Time in migration: temporariness, precarity and temporal labour amongst Chinese scholars returning from the Global North to South

Wang, Bingyu

doi:10.1080/1369183x.2019.1642741

Cited by 33 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Yet, as shown by the case of the Houniao in this research, privilege and precarity simultaneously run through the process of lifestyle migration (see also Benson & O'Reilly, 2016; Botterill, 2017). Critically, we argue that lifestyle migrants or other seemingly highly skilled mobile subjects in general may be perceived as a more elite form of precariats (see also Wang, 2019a, 2019b; Wang & Collins, 2020). The search for a good life through (lifestyle) migration is not a straightforward process but demands constant agentive navigations through a set of expected and unexpected risks, uncertainties, and precarities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“Unattended” retirement: Lifestyle migration and precarity of the Houniao

Chen

Wang

2020

Population Space and Place

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This paper unpacks the precarity of lifestyle migrants through the study of the Houniao ("snowbirds"), mostly retirees leading seasonal travel between north and south China. Focusing on the Houniao in Sanya, it explores the production and negotiation of their precarity at multiple scales. Firstly, it investigates how they encounter "precarious privilege" in Sanya's changing urban space and respond to government control and rising living expenses. Secondly, it examines their vulnerability intensified by health decline and constraints of place-based care networks and their agency to rebuild local supporting systems. Thirdly, it explores their contested relationships with Sanya and the sense of marginality and how they develop Houniao-based social networks. This paper highlights the significance of space/place and human agency in understanding the dynamic process in which precarity is generated and negotiated. Additionally, it provides a wider perspective on the complexity of precarity in lifestyle migration by focusing on the China context.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“Unattended” retirement: Lifestyle migration and precarity of the Houniao

Chen

Wang

2020

Population Space and Place

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“…In this regard, our article makes the following important contributions. First, it contributes to addressing the overwhelmingly spatial emphasis of migration studies whereby the temporal narratives have been rendered either a static category or neglected as a subject of debate (Griffiths et al, 2013; Wang, 2019a, 2019b). Our claim is that migration is an uneven and temporally contingent process in which mobility trajectories are multidirectional and constantly reconfigured (Robertson, 2014b).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, migration aspirations relate to public temporal norms about appropriate life course progression and the appropriate timing of migration (Collins and Shubin, 2015). Yet, the temporalities of migration are also marked with uncertainty and hindered by changing circumstances and shifting abilities, meaning that migrants are prompted to continuously re-imagine futures and adjust mobility trajectories (Wang, 2019a, 2019b). We emphasise the importance of addressing these disruptions in expected lifetimes as key functions of the emergence and articulation of aspirations towards present and onward migrations.…”

Section: Aspirations and Time In Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporally Distributed Aspirations: New Chinese Migrants to New Zealand and the Figuring of Migration Futures

Wang

Collins

2020

Sociology

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This article contributes to the literature on migration aspirations by examining their temporal dimensions and capacity to shape and be reshaped through migration. Drawing on qualitative research with Chinese migrants in New Zealand, we unpack the shifting character of aspirations to migrate in relation to three dimensions: everyday times; individual lifetimes; and institutional times. Utilising this temporally sensitive theoretical approach, the article shows that migration aspirations do not occur at one time – before migration – or across one duration – but rather articulate with multiple temporalities ranging from the intensity or slowness of everyday life, through appropriate progression through life courses, to the broader vistas of institutional and geo-historical time. Migration aspirations are hence necessarily temporally distributed rather than located in a singular chronological instance, or only in relation to a linear arrangement of past–present–future, and as a result, we argue for greater attention on the generation and reconfiguration of aspirations across time.

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“…(2017, 2019), which compiled diverse studies on the two-way migration processes between Asia and Europe, are a notable exception. Some other studies have probed TM of specific migrant categories in the Asia-Europe migration system: European expatriates in China (Cai and Su, 2020), mobile academics returning to China (Wang, 2020), international students moving from Asia to Europe (Aksakal et al., 2019) and from Europe to Asia (Baas, 2019), or Thai berry-pickers working seasonally in Sweden and Finland (Niyomsilpa et al., 2017), have been scrutinized. Despite these efforts to understand the reasons for and the outcomes of TM, the question remains: what exactly is temporary migration ?…”

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confidence: 99%