Pushed to Africa: emigration and social change in China

Miriam Driessen

44 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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China's Global Influence and Migration Migration and Labor Dynamics Diaspora, migration, transnational identity

Abstract

This essay explores the dynamics of recent labour migration from China to Africa through the prism of migrant narratives. Drawing on field research in Ethiopia and China the author links migrants’ motives for, and experiences of, migration to social transformation in China: most notably a shift away from the flurry of optimism and idealism to a mood of careful conformism fuelled by a prevailing yearning for a sense of security and a fear of ‘missing out’ in a competition for resources. Migrants expressed being ‘pushed’ to Africa. Their attitudes stand in relief to the dreams about ‘making it’ that have propelled many Chinese to the West. By examining how these migrants imagine time and space, displacement and emplacement, the author sheds light on the distinct characteristics of Chinese migration to Africa, as well as on the relationship between emigration and social change.

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References

2006Neoliberalism as Exception 2019On the Postcolony 2001On the Postcolony 2012Regimes of Mobility Across the Globe 2002Migration in the age of involuntary immobility: Theoretical reflections and Cape Verdean experiences 2007Desiring China 2007Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture 1999Remotely Global

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