family and communal life of migrants on the continent. I outline some of the specific areas – domestic, ritual, religious, marriage, transnational politics – where caste has retained its saliency abroad. My analysis shows that a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of caste overseas is essential to minimise the controversies and promote research into this potentially sensitive but crucial topic. I demonstrate that caste has found a new lease of life overseas due to, inter alia, the growing use of the Internet and smartphones.

Nepalese migrants in Japan: What is holding them back in getting access to healthcare?

IntroductionMigrants are one of the most deprived and vulnerable groups who receive the least health services in the society. Only a few studies have been conducted on access to healthcare among migrants in Asia, despite hosting 75 million migrants. In Japan, Nepalese migrants constitute the largest South Asian community. Their number increased by three folds from 2011 to 2016. However, little is known about their access to health care in Japan. Based on Andersen's model, we examined the factors associated with access to healthcare among Nepalese migrants in Japan.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study among 642 Nepalese migrants residing in 10 prefectures of Japan. We used multivariable logistic regression model to explore the key predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with access to healthcare among the migrants.ResultsThe migrants who had stayed in Japan longer were more likely to perceive better access to a doctor/health worker (AOR = 1.11, 95% CI 1.03–1.19).The migrants were more likely to perceive better access to a doctor/health worker (AOR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.17–2.73) when they did not need Japanese language interpreter during visit to health facilities. They were also less likely not to see a doctor/health worker when needed (AOR = 0.34, 95% CI 0.21–0.56). The migrants were less likely to perceive better access to a doctor/health worker when they had not paid the health insurance premium regularly (AOR = 0.21, 95% CI 0.13–0.33).Their low perception of better access to a doctor/health worker was also associated with self-rated health status as poor or fair (AOR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.41–0.89).ConclusionNepalese migrants have poor access to health care in Japan. The key factors associated with their access to health care are the length of stay (predisposing factor), Japanese language skill and health insurance (enabling factors) and self-rated health status (need factor).

David C. Atkinson, The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States

David C. Atkinson, <i>The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States</i>

Inmigrantes “chinxs” en la Buenos Aires globalizada

En las últimas décadas y debido a la globalización, aun siendo su afincamiento restrictivo, la movilidad de personas coloca incluso a sociedades como la argentina, que se autodefine como de inmigrantes, frente a interesantes encrucijadas discursivas: ¿Qué elementos mueve la vulnerabilidad de los actuales inmigrantes en la autopercepción de las autobiografías migratorias de lxs argentinxs? El artículo 25 de la Constitución argentina fomenta explícitamente “la inmigración europea”, pero, ¿qué sucede con la “nueva migración”, por ejemplo con la de personas originarias de China, que se establecieron en los años 1980 y ya cuentan con una “segunda generación” o con otras llegadas aún más recientemente provenientes del continente asiático y que apenas llevan pocos años en el país? ¿Qué imágenes de anfitrión/-a registra quien es acogidx y proviene de un núcleo cultural distinto? A partir de una conceptualización de interseccionalidad que no se restringe a los tradicionales ejes de “género, ‘raza’/etnicidad y clase”, se analizarán la manera de articularse de las voces y contravoces inmigrantes en estas manifestaciones fílmicas. Pues la pregunta es también, qué espacio les brinda el cine y a qué medios recurre el lenguaje fílmico para proyectar a estos nuevos actores sociales en la gran pantalla. Tres películas argentinas que tematizan la migración asiática, Un cuento chino (2011) de Sebastián Borensztein, La Salada (2015) de Juan Martín Hsu y Mi último fracaso (2017) de Cecilia Kang, ponen en la mira la relación entre lxs argentinxs y lxs inmigrantes asiáticxs – en La Salada, también de lxs bolivianxs – e invitan a debatir sobre los imaginarios de la migración y los presupuestos de la hospitalidad cotejándolos con sus obstáculos y, en particular, con los arraigados aguafuertes del “Otro” y las prácticas discriminatorias que se articulan en la intersección del origen, la nación y la cultura.

Bamboo Shoots: Asian Migration, Trade and Business Networks in South Africa

Interconnected business and trade routes, or “bamboo networks” have long been recognised as engines of growth in Asia. However, as Asian migration expands to Africa, what are their impact? This paper examines the links between trade flows and Taiwanese migration in South Africa from 1975 to 1995. Constructing a bilateral trade series from novel declassified migration and trade data, two aspects of the change in trade are quantified: Firstly, how did international trade change during sanctions, vis-a-vis South Africa and its largest OECD trading partners? Secondly, using migration data, I examine the extent to which the 1975 immigration of Taiwanese investors to South Africa could have increased and diversified trade between the two countries through their investment. Three years after the lifting of sanctions, the share of South African exports to Taiwan was both greater, but importantly more diversified in the sectors in which migrants invested. Using archival accounts, I discuss the possible processes through which these changes to trade could have occurred. Known as the migrant-trade effect, the results suggest that Taiwanese entrepreneurs increased trade by forming business networks and supply chains linking them to Asian markets.

Books: Migrant Architects of the NHS: South Asian Doctors and the Reinvention of British General Practice (1940s–1980s)

Julian M Simpson Manchester University Press , 2018, HB , 336 pp, £ 75.00, 978-1784991302 This book is based on a scholarly thesis, but is accessible to a wider readership. It aims to offer a new perspective on the history of immigration and a better understanding of how Britain’s imperial past and South Asian migrants have contributed to shaping modern Britain and the NHS. Archival evidence, photographs, and 45 individual accounts of personal aspirations, ambitions, and struggles take the reader from British India to the establishment of the NHS and the reinvention of general practice. Simpson begins with a consideration of the link between the dismantling of ‘Empire’ and Britain’s post-war health care. With no official government policy to …

The Idea of Home in a World of Circulation: Steam, Women and Migration through Bhojpuri Folksongs

AbstractThe historical juncture of the 1840s to 1860s witnessed three developments: first, the introduction of the new means of communication (steamships and railways); second, new industrial and plantation investments in and outside of India, creating demand for labour; and third, the expansion of a print culture that went beyond the urban elite domain to reflect the world of small towns and villages. In this constellation of social, economic, and technological changes, this article looks at the idea of home, construction of womanhood and the interlaced lifecycles of migrant men and non-migrant women in a period of Indian history marked by “circulation”. Moving away from the predominant focus on migrant men, the article attempts to recreate the social world of non-migrant women left behind in the villages of northern and eastern India. While engaging with the framework of circulation, the article calls for it to be redesigned to allow histories of mobility and immobility, male and female and villages and cities to appear in the same analytical field. Although migration has been reasonably well explored, the issue of marriage is inadequately addressed in South Asian migration studies. “Separated conjugality” is one aspect of this, and the displacement of young girls from their natal home to in-laws’ is another. Through the use of Bhojpuri folksongs, the article brings together migration and marriage as two important social events to understand the different but interlaced lifecycles of gendered (im)mobilities.

Agency, activation and compatriots: the influence of social networks on health-seeking behaviours among Sri Lankan migrants and Anglo-Australians with depression.

The nexus between social networks and illness behaviours is important in uptake of health care, however scant research has explored this relationship in South Asian migrants living with mental illness. We explored the interplay between culture, social networks and health seeking in Sri Lankan migrants and Anglo-Australians living with depression. Forty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted and data were analysed through the theoretical prism of the network episode model. Results showed that social networks were important in negotiating care. Decisions to initiate care occurred along a continuum of choice and agency; some took charge of their care, others were coerced into care, however some Sri Lankan migrants were led through various informal channels of care. Selective activation of compatriots - those perceived to understand mental illness-became increasingly important to participants through their illness careers. Compatriots were considered of greater benefit as participants progressed through depression than otherwise meaningful social networks based on ethnicity, culture and kinship. We argue that the role of social networks is pivotal in uptake of formal care, and engaging with communities to improve responses of social networks to mental illnesses may provide a bottom-up avenue for improving uptake of mental health services in migrant communities.

Im/mobile highly skilled migrants in Qatar

ABSTRACTMost studies on the mobility of highly skilled migrants have been examined with a framework of global talent mobility and under conditions of neoliberal governance and economic globalization. In this study we challenge the notion of the hypermobile knowledge worker. Utilizing mixed methods, we examine the factors that attracted highly skilled migrants to Qatar and the conditions under which they might leave in the future. Rather than finding a group of footloose migrants attracted primarily to high-wage jobs, a lack of taxation or amenities, and with multiple alternative locations of residence, we find that highly skilled migrants exist on a spectrum of immobility. More significantly, this immobility depends on the migrant’s region of origin. For Asian and Western migrants immobility is attributed to the Kafala system or employer sponsorship, which hinders occupational and spatial mobility and ties workers to their sponsors. Arab highly skilled migrants are especially affected by lack of security and stability in their home countries, which makes these workers involuntarily immobile. The former group seem to be willing to accept a reduced level of agency and mobility for high income, whereas for the latter security and stability are more fundamental to their decision to come to Qatar.

On Diaspora

This piece of creative writing tells the story of a young man’s desire to express his religious devotion. As a second-generation South Asian migrant he opposes England, the country he grew up in, with India, his motherland, seeing the former as being spiritually bankrupt and the second as being holy. He longs to be reunited with the India of his memories which he recalls with nostalgic fondness. A recent joyous event impels him to return to his ancestral home to show gratitude at the favourable changes in his circumstances which will mean immersing himself in a place he finds at once magical and mystical. When the time comes for his return, however, his expectations are struck down by the stark awareness that the India he hoped and longed for had changed. This invited him to attempt to reconcile the two worlds he belonged to and to bring his spiritual needs, which he had felt unable to express in his everyday existence into the here-and-now.

Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait

Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait

Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait

Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait

The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States

The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States

Migration Scholarship in Post-Soviet Russia: Between Western Approaches and Eurasian Geographies

This review explores Russian academic debates around migration, highlighting theoretical, empirical and policy issues which are specific to the Former Soviet Union (FSU). In global terms, FSU migration volumes are high: the Ukraine-Russia migration corridors are second only to those straddling the border between Mexico and the United States. Russia’s wealthiest regions are the primary destinations of both internal and FSU migrants. In line with global trends, the response by host countries’ populations and authorities is one of hostility informed by media-fuelled xenophobia. The chaotic and disruptive nature of post-socialist transformations has buffered the effects and lessened the perception of the multiple crises which have enveloped the European Union in the last decade. Eurasian integration and the rift with the West have produced different economic and political conjunctures, whose defining moments are the Ukrainian conflict, Western sanctions and worsening terms of trade for key exports. In Russia, migration debates have focused on FSU-specific emergencies including demographic unbalances, the repatriation of the Russian diaspora and the prospects of large scale Central Asian migration. Migration processes, their subjective understanding as well as Russian policies directed at them, have been informed by the long history of mobility across the Eurasian space. FSU migrants who make up the vast majority of Russia’s migrant population still view the latter as ‘a common house’, a transnational space open to all FSU citizens irrespective of current nationality.

Chan, Yuk Wah &amp; Koh, S. Y. (Eds.). New Chinese Migrations: Mobility, Home, and Inspirations. Routledge Series on Asian Migration Volume 3, Oxon: Routledge, 2018.

Chan, Yuk Wah &amp; Koh, S. Y. (Eds.). New Chinese Migrations: Mobility, Home, and Inspirations. Routledge Series on Asian Migration Volume 3, Oxon: Routledge, 2018.