Abstract
China has a long history of international migration and international exploration. From Admiral Zhen He’s advanced fleet’s travel to East Africa during the Ming dynasty in the fifteenth century to a large volume of emigration to Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century, emigration and its cultural and economic exchanges have for centuries been important parts of Chinese history. However, emigration slowed substantially during the period of 1949–1979, when a very restrictive emigration policy was put in place under the Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Since the early 1980s, emigration from China has risen significantly and in recent years the pattern has been diversified in terms of characteristics of migrants and destination choices. Seeing Transnationally, by Li Minghuan (last name is Li), represents a major scholarly effort to understand emigration from China in the post-1980 era. Before her retirement, Li was a professor at Xiamen University in China. Trained in Europe, Li is one of the leading scholars of immigration studies in China. This book is a collection of Li’s fifteen papers previously published in English.
As a migration scholar, Li sets herself apart in one crucial dimension. Most students of migration study migration for one group, such as Mexican migration to the United States or Chinese immigrants in the United States or Canada. In this regard, Li has surpassed many other migration scholars by studying two major migration streams: migrants originating in Fujian province andZhejiang province in coastal China with multiple destinations (several countries in Europe [i.e., the Netherlands, Italy, and France], Canada, Israel, and Indonesia). This is quite an impressive record, given Li entered the migration field in the late 1980s. It is also refreshing to learn more about immigration studies beyond the United States.
The book has three sections. The six chapters of Section I all focus on migrant origins. Some topics Li deals with are more familiar to us than others; for example, the story of migration from Wenzhou (Zhejiang province) to France is familiar to migration scholars. Both Fujian and Zhejiang provinces have a long history of sending migrants abroad. The case of emigration from Mingxi of Fujian province to Europe deserves attention for two reasons. One is Li’s efforts to identify the so-called seed migrant, the first person who initiated the migration from Mingxi to Europe. As it turns out, the seed migrant in this case is someone who is originally from a nearby Zhejiang province. It suggests a possible diffusion effect of migration not only from village to village in a migrant-sending region, but also from one province to a nearby province.
The Mingxi case also draws our attention because of its theoretical importance: it involves the role of the local government in the migration process. In fact, the local village government has been promoting emigration as a strategy to bring economic prosperity. Thus we see that the local government printed copies of foreign-language manuals/handbooks to train prospective emigrants prior to their departure.
Likewise, the case of immigrants from Fujian to Israel shows another interesting pattern. Fujian province is perhaps the most important migrant-sending province in China today. Most emigrants from Fujian choose to come to the United States and dominate the U.S. Chinese restaurant business today. Li’s analysis of immigration from Fujian to Israel gives us another angle from which to examine emigration from Fujian. In 2002, it took many by surprise that six Chinese migrants were among the victims who died in a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem. These Chinese migrants were all from Fujian province. Li used this incident as a starting point to study this new trend of emigration from Fujian to Israel.
The initiation of Fujianese immigration to Israel took place under a different kind of political context than that of migrants to the United States. Li argues that the long-term conflict with Palestinians led to Israel’s decision to close Gaza and the West Bank in 1993, which cut off the supply of Palestinian workers for the construction industry. Chinese workers came to address this shortage. Another unique characteristic of this flow of Fujianese immigrants is the role of the state: the Fujianese workers were first recruited by some Chinese, state-owned companies to work in construction jobs in Israel. Today we see similar patterns of migration for Chinese workers in Africa.
Section II shifts to destination countries: the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, and Indonesia. Here perhaps the most important message is the topic of immigrant organizations, some led by Chinese students and scholars and, for the most part, long-term Chinese immigrants in these countries. The most important chapter is on Chinese volunteer associations in Europe. Li’s table lists 40 major Chinese volunteer associations located in European cities like Paris, London, Hamburg, Madrid, Geneva, Stockholm, and Budapest. Li highlights some of the key roles of these associations, with perhaps the most important one being extending the economic networks of Chinese migrants. Given China’s recent rise in the global economy, an important agenda for these associations is to maintain and build connections with Chinese institutions. We need to hear more about how these associations engage in transnational economic, political, or religious activities. I did not find as much discussion of this topic as I was looking for.
The last section deals with historical migration from China (mainly Fujian province) to Indonesia in the nineteenth century. The most innovative methodology here is the use of archival data (now available at Leiden University in the Netherlands) to study Chinese migration history. Li creatively used funeral registers and registers of burial-plot purchases to study social stratification in the Chinese immigrant community in Indonesia. In countries where there is no systematic historical census data on income and occupations, Li’s study gives us a viable alternative.
Given the many countries of destination Li has studied, she seems to have missed an opportunity to pursue a more ambitious and comparative approach to studying Chinese immigration. For example, do we observe similar patterns when Fujianese immigrants went to Italy vs. Israel? Li has ideal materials to complete this research agenda. Moreover, given the book title’s focus on transnationalism, do we observe similar transnational practices for immigrants in different destination countries?
Overall, the book reflects Li’s many years of fieldwork and systematic research on Chinese immigrants in many parts of the world. Her approach of looking at both migrant origin and destination, though it can be challenging to implement, is becoming an approach many students of migration are using today. Li is not an ivory-tower scholar who studies migration in her office, but a scholar who travels to find her study subjects on site. Clearly, Li’s book makes a major contribution to our understanding of emigration from China to other countries, both theoretically and methodologically, and should be read by any scholar of Chinese immigration.