The Chinese Diaspora: Overlapping Life Transitions, Barriers, and HCI Ben Z
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The Chinese Diaspora: Overlapping Life Transitions, Barriers, and HCI Ben Z. Zhang Oliver L. Haimson Michaelanne Dye [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] University of Michigan University of Michigan University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Ann Arbor, MI Ann Arbor, MI ACM Reference Format: destination for the Chinese diaspora since 1785 [20]. Chinese im- Ben Z. Zhang, Oliver L. Haimson, and Michaelanne Dye. 2018. The Chinese migrants are also one of the fastest-growing populations in the US; Diaspora: Overlapping Life Transitions, Barriers, and HCI. In Proceedings in 2018, the US Census Bureau estimates that 5.5 million Chinese of ACM Conference (Conference’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 5 pages. diaspora lived in the States 1. https://doi.org/10.1145/1122445.1122456 This workshop paper reports a subsection of our findings from a qualitative study with the Chinese diaspora community in Michigan. 1 INTRODUCTION We found that participants experienced various overlapping transi- Migration is a life-altering event in many ways. For example, when tions as migrants and being an immigrant complicates their other people move to a new country, they often spend considerable effort life transitions. Specifically, their life transitions are constraining learning the host country’s social norms, establishing new relation- and complicated, with limits imposed by their immigration status, ships, maintaining old ties, and understanding their role or roles the norms and conventions in the host country, their diasporic iden- within their new community. tity, geographical distance, and systemic injustice in the US. We In CHI and CSCW, previous work on life transitions has fo- structured our discussion around the broad theme of this workshop. cused on the role of technology in facilitating people’s major life events and transitions, documented different transitions including 2 METHODS homelessness [21], changing health conditions [22], parenthood We conducted an exploratory study using ethnographically-informed [3], serious illness [2], job changes [8], relationship breakups [13], qualitative methods with members of the Chinese diaspora commu- pregnancy loss [1], the death of loved ones [7], gender transition nity in Michigan. To be eligible, participants needed to be at least [14] and disadvantaged college students’ identity transition [23]. 18 years old, self-identified as Chinese diaspora, and living/lived in Although scholarship in migration studies has long considered mi- Michigan. We recruited informants through multiple social media grating to a new country as a transition where migrants experience local online communities and snowball sampling. different phases of the settlement process [24, 29], few studies in so- We recruited 15 participants, 7 (46.7%) born in the Chinese main- cial computing have taken the life transitions approach to examine land and 8 (53.3%) in Taiwan, all of whom later immigrated to the US. immigrant’s settlement experience. Three were men and 12 were women. Participants have been living In addition, people often face multiple life transitions simulta- in the US for between 3-49 years (sd=13.0 years). They ranged in neously. However, prior work on life transitions tends to focus on age from 29 to 71 years old, and the median age was 34 (mean=38.8, one transition at a time [2, 3, 7, 8, 21, 22]. This work aims to move sd=13.7 years). Participants were highly educated: 14 participants beyond studying life transitions in isolation; specifically, we use completed at least a bachelor’s degree (93.3%), and 9 earned an immigration as a baseline transition to study how it overlaps and advanced academic degree (60.0%). Participants were diverse in oc- impacts other life transitions. Moreover, Sabie et al. have identified cupation and immigration status. They held various of occupations that current research in CHI and social computing related to immi- including restaurant worker, homemaker, student, relater, engineer, grants tend to focus on newcomers’ immediate needs and often pay analyst, consultant, doctor, among others. Participants were com- less attention to support their cultural identities[28]. We hope to pensated with a $30 Amazon gift card after completing the first continue this conversation by bringing a case study about Chinese interview as a token of appreciation. diaspora’s long-terms needs and their diasporic identity. Between October 2020 and January 2020, we conducted ethnographically- Broadly speaking, the Chinese diaspora is globally dispersed informed qualitative methods, which include interviews, partici- Chinese (by origin and descent) living outside of the Chinese main- pant observation, and online fieldwork. We conducted in-depth, land, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau [25]. The US has been a main semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews were designed as life histories [30], where we asked participants about Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or their lives, experiences living as Chinese diaspora in Michigan, and classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed their use of ICTs in everyday life. Interviews lasted between 42 to for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation 164 minutes and averaged approximately 97.5 minutes (sd=28.3). In on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, addition, we joined multiple local online groups on multiple plat- to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a forms, including WeChat and Facebook, and conducted participant fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. observations. We conducted interactive and inductive analyses of Conference’17, July 2017, Washington, DC, USA © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-XXXX-X/18/06...$15.00 1https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working- https://doi.org/10.1145/1122445.1122456 papers/2019/demo/Chinese퐷80B?>A0.?35 Conference’17, July 2017, Washington, DC, USA Ben Z. Zhang, Oliver L. Haimson, and Michaelanne Dye Table 1: Summary of overlapping life events participants ex- P11’s observation revealed that immigration status could directly perienced beyond migration hider Chinese diaspora’s career transitions. Such impacts could also influence other life events such as relocation for some participants. Type of Tran- Life Transitions Participants Experienced as P10, a stay-at-home mom, has moved among three States - Texas, sitions immigrants Arizona, and Michigan - with her husband in recent years due to Death death of extended family member, death of a career instability. loved one Other participants described that acquiring stable immigration Relationships marriage, divorce status through secure jobs after graduation could influence their Education started college started graduate school, gradu- education decisions, including program, location, and major choice. ated graduate school, left school For instance, P14, a Ph.D. student from Taiwan, revealed that in- Career started first job, started a new job career, started creasing the likelihood of getting a sponsorship after graduation new business, voluntary job loss (e.g., quit) was one of the major factors for her to pursue her doctoral degree. Identity came out as LGBTQ+ Prior work in migrant studies has shown that professional factors Relocation move to a different state, move to a different often act as strong incentives for international students to stay in country the US [17]. Family rela- became a parent, became a grandparent, new As illustrated in the examples above, immigration status is one tionships pet of the main factors that complicates, and makes more challenging, Financial home purchase the Chinese diaspora’s other life transitions. Societal pandemic, natural disaster 3.2 Social norms and conventions between the US and homeland the interview transcriptions and field notes using open coding and Participants also reported that norms and conventions in the host memoing informed by qualitative content analysis [6, 10]. All the country could further complicate their transitions. Such norms and codes were translated into English and discussed by the research conventions could manifest through various contexts including team on a weekly basis. This study was approved by our university’s academic, professional, and even family relationships. Before P10 ethics review board. gave birth to her first baby, she needed to get familiar with the hospital system, specifically the labor, delivery, and recovery room 3 RESULTS (LDR), as baby delivery practices are different in her home country. Prior work in migration studies has considered migrating to a new “We don’t know anything, I don’t even have a baby before, even in country as a transition where migrants experience different phases Taiwan. In Taiwan, I just heard what my friends did, and then in the of the settlement process [24, 29]. This workshop paper focuses on US, it’s just like brand new, and I have to adapt to everything in the challenges derived from overlapping transitions they experience. hospital.” That is, how does transitioning as immigrants shape participants’ Participants also shared that professional and academic norms other life transitions? could complicate their life transitions. P13 disclosed that due to lack We first categorized major