Transnational Migration to/from China : The Role of Digital Platforms, Publics, and Policies
Category: Publication
Digital technologies have assumed a multifaceted role in transnational migration, especially for people who migrate to/from a highly platformized society such as China. More than 50 million people of Chinese origin are estimated to live outside China, especially in Southeast Asia, Oceania, and North America, although emigration to other parts of Asia, as well as Africa and Latin America, has also picked up. While the majority identify as Han Chinese, many ethnic minority Chinese also migrate around the world. At the same time, China hosts nearly 1.5 million immigrants. The country’s digital ecosystem creates unique opportunities and challenges for both groups. Researchers have examined the Chinese diaspora’s homeland and ethnic media use from the perspective of identity construction and political intervention. Others have looked at how Chinese emigrants employ homeland platforms, such as WeChat and Sina Weibo, as a migration infrastructure and ethno-transnational media, and how they serve as tools for digitized diasporic governance. Some scholars have also investigated the use of local and global platforms by immigrants arriving in China. Even as Chinese migrants experience racism online, Chinese platforms are not immune to exclusivist narratives targeting immigrants, either. Digital nationalism and populist discourses are important contexts in which immigrants and emigrants are represented by Chinese social media. This special issue of the Chinese Journal of Communication aims to expand our understanding of transnational migration in the digital age, especially as it relates to platforms, publics, and policies. It explores how digital platforms (Chinese and non-Chinese), their sociotechnical affordances, and the discourses they produce (or censor) bear upon transnational migration between China and various parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, Oceania, Africa, and Latin America, as well as North America, Europe and the rest of Asia. We are particularly interested in submissions that draw attention to the implications of digital technologies for migrant communities and the relations of power they (re)produce, user practices that work with or around digital affordances to achieve individual or collective goals, and national or supranational laws and regulations that shape digital industries and ecosystems and their impact on transnational migration.We invite contributions that address questions such as, but not limited to, the following: • What are the ways in which transnational migrants to/from China—or particular ethnicity-, religion-, income-, gender-, or sexuality-based groups within migrant communities—use digital technologies? • How do the sociotechnical affordances of digital devices and platforms, from interface design to algorithmic features such as filter bubbles, shape their use by transnational migrants to/from China? • How do transnational migrants to/from China deal with technological, financial, and/or linguistic barriers to communication through digital devices and platforms? • How do the business models of digital industries bear upon transnational migrant experiences to/from China? Who are its key stakeholders and intermediaries? • How does the attention economy of digital platforms influence transnational migrant experiences to/from China? How do these migrants negotiate their (in)visibility in this attention economy? • What are the discourses about transnational migration to/from China emerging in digital spaces? What are the ideological underpinnings of such discourses, and how do they impact domestic or international politics? • What are the emerging national/supranational laws and policies vis-à-vis digital platforms, and how do they impact transnational migration to/from China or migrant experiences? Who are their key stakeholders and intermediaries? • How will emerging trends in digital society, from augmented reality to the increasing use of artificial intelligence, impact transnational migration to/from China?
Initiator(s):
Chinese Journal of Communication (CJC)
Deadline: 31.07.2025
Publication-Type: Article / Journal
https://saifshahin.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/cjc-si-cfp-shahin-hou-dutta.pdf
Post created by: Lymor Wolf Goldstein