Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

11-2020

Abstract

International migration profoundly reshapes the urban landscape in sending and receiving countries. Compared to ethnic enclaves in migrant-receiving metropolises and remittance houses in sending communities, we know little about systematic urban changes led by emigration states. In this article, based on three months of fieldwork in a migrant hometown in China, I argue that the dispersion of emigrants per se does not make its urban space inherently ‘diasporic’. Rather, a ‘diasporic place’ can be strategically constructed by local sociopolitical actors, a process I conceptualise as ‘diasporic placemaking’. To create an international city branding and boost the consumption-based urban economy, the local state promotes Western architectural forms and imagines globalisation as a new way of life. To understand how migrants and local residents make sense of diasporic placemaking, I analyse deep-running tensions between their diverse self-perceptions and state construction. Instead of an innocent project, diasporic placemaking is replete with ambitions, achievements, and anxieties in post-socialist China’s march towards modernity, progress, and prosperity. To advance the constructivist momentum in diaspora studies, I explore how diaspora construction is realized and contested in urban transformations while shedding light on how migrant spaces are valorised and performed by local actors for economic and symbolic purposes.

Keywords

Diasporic placemaking, migrant hometown, China, urban changes, international city

Discipline

Asian Studies | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Race and Ethnicity | Urban Studies and Planning

Research Areas

Sociology

Publication

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Volume

48

Issue

1

First Page

209

Last Page

227

ISSN

1369-183X

Identifier

10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860741

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Copyright Owner and License

Publisher

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860741

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