Continuity and Disjuncture
The Translocal-Transnational Experiences of Chinese Skilled Trade Workers in Western Australia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12424313 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Q Gong (0000-0003-4736-180X, corresponding author), Huan Wu (0000-0003-4190-5394) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 847-872 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | positions asia critique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1067-9847 • E-ISSN: 1527-8271 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/10679847-11306820 |
| OpenAlex | W4401410794 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 34 |
Research on transnational migration from China since the 1990s has focused on stories about highly educated, skilled migrants. Little research has been done about the transnational migration of skilled trade workers who moved from China to Western countries. This article endeavors to analyze the experiences of this cohort through a case study of skilled trade workers who migrated to the state of Western Australia (WA) from China in the early 2000s. The life trajectories of these workers saw them migrate from villages to cities in China and then from Chinese cities to WA. By conducting semistructured in-depth interviews with eleven skilled trade workers, this study has found that trade workers’ translocal and transnational experiences should be viewed as a continuous process with both consistencies and discontinuities between the two scales of mobility. International migration strengthens the economic capital of these workers in their new context. Although the sense of social status disparity in internal migration is reduced, the language barrier becomes more salient. The workers have developed a dependence on bonding social capital by using social media to maintain their social networks in their host and home countries. These migration narratives demonstrate new modes of transnational mobility emerging from China’s rise on the global stage and the fluidity and mutability of class identities and personal capital in transnational migration
Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Labour economics · Migrant workers · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
Transnationalism
Subaltern China
Contesting Citizenship in Urban China
Community Organizing
Distinction
Bowling Alone
The Role of Social Capital in Labour-Related Migrations
“My life is elsewhere”
An Overview of Rural to Urban Migration in China and Social Challenges
Introduction to special issue
Mobile self-fashioning and gendered risk
The Labour Politics of China’s Rural Migrant Workers
Suzhi on the Move
Can One Say No to Chineseness? Pushing the Limits of the Diasporic Paradigm
Uneven distribution of resources in the youth linguascapes of Mongolia
Theorizing Cross-Cultural Migrations
Lobbying to Stay
Continuity and Change in the Everyday Lives of Chinese Migrant Factory Workers
Should I use my ‘weak’ social capital or ‘strong’ guanxi ? Reviewing and critiquing two theories in the context of Western-Chinese migration
An invitation to reflexive sociology
Job search methods and immigrant earnings
Seeking Residency from the Courts
Becoming a Rooted Cosmopolitan? The Case Study of 1.5 Generation New Chinese Migrants in New Zealand
Migrant Transnationality and Its Evolving Nature
Unfinished Proletarianization
The New Mobilities Paradigm
Migrant Labor in China
Long Distance Community in the Network Society
Revisiting the "Transnational" in Migration Studies
The Strength of Weak Ties
Neoliberal Governmentality and Neohumanism
Transnational spaces of class
Conceiving and researching transnationalism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |