Event

Speaker: Calvin Chen, Mt. Holyoke College. 

Title: Migration, Production Networks, and Identity Politics in Europe: Chinese Immigrant Communities in Italy and Spain.

Abstract: 

Transnational migration has profoundly altered the make-up of our globalizing world.  On the one hand, new immigrants have revitalized local economies and increased the diversity of host societies; on the other hand, their presence has often precipitated ethnic and social friction and challenged previous understandings of equality and citizenship.  Although the Chinese community in Southern Europe only began to grow significantly in the 1990s, their quick rise has heightened fears that immigrants are not only capturing a disproportionate share of national wealth, but more importantly, creating new divisions that will inevitably tear society apart.  These dynamics are at the heart of the Chinese immigrant experience in Italy and Spain.  

This paper tackles issues of identity, allegiance, and inclusion and the ways in which they have been defined and recast in relation to the Chinese community in contemporary Italy and Spain.  Drawing on interviews conducted with 74 respondents (primarily Chinese immigrants) in Italy from 2007-2010 and 80 in Spain from 2008 and 2011, this paper seeks to synthesize the micro-level, lived experiences of immigrants with the insights drawn from diaspora and globalization studies.  Contrary to some academic assessments, I argue that the divisions between the Chinese, Italians, and Spanish, while sizable and problematic, are eroding much more quickly than is commonly assumed.  The elongation and expansion of social and production networks from the Pacific to the Mediterranean have forced Chinese and Europeans alike to reassess not only who is, but who can be Italian or Spanish.  Indeed, this process of re-evaluation may potentially lead to increased social inclusion at the micro-level and more far-sighted policies at such macro-level institutions as the European Union.

Lunch will be served.