University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 7-29-2015 Transnationalism, Mobility and Identity: the Making of Place in Flushing, New York City Shaolu Yu
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Yu, Shaolu, "Transnationalism, Mobility and Identity: the Making of Place in Flushing, New York City" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 826. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/826 Transnationalism, Mobility and Identity: the Making of Place in Flushing, New York City Shaolu Yu, Ph.D. 2015 ABSTRACT Drawing upon studies on mobility, transnationalism, migration and ethnic community, this dissertation examines the paradox of transnational mobilities at the cross-national scale and (im)mobilities at the local scale of Chinese (im)migrants1 in Flushing, New York City, which is currently the largest Chinese community on the East Coast. The project investigates how the paradox is embedded within individual Chinese (im)migrants‘ everyday routine and rhythm of life, and how it forms their imaginative geographies and impacts their identities and senses of place. I utilize a mixed method approach including: census and immigration data analysis, ethnography, interviews, mental mapping and GIS. The findings suggest that transnational and local mobile practices are simultaneously embedded in the everyday life of Chinese (im)migrants in Flushing. The urban local mobilities, limited by the socioeconomic, linguistic, and spatial-temporal constraints, intersect with and are compensated by the transnational practices, simplify their geographic perceptions of the urban space, enhance their 1 This dissertation uses (im)migrants to refer to both immigrants and temporary migrants living in Flushing.