CMS International Research Conference 2024: Belonging and Mobility in a Transnational World

Nina Glick Schiller is Emeritus Professor, University of Manchester, UK and University of New Hampshire, USA, founding editor of Identities and co-editor of Anthropological Theory. Her research topics include urbanism, urban regeneration, transnational migration, migration services, migration and development, critiques of methodological nationalism and the ethnic lens, racialization and power, dispossession and displacement, cosmopolitan sociability, and the construction of risk. She has conducted research in Haiti, the USA, the UK, and Germany.

Her books include Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments and the Deterritorialized Nation-States, Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Reconsidered,  Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home, Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Research Methodologies for Cross-Border Studies, Cosmopolitan Sociability: Locating Transnational Religious and Diasporic Networks, Whose Cosmopolitanism? Critical Perspectives, Relationalities and Discontent, Regimes of Mobility: Imaginaries and Relationalities of Power, Locating Migration: Rescaling Cities and Migrants; and Migrants and City Making: Dispossession, Displacement and Urban Regeneration.

Many of the central concepts in migration scholarship and policy formation – integration, assimilation, ethnic communities- multiculturalism, pluralism, transnationalism – have focused on contexts that allowed people to enter a nation-state in which they were not born, settle, and obtain full rights and protection from their new state. However, the intense anti-migration politics of the present day are producing the end of migration as we know it and the emergence of migration regimes of rightless labour and permanent transience. Most migrants, whether they are classified as contract workers or asylum seekers, do lawful or off-the-books low-wage labour and become the object of labour extraction. In Brenda Yeoh’s terms, these migrants exist in states of “permanent temporariness.” Similarly, Robin Cohen speaks of the global emergence of a class of helots – beings without rights, including a right to be considered part of humanity. These migrants, although they are vital to the well-being of global corporations and the citizens of nation-states, are never able to settle permanently; their mobility, even outside of their workplace, is increasingly curtailed. In response to this transformation, Michiel Bass and I have called on migration scholars and activists to study and halt the processes of dehumanization through which rights to move, settle and obtain citizenship are being eliminated. We have proposed four foundational prepositions to speak to the transformation of migration regimes: (1) Current migration scholarship is mired in theories about migration that reflect past regimes, infrastructures and legalities; (2) Current migration regimes are eliminating the right to settle; (3) The end of migration as we know it goes hand in hand with the growth of a migration industry that facilitates “mobility” across borders for a profit; (4) Hope can be found in social movements that support migrants’ rights to settlement and transnationality.

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM – Light breakfast refreshments

9:00 AM - 9:30 AM – xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Welcome by Elder Mary Point & Welcome remarks from CMS and HKBU Faculty of Social Sciences

9:30 AM - 11:00 AM – Keynote by Prof. Nina Glick Schiller

11:00 AM - 11:15 AM – Break

11:15 AM - 12:45 PM – Panel 1: The Impact of Migration Policies on Migrant Experiences

Discussant: Sean Lauer, Sociology, University of British Columbia

Chair: Daniel W.L. Lai, Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University

Speakers:

• María Cervantes, Geography, University of British Columbia

• Neda Maghbouleh, Sociology, University of British Columbia

• Sonja van der Putten, Educational Theory and Practice, Simon Fraser University

• Kevin Lo, Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University

12:45 PM - 2:00 PM – Lunch

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM – Panel 2: Intergroup Relations in Contexts of Immigration

Discussant: Antje Ellermann, Political Science, University of British Columbia

Chair: Daniel W.L Lai, Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University

Speakers:

• Ania Switzer, Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia

• Hwajin Shin, Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University

• Dorothee Leesing, Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice, University of British Columbia

• Leonora Angeles, Gender, Community and International Development Planning, University of British Columbia

3:30 PM - 3:45 PM – Break

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM – Roundtable: Perspectives on Academic Publishing

Moderator: Lisa Brunner, Political Science, University of British Columbia

Speakers:

• Rima Wilkes, Sociology, University of British Columbia

• Kaxton Siu, Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University

• Nina Glick Schiller, Anthropology, University of Manchester (UK) and University of New Hampshire (USA)

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM – Dinner at The Rooftop Garden, UBC Nest Building (for conference panelists)

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM – Light breakfast refreshments

9:00 AM - 9:15 AM – Welcome remarks

9:15 AM - 10:45 AM – Panel 3: Exploring the Nexus of Work and Belonging among Immigrant Workers

Discussant: Nancy Clark, Human and Social Development, University of Victoria

Chair: Sofia Noori, Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia

Speakers:

• Sandra Schinnerl, Political Science, University of British Columbia

• Hongxia Shan, Educational Studies, University of British Columbia

• Charlotte Yang, Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University

• Angel Bella, Geography, University of British Columbia

10:45 AM - 11:00 AM – Break

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM – Panel 4: Borders and Bordering Practices

Discussant: Alexia Bloch, Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Chair: Elif Sari, Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Speakers:

• Abu Fakhri, Sociology, Simon Fraser University

• Jessica Templeman, Law, University of British Columbia

• Molly Joeck, Law, University of British Columbia (cancelled)

• Anita Koo, Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM – Lunch

1:30 PM - 3:15 PM – Panel 5: Global Diasporas and Social Identities

Discussant: Kaxton Siu, Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University

Chair: Biz Nijdam, Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia

Speakers:

• Quinton Huang, History, University of British Columbia

• Tori Shucheng Yang, Sociology, University of British Columbia

• Anne Cécile Delaisse, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of British Columbia

• Lucetta Kam, Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist University

• Pu Hao, Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University

3:15 PM - 3:30 PM – Closing remarks from CMS and HKBU Faculty of Social Sciences

• María Cervantes

María Cervantes is a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia, Geography Department and a 2022-2023 Fox Fellow at Yale University. She has a degree in International Relations from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico and a Master of Arts in Geography from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her dissertation focuses on the ways in which immigration policies and education impact the choices of highly skilled migrants throughout their lives, shaping their understandings of citizenship and identity. This project contributes to the study of class and educational achievements in immigration and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the future of work.

• Neda Maghbouleh

Neda Maghbouleh is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research on Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) communities in North America has been discussed in popular venues like NPR, The New Yorker, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and NPR’s Code Switch podcast. She holds an elected position in the Canadian Sociological Association as Chair of the Research Advisory Subcommittee. She is also Member-at-Large on the elected Council of the American Sociological Association and served on the program committees for its 2022 and 2023 Annual Meetings. She is an editorial board member of American Behavioral Scientist and Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies and is appointed to the Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination.

• Sonja van der Putten

Sonja van der Putten is a PhD in Educational Theory and Practice at Simon Fraser University. Their research delves into the systemic barriers encountered by young adult women from refugee backgrounds in British Columbia. It examines the educational and career aspirations of these women, scrutinizing the challenges they confront within prevailing educational and workplace policies and practices that may hinder their pursuit of these objectives. Additionally, their research investigates the influence of gender on the journey toward these aspirations.

• Kevin Lo

Dr. Lo is an Associate Professor of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Acting Director of the David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies, an international hub in social science and humanities research, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Energy Studies, an international peer-reviewed journal dedicated to interdisciplinary research on all aspects of energy studies in Asia. Focusing on the human geography perspectives on climate change, Dr. Lo works at the intersection of environmental governance, political ecology, and social justice. He has won multiple major competitive grants from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, including the Early Career Scheme (ECS) and the General Research Fund (GRF), and has published in many leading journals, including Global Environmental Change, Political Geography, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Energy Policy, Energy for Sustainable Development, Environmental Science & Policy, Cities, Habitat International, and  Journal of Rural Studies.

• Ania Switzer

Ania Switzer is a Sessional Lecturer at the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia. She graduated from Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland) and the University of London (UK). She is a past Chevening Scholar and a recipient of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award. Her areas of specialisation include nationalism, production of knowledge and memory, and political change in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Holocaust studies. Currently, her research explores the intersections of women’s rights and social mobilisation in the context of war in Ukraine.

• Hwajin Shin

Hwajin Shin is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong prior to joining HKBU. Her research interests include social networks, migration, race and ethnicity, family, gender and work, and research methods. She primarily examines network disadvantages experienced by immigrants, refugees, and women in corporate organizations. Her recent research maps the network organization of the North Korean refugee community in London. Using various social network analysis techniques, the research underscores the significance of within-group relationships for vulnerable and marginalized migrant groups. Her current and ongoing research continues to employ social network methods to disentangle how the structural organization of relationships shapes individual migrants’ and their family members’ life chances. Her research has been published in journals including Social Networks, Sociological Perspectives, and Journal of Refugee Studies."

• Dorothee Leesing

Dorothee Leesing is a researcher who specializes in media representation, urban development, and education. Her doctoral thesis on urban densification’s media portrayal, particularly high-rise buildings, uncovers societal implications. She has published on digital media, gaming, and gamified learning, alongside hosting a podcast on classical music and intersectionality. Actively engaged in teaching, educational technologies and digital humanities, Dorothee Leesing is a member of DiGRA as well as the CfM. Her interdisciplinary expertise fosters a critical inquiry and inclusive approaches to media and education. She is an Educational Technology Manager at the Faculty of Medicine, as well as a Sessional Lecturer for the Master of Educational Technologies and GRSJ on courses focused on Gaming and Society.

• Leonora Angeles

Dr. Leonora (Nora) C. Angeles is an Associate Professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning and the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. She is also a faculty research associate at the UBC Centre for Human Settlements, where she has been involved in a number of applied research and capacity-building research projects in Brazil, Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries. Leonora works in the area of community and international development, including immigrant integration, linked to transnational migration and feminist issues. Her most recent research is on alternative transnational economies involving Filipino-Canadian diasporic communities and how neoliberalism is shaping the social integration of immigrants in Metro Vancouver.

• Rima Wilkes

Rima Wilkes is Professor of Sociology and Chair of Graduate Studies in Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research considers the relationship between politics and racial and ethnic inequality. She has written on the integration of racial minorities and immigrants in advanced industrial democracies; some of her current research focuses on the causes and consequences of political and social trust. She is interested in the media coverage of immigration and issues of national and geographic border security.

She is the author of Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being (2022) and has been an editor for Social Forces since 2017. She is also a former Editorial Board Member for Social Science Research, the Canadian Review of Sociology, Social Sciences and a former Contributing Editor for Mobilizing Ideas.

• Kaxton Siu

Kaxton Siu is an Associate Professor of Sociology at The Hong Kong Baptist University. He researches comparative labour studies, migration studies, urban sociology, and youth studies. He also specializes in Chinese society, Hong Kong society, Vietnamese society, Japanese society, and Cambodian society.

He has published two books: Chinese Migrant Workers and Employer Domination: Comparisons with Hong Kong and Vietnam in 2020, and Hong Kong Society: High-Definition Stories beyond the Spectacle of East-Meets-West in 2022. His current research include: Chinese investors in Vietnam and Cambodia and their impact on industrial relations systems and labour standards, and Chinese and Vietnamese industrial trainees in Japan.

• Nina Glick Schiller

Nina Glick Schiller is Emeritus Professor, University of Manchester, UK and University of New Hampshire, USA, founding editor of Identities and co-editor of Anthropological Theory. Her research topics include urbanism, urban regeneration, transnational migration, migration services, migration and development, critiques of methodological nationalism and the ethnic lens, racialization and power, dispossession and displacement, cosmopolitan sociability, and the construction of risk. She has conducted research in Haiti, the USA, the UK, and Germany.

Her books include Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments and the Deterritorialized Nation-States, Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Reconsidered,  Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home, Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Research Methodologies for Cross-Border Studies, Cosmopolitan Sociability: Locating Transnational Religious and Diasporic Networks, Whose Cosmopolitanism? Critical Perspectives, Relationalities and Discontent, Regimes of Mobility: Imaginaries and Relationalities of Power, Locating Migration: Rescaling Cities and Migrants; and Migrants and City Making: Dispossession, Displacement and Urban Regeneration.

• Sandra Schinnerl

Sandra Schinnel is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the intersections of education and immigration policy, particularly examining the migration pathways of economic migrants, including international students. Her work contributes to understanding how bureaucracies in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom navigate policymaking amidst growing anti-immigrant populism. She has been an international education practitioner for more than 25 years having roles that included Director of the Office of International Students and Scholars at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Director of International Programs at UBC. Sandra has served on the board of the Canadian Bureau of International Education and as a former Chair of the Conference Committee for NAFSA.

• Hongxia Shan

Hongxia Shan is an Associate Professor of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is interested in the changing work and learning practices in the context of immigration, globalization, and transnationalism. She has conducted research and published in the areas of work and learning, knowledge “transfer” and translation, lifelong learning, organizational learning, diversity work, and migration, integration, and transnationalism. For her research, she has utilized community-based participatory research, institutional ethnography, life history research, situational analysis, critical discourse analysis, and mixed methods. Dr. Shan is a former president (2020-2021) of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education.

• Charlotte Yang

Professor Chun (Charlotte) YANG is Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Social Sciences and Interim Head of the Geography Department at Hong Kong Baptist University. She is among top 2% of most cited World Scientist by Stanford University. Her main research interests fall in urban and regional development, global/cross-border production networks, transnational corporations, the geographies of innovation and technology, digital platforms, industrial restructuring, and local clusters, with geographical focuses on China, particularly the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Southeast Asia. Professor Yang has secured a number of competitive research grants from diverse funding sources, such as the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (HKRGC), National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Hong Kong/Germany Joint Grant funded by HKRGC and DAAD, Asian Development Bank, etc. She is currently leading two HKRGC-funded GRF projects regarding digital platform-driven reconfiguration of smart production networks in China’s Greater Bay Area, and makerspace innovation in the digital transformation in Shenzhen, a NSFC-funded project on the cross-border fresh fruit production and trade networks of Chinese firms in ASEAN under the Belt and Road initiatives, and a consultancy research on Hong Kong’s first chronicle, i.e. Hong Kong Chronicle ― Urban Transport Volume, funded by the Our Hong Kong Foundation, which will be published in 2024.

Professor Yang is serving as Editor of Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Associate Editor of Bandung: A Journal of Global South, and Editorial/Advisory Board members of top-ranking international journals, such as Applied Geography, Journal of Economic Geography, Environment and Planning A, Progress in Economic Geography, and Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society.

• Angel Bella

Angel Bella is a Pilipino-Canadian scholar pursuing an MA in Geography at UBC. They explore the intersections between migrant justice, environmental justice, and the arts as a tool for activism. Their current research focuses on Pilipino migrant domestic workers in Canada, and the relationship between their ability to exercise traditional food knowledge and empowerment/wellbeing. As a multimedia artist, their work consists of personal reflections on transient identities, migrant imaginaries facilitated by waterscapes, and anything that feels vibrant at the time.

• Abu Fakhri

Baran (Abu) Fakhri is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Simon Fraser University. In their ongoing doctoral research, they work with undocumented Afghan migrants (of the Hazara community) in Turkey. Through ethnography, they follow these Afghans in their migration journey from Afghanistan to Iran, Turkey, and Europe exploring their narratives of displacement, mobility, and ‘illegality.’ Their research areas are ‘irregular’ migration and labour, borders and ‘illegality,’ with a focus on memory, refugee (political) subjectivity, and forced migration temporalities.

• Jessica Templeman

Jessica Templeman is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. Their research broadly examines the interconnected processes within the immigration and criminal systems that lead to the exclusion and expulsion of migrants from Canada. During their doctoral studies, they investigated how awareness of criminal inadmissibility influenced decision-making regarding migrant sentencing. Their findings exposed how Canada's immigration and criminal systems collaborate to reinforce the criminalization and deportation of racialized migrants in particular. In their postdoctoral work, they are currently exploring the diverse forms of knowledge, resources, and stakeholders that shape decision-making regarding criminal inadmissibility within the immigration system.

• Molly Joeck

Molly Joeck is a PhD Candidate at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, and Counsel at Edelman & Co Law Offices in Vancouver. She is conducting research for her dissertation on the detention of migrant women in Canada, with a focus on the intersection of risk and gender in the immigration detention context. Alongside her dissertation, she is concurrently engaged in several research projects. One explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigration detention in Canada, and a second project delves into the intersection of indigenous rights and bordering within the North American context.

• Anita Koo

Anita Koo is a Professor of Sociology at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interest revolves around the impacts of structural inequalities on educational opportunities, youth development, and chances of social mobility among individuals from different classes and gender. She had received a number of research grants for projects on educational experiences, gendering process, life chances and the school-to-work transitions among those who study in vocational/professional programs in the expanded higher education systems in Hong Kong and mainland China. Her current research focuses on the transitional and migration experiences, aspiration and identity formation among the increasing number of Asian young adults who involve in the regional and international education migration. Her publications appeared in Sociology, Journal of Education Policy, Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Chinese Sociological Review, Journal of Youth Studies, etc.

• Quinton Huang

Quinton Huang is an MA Student in History at the University of British Columbia. He is also an Institute of Asian Research Fellow at the Centre for Southeast Asian Research, a Graduate Fellow at the Centre for Migration Studies, and a student associate of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative. He studied History and East Asian Studies for his undergraduate degree, with a focus on Hong Kong social history, Asian port cities, and East and Southeast Asian borderlands. His previous work experience includes teaching English as a Princeton-in-Asia fellow at Can Tho University (Vietnam), working on advancement at Fulbright University Vietnam, and researching transnational civil society and local diplomacies as a Junior Research Scholar at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He is a board member of Strait Talk, a transnational youth civil society movement that organizes week-long conflict resolution symposia between young professionals from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and North America on the Taiwan Strait conflict.

• Tori Shucheng Yang

Tori Shucheng Yang is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include transnational migration, gender and sexuality, and social theory. Her dissertation explores the intersectional identities and migration trajectories of Chinese LGBTQ+ migrants in the United States and Canada. Prior to joining UBC, Tori had an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a BA in History and Economics from the University of Virginia. Anne-Cécile Delaisse Anne-Cécile Delaisse is a PhD Candidate in Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on individuals' occupations, particularly within the context of migration. Currently, her PhD dissertation project entails a cross-national comparative ethnography examining the mobilities, daily activities, and sense of belonging among recent Vietnamese migrants in Vancouver and Paris. She is particularly intrigued by the phenomenon of highly skilled migrants returning to Vietnam. Her theoretical framework draws upon transnational approaches, the mobilities paradigm, and transculturality.

• Lucetta Kam

Lucetta Y. L. Kam is an Associate Professor of Humanities and Creative Writing at Hong Kong Baptist University. She is the author of Shanghai Lalas: Female Tongzhi Communities and Politics in Urban China (HKU Press, 2013; Chinese edition 2015). Her publications on gender and sexuality in China, queer studies of Hong Kong, queer migration of Chinese women, and Sinophone queer female fandom in East Asia are included in various journals and edited books. Her current projects are the transnational mobility of queer women from China and Hong Kong and queer Asian popular culture.

• Pu Hao

Dr. Pu Hao is an Associate Professor of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests span urban socio-spatial dynamics, urban economic geography, and migration and mobility. His current research projects investigate rural-urban migration and labour dynamics within China's burgeoning platform-based gig economy. Through extensive fieldwork in major cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Nanjing, as well as in diverse rural areas throughout the country, he aims to understand how China’s rural population responds to emerging economic opportunities and entrenched institutional barriers, particularly in regard to their decisions about migration, housing, and employment. His recent studies have revealed that a complex interplay of cultural norms, gender, education levels, occupational types, and rural land ownership jointly functions as a filter, directing rural residents into various localities and social strata. He has also discovered that certain factors, deeply rooted in their rural background, significantly influence their degree of mobility. This includes their decisions to stay put, move within rural areas, migrate to urban centers, or undertake both short- and long-distance relocations. Among the least mobile in the rural population, several significant obstacles are at play: insufficient access to quality education, an over-reliance on agriculture, the inability to transfer rural land ownership, and difficulties in accessing public healthcare and social security services outside their hometowns. These disadvantages perpetuate a cycle of immobility and enduring poverty. Consequently, the potential opportunities and benefits that larger cities and coastal regions offer continue to be elusive for them. Dr. Hao's insights have been disseminated through publications in several international journals, including 'Environment and Planning A', 'Population, Space and Place', 'Cities', and 'Journal of Rural Studies'.