Offline and Online Spaces of Southeast Asian Transnational Migration: Facebook, Mall, Museum and Art
Type
Double PanelPart 1
Session 7Thu 13:30–15:00 Room 1.401
Part 2
Session 8Thu 15:30–17:00 Room 1.401
Conveners
- Emily Yuan National Taiwan Museum
- Morakot Meyer Mahidol University
- Wimonsiri Hemthanon Mahidol University
Discussant
- Kim Dinh Bui Georg-August Universität Göttingen
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Add to CalendarPapers (Part 1)
- Online and Offline Public Sphere of Thai Migrants in Singapore Wimonsiri Hemthanon Mahidol University
Friend of Thai Workers in Association (FTWA) (Singapore) originally located on the 3rd Floor, Golden Mile Complex in Singapore, is the public place where Thai Migrants gathering over weekend, especially on Sunday which is only a day off for most of the members. Years ago, when Facebook became popular in Thailand as a crucial online public sphere for information and communication among Thais, the team who ran FTWA decided to employ Facebook as another platform to communicate among themselves and with other members due to FB specific characteristics as a hub as self-broadcast of news and information, air public opinions and also being used as a tool to channel support online to the real-world activities. Members then joined in online sphere and used it as another platform and make use out of it. Various activities happened in both online and offline sphere as state hereinabove where Thai Migrants can pay a visit and insert themselves for the purpose of staying in the receiving country more smoothly and conveniently at the same time seeking for an opportunity to empower them for upward mobility. This paper explores how Thai migrants in Singapore employ both online (Friend of Thai Workers in Association (Singapore) and offline sphere (Golden Mile Complex) as platforms and communication tools to maintain, reproduce and enhance their capitals from the far. The paper employs qualitative research to unpack the issue in the question using in-depth interviews with the migrants, focus groups, and participatory observation. It extends scholarly debates in the fields of transnational migration, and social & cultural capital coined by Bourdieu.
- Two Worlds Apart in the Same Transnational Space? Offline and Online Experiences of Migrants from China and Myanmar in Thailand Morakot Meyer Mahidol University
The waves of migrants from Myanmar and China who came to Thailand from the 1980s have changed Thailand’s cityscapes, everyday social and business practices. Unlike migrants from other countries who came to the country in the same period, they can exhibit their cultural identities and form communities in some parts of Bangkok and neighboring provinces. Despite these seemingly successful migration patterns, in-depth interviews of migrants from Myanmar and China show different accounts of emotional stress, spatial negotiation, discrimination, and transnational-life strategies. In everyday practice, these migrants from Myanmar and China are also heavily relied on social media platforms to create and sustain their transnational fields, negotiate with physical spatial constraint and exchange of information capitals. Thus, their online and offline practices represent a certain degree of ‘connectedness’ and ‘consistency’ which are crucial for any network communities/societies, as argued by Castells (1996). With the analytical framework situated at the intersection of transnationalism (Faist et al., 2013; Vertovec, 2009) and everyday multiculturalism (Wise 2004, Hardy 2017), this paper compares the offline and online transnational practices of migrants from Myanmar and China in Thailand. More specifically, it studies different and similar modes of how they make use of the physical and online platforms to create, maintain and negotiate social space and relations against contextual factors such as spatial order, intercultural habitus, individual factors, class and power relations, media contents and state policies.
- Visualizing “Home” Here and There: Vietnamese-Belgian Couples’ Material and Symbolic Social Performances in the Domestic and Public Spaces Angelie Marilla Université Libre de Bruxelles
This research locates home-migration nexus in the lived experiences of Vietnamese-Belgian mixed couples in Vietnam-Belgium visual-social spaces. Using muti-sited ethnography, the study delves deeper into understanding how these mobilities (re)create connectedness to origin and how this manifests in the personal and socio- cultural spaces that these couples (re)negotiate. This "home-making" is often expressed in visualities—objects and images—in the migrants' everyday life that represent and visualize active transnational and translocal practices. The analysis is framed using Paolo Boccagni’s home-migration nexus (2017) by focusing on the material (practical) and immaterial (affective) concept of home and how their descriptive (and prescriptive) conception of home subsequently shape home-making practices in both domestic and public spaces. Home as materially constituted unpacks meanings, experiences, relationships and practices that are affective and performative.
Papers (Part 2)
- A Space in Foreign Land: Intertwining the Online and Offline World of Vietnamese Migrants in Taiwan Jessica Steinman University Leipzig
Research shows that improvement in communication technology has positively impacted transnational relationship (Horst, 2006; Parreñas, 2005; Senyurekli & Detzner, 2009). The Internet has become a great tool for migrants to reinforce their identity as member of groups from the homeland and to integrate into the host society (Hiller & Franz, 2004; Parker & Song, 2006; Peeters & D’Haenens, 2005). Furthermore, social media can have a tremendous impact on migration as it facilitates social ties between individuals (Haythornthwaite, 2002; Komito, 2011; Dekker & Engberson, 2014). Dekker and Engberson (2014) and Komito (2011) argue that social media can transform migrant networks and facilitate migration by strengthening ties with family and friends, creating weak ties with other individuals during the process of migration and integration, creating a network of latent ties, and creating a rich source of knowledge on migration and integration for migrants. Though studies on the effects of communication technologies and social media on migrants’ community has been plentiful, the online and offline aspect are often separated. Yet, Miller and Slater (2000) argue that online life forms an integral part of everyday life for many people, thus it is unproductive to separate online and offline life. This paper focus on the online and offline network of Vietnamese migrants in Taiwan to understand how Vietnamese migrants imagine, create, and contest spaces themselves through the analysis the role of technologies, physical sites, the social position of an individual, state regulations, social networks and symbolic meaning in the constitution of transnational social spaces for Vietnamese migrants.
- Food Culture and Cultural Exchanging of Migration in Taiwan: Stories Behind the Exhibition of “A Taste of Hometown: Southeast Asian Flavors” Emily Yuan National Taiwan Museum
Southeast Asia (SEA) is the home of 174,000 immigrants in Taiwan, and where 360,000 second-generation immigrant children go to visit their grandparents. There are around 700,000 industrial migrant workers and social welfare nurses. In total, Taiwan has 1,234,000 immigrants and migrant workers, forming countless ties with SEA region. The trend of migration from Southeast Asia started since the 1990s because of marriage or labor/working contracts, they bring in more than population, languages, and cultures. Furthermore, their memories of the taste of hometown are as well continuously brought in with the increasing amount of SEA migrants. In the exhibition, we focus on the interactions and challenges between the SEA food plants that profoundly affect Taiwanese culture and nature. Most of the Southeast Asian cuisines require a large amount of herbs, food plants, and spices only produced in SEA region and are now widely planted in Taiwan. Despite the legal concerns, there are increasing numbers of restaurants serve SEA cuisine largely merged around the train stations of major cities and the neighborhood of immigrant communities. The culinary spectrum in Taiwan has never been more colorful and diverse. The special exhibition of The Taste of Hometown: Southeast Asia Flavors not only shows the perspectives of flavor realm and culinary territory come across Taiwan society, but also displays how the diversity and complexity of SEA region food culture reshape the appearances of cultural diversity of Taiwan, and thus, represent a new integration of the balance between natural environment and cultural inclusion in present Taiwan.
- The Multi-Scalar Online and Offline Space of Jewelry Trade: The Experiences of Myanmar Jewellers in Border Cities of Yunnan Province, China Tingshu Zhu Mahidol University
In Dehong Prefecture of Yunnan Province near the China-Myanmar border, jewellers from Myanmar constitute a dominant migrant group, and they mainly live in Mangshi City, Ruili City and Yingjiang County of the prefecture. The earliest group of Myanmar jewellers arrived in Ruili City in the 1980s as the the Reform and Opening-up Policy of China encouraged border trade to boost its domestic economy. Since then, jewelry markets have been established in Ruili City and later in Mangshi City and Yingjiang County following the fast development of the trade. Since the 2000s, online jewelry trade has gained in popularity and significance in the jewelry trade of these three cities, and conventional markets suffer from decreasing trade volume as local economy is struggling. This new way of doing business brings both opportunities and challenges to the Myanmar jewellers. On the one hand, online trade allows them the reach more buyers beyond the conventional markets, on the other, the lack of language proficiency in Chinese and social networks put them at a disadvantage when competing with the Chinese jewellers. By using the theory of spatial scale advocated by Neil Brenner (2004) and the hypothesis of the linkage between migrants and city regeneration that is proposed by Nina Glick Schiller (2011), this paper intends to demonstrate not only the ways of adaptation and integration of Myanmar jewellers in Dehong Prefecture, but also the changing role and significance of Myanmar jewellers in the jewelry trade, as one of the economic pillars, of the prefecture.
Show Paper Abstracts
Abstract
This panel highlights the dynamism of transnational migration and its impacts in Southeast Asia and the wider Asian region in two domains. The first one is Southeast Asian migrants’ construction of social spaces in the physical and online worlds. The second area is the responses of cultural institutions and art sphere to transnational migration.
As to the first area of focus, the panel explores the everyday practices of migrants from Southeast Asia in creating and negotiating social spaces in urban settings such as in malls, parks, religious areas, etc. Increasingly the social space of migration is no longer confined within the spatial domain of the territorial world. Scholars in the fields of sociology of network society and social media reiterate the power of information technology that creates ubiquitous unbound-territorial networks transcending locality at multiple scales (Graham and Simon, 2000; Castells 2006, 2013). The social fields of migrants’ transnational life simultaneously operate in the online and offline worlds. How can we better understand migrants’ constructions of social spaces in the online world in relation to the physical world?
In the offline world of Southeast Asia and the broader Asian region, cultural institutions and art sphere have increasingly responded to the conditions of ‘super-diversity' and high mobility. Museums and art exhibitions have become a contested space of interpreting everyday multiculturalism and transnational migration. This second focal point of the panel touches upon the scope of transnational mobility in the world of representation, global service economy and social inclusion.
Keywords
Research shows that improvement in communication technology has positively impacted transnational relationship (Horst, 2006; Parreñas, 2005; Senyurekli & Detzner, 2009). The Internet has become a great tool for migrants to reinforce their identity as member of groups from the homeland and to integrate into the host society (Hiller & Franz, 2004; Parker & Song, 2006; Peeters & D’Haenens, 2005). Furthermore, social media can have a tremendous impact on migration as it facilitates social ties between individuals (Haythornthwaite, 2002; Komito, 2011; Dekker & Engberson, 2014). Dekker and Engberson (2014) and Komito (2011) argue that social media can transform migrant networks and facilitate migration by strengthening ties with family and friends, creating weak ties with other individuals during the process of migration and integration, creating a network of latent ties, and creating a rich source of knowledge on migration and integration for migrants. Though studies on the effects of communication technologies and social media on migrants’ community has been plentiful, the online and offline aspect are often separated. Yet, Miller and Slater (2000) argue that online life forms an integral part of everyday life for many people, thus it is unproductive to separate online and offline life. This paper focus on the online and offline network of Vietnamese migrants in Taiwan to understand how Vietnamese migrants imagine, create, and contest spaces themselves through the analysis the role of technologies, physical sites, the social position of an individual, state regulations, social networks and symbolic meaning in the constitution of transnational social spaces for Vietnamese migrants.
Southeast Asia (SEA) is the home of 174,000 immigrants in Taiwan, and where 360,000 second-generation immigrant children go to visit their grandparents. There are around 700,000 industrial migrant workers and social welfare nurses. In total, Taiwan has 1,234,000 immigrants and migrant workers, forming countless ties with SEA region. The trend of migration from Southeast Asia started since the 1990s because of marriage or labor/working contracts, they bring in more than population, languages, and cultures. Furthermore, their memories of the taste of hometown are as well continuously brought in with the increasing amount of SEA migrants. In the exhibition, we focus on the interactions and challenges between the SEA food plants that profoundly affect Taiwanese culture and nature. Most of the Southeast Asian cuisines require a large amount of herbs, food plants, and spices only produced in SEA region and are now widely planted in Taiwan. Despite the legal concerns, there are increasing numbers of restaurants serve SEA cuisine largely merged around the train stations of major cities and the neighborhood of immigrant communities. The culinary spectrum in Taiwan has never been more colorful and diverse. The special exhibition of The Taste of Hometown: Southeast Asia Flavors not only shows the perspectives of flavor realm and culinary territory come across Taiwan society, but also displays how the diversity and complexity of SEA region food culture reshape the appearances of cultural diversity of Taiwan, and thus, represent a new integration of the balance between natural environment and cultural inclusion in present Taiwan.
In Dehong Prefecture of Yunnan Province near the China-Myanmar border, jewellers from Myanmar constitute a dominant migrant group, and they mainly live in Mangshi City, Ruili City and Yingjiang County of the prefecture. The earliest group of Myanmar jewellers arrived in Ruili City in the 1980s as the the Reform and Opening-up Policy of China encouraged border trade to boost its domestic economy. Since then, jewelry markets have been established in Ruili City and later in Mangshi City and Yingjiang County following the fast development of the trade. Since the 2000s, online jewelry trade has gained in popularity and significance in the jewelry trade of these three cities, and conventional markets suffer from decreasing trade volume as local economy is struggling. This new way of doing business brings both opportunities and challenges to the Myanmar jewellers. On the one hand, online trade allows them the reach more buyers beyond the conventional markets, on the other, the lack of language proficiency in Chinese and social networks put them at a disadvantage when competing with the Chinese jewellers. By using the theory of spatial scale advocated by Neil Brenner (2004) and the hypothesis of the linkage between migrants and city regeneration that is proposed by Nina Glick Schiller (2011), this paper intends to demonstrate not only the ways of adaptation and integration of Myanmar jewellers in Dehong Prefecture, but also the changing role and significance of Myanmar jewellers in the jewelry trade, as one of the economic pillars, of the prefecture.
This panel highlights the dynamism of transnational migration and its impacts in Southeast Asia and the wider Asian region in two domains. The first one is Southeast Asian migrants’ construction of social spaces in the physical and online worlds. The second area is the responses of cultural institutions and art sphere to transnational migration.
As to the first area of focus, the panel explores the everyday practices of migrants from Southeast Asia in creating and negotiating social spaces in urban settings such as in malls, parks, religious areas, etc. Increasingly the social space of migration is no longer confined within the spatial domain of the territorial world. Scholars in the fields of sociology of network society and social media reiterate the power of information technology that creates ubiquitous unbound-territorial networks transcending locality at multiple scales (Graham and Simon, 2000; Castells 2006, 2013). The social fields of migrants’ transnational life simultaneously operate in the online and offline worlds. How can we better understand migrants’ constructions of social spaces in the online world in relation to the physical world?
In the offline world of Southeast Asia and the broader Asian region, cultural institutions and art sphere have increasingly responded to the conditions of ‘super-diversity' and high mobility. Museums and art exhibitions have become a contested space of interpreting everyday multiculturalism and transnational migration. This second focal point of the panel touches upon the scope of transnational mobility in the world of representation, global service economy and social inclusion.