Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Yi’En Cheng, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This presentation examines the expatriation regime and the lived experience of Chinese managers, professionals, and contract workers in Africa. Moving beyond taking contemporary Chinese migration to Africa as merely a state project or personal activity, it explores the forces at state, corporate and societal levels to produce and sustain expatriation. I argue that expatriation fulfils multiple objectives of (1) addressing new state-led development priorities of job creation and poverty reduction; (2) facilitating the global ventures of Chinese companies with accessible, manageable, and productive labor power; and (3) creating opportunities for different social groups of Chinese to pursue career or life goals. Empirical research with Chinese working in telecommunications, construction, and manufacturing companies in Ethiopia highlights three contrasting pairs of features of the expatriate life: emplacement and displacement, interaction and fragmentation as well as mobility and immobility. Motivated and constrained by varied life situations and complex institutional circumstances, expatriates are variably empowered or dispossessed during their migratory trajectories.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ding Fei is a development and economic geographer with research interests in the relationship among state, capital, and human agency in the uneven process of China’s globalization, and its implications for industrial transformation and local capacity building in the ‘Global South’. Her work has appeared in Geoforum, The Professional Geographer, The China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, among others. Fei received her PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2018 and was an early career fellow in China studies at the American Council of Learned Societies in 2020. Currently, Fei is Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Sustainability and the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.