Dr Tamsin Barber

Doing focus group research with young East and Southeast Asian people on the racialised politics of belonging in Britain reveals rich and complex dynamics of vulnerability and resilience. Inviting young people to share their views and reflect upon their experiences as minoritized and underrepresented groups in Britain often entails the sharing of sensitive life stories. This includes the divulging of biographical traumas but also the discovery of shared commonalities, differences, humour and mutual empathy. This paper explores both the empowering and disempowering potential of focus groups as a forum for sharing biographical experience. We argue that the focus group setting can provide opportunities for overcoming vulnerabilities through listening to shared experience, developing solidarity with others and de-individualising experiences of racism. However, focus groups can also generate discomfort when differences between participants and facilitators are too great or too small or where power dynamics are too asymmetrical. In these situations, participants use ‘protective silences’ to shield them from sharing vulnerabilities and experiencing potential retraumatisation.

This chapter traces the experience of the Vietnamese diaspora by exploring processes of migration, settlement and incorporation into UK society. By revisiting the conditions of arrival, cohort characteristics and positionality in the UK racial landscape, this chapter provides an explanation for the distinctive configuration of the UK Vietnamese diaspora. The chapter argues that legacies of the resettlement policy, migratory and settlement conditions alongside the distinctive social origins of the diaspora underlie a fragmented community configuration today. Differences and fragmentation within the Vietnamese diaspora are also highlighted in recent undocumented migration to the UK and associated policy approaches.

This chapter draws from the literature about Vietnamese international students and temporary migrant workers to compare their mobilities; as these two groups are growing subsets of the Vietnamese diaspora, whose migration is encouraged by the Vietnamese government. We address (1) their physical mobilities and the conditions of their international movements, (2) the movement of different forms of capital associated with the movement of their bodies, and (3) their social mobility resulting from their migration. We highlight the constraints but also the differential agency that each group exercises to navigate a post-colonial, capitalist and neoliberal world through their mobilities.

The plight of Vietnamese migrants in the UK has featured prominently in recent media and public policy debates on modern slavery, illegal border crossings, and labour exploitation. Yet little attention has been paid to their subjective experiences of border crossings, nor the wide range of categories they pass between. Vietnamese migrants coming to the UK in search of work face a complex array of decisions surrounding the respective costs and risks related to a chosen migration route which must be weighed against personal and collective expectations. These complex decisions are compounded by a shifting and highly stratified immigration and borders regime which renders migrants more vulnerable through restricting rights and increasing surveillance. This chapter explores the experiences and imaginaries of the UK border among migrants who have crossed the UK border, as well as those who intend to make the journey. We explore the contrast between the expectations and realities of UK borders through in-depth interviews with Vietnamese migrants. We argue, notwithstanding knowledge of the risks involved in border crossings and the hostile border enforcement regime, imaginations of opportunities for transforming local livelihoods remain powerful and deep-seated political and cultural narratives for Vietnamese migrants.

This chapter investigates how Vietnamese cultural media engages with the concepts of ‘Migration’, ‘Becoming Adult’, ‘Wellbeing’ and ‘Futures, to establish the potential impact such media have on young people’s migratory decisions. Through a particular focus on social media, this chapter argues that the internet plays a significant role in shaping and forming views about migration, how to succeed as a young migrant once in the UK and when to ‘return’ home to Vietnam. Although young Vietnamese migrants are frequently represented in the media as ‘child slaves’ and victims forced to work in cannabis farms, their migratory realities are in fact far more complex. We suggest that some young people may seek out ‘employment’ as a route to becoming adult, developing agency and fulfilling broader family and community expectations of their migratory journeys.

In this article, we discuss the productive ways in which diaspora has worked as a catalyst and provocateur for East and Southeast Asians in the UK. We explore how in its most radical conception, diaspora can foster progressive cultural, social and political forms of solidarity building and spaces for belonging in everyday contexts shaped by marginalisation, racial violence and state brutality. As well as connecting historical legacies with contemporary concerns and broader transnational flows and exchanges, formations of de-essentialised (de-ethnicised) diaspora can provide alternative visions of ‘Asianness’ that challenge politically regressive, neoliberal consumer and other constructions of Asian identities that homogenise, stereotype and dehumanise.

We first discuss the specific ways in which the notion of ‘Asian’ diaspora is constructed in UK discourse, which highlights the legacies of empire and colonial legacies in shaping contemporary articulations of identities and forms of political mobilisation. Here, we draw attention to the invisibility of East and South East Asia diasporas, in particularly examining the hegemonic position of ‘Chinese’ over other ethnicities as well as the invisibility of East and Southeast Asian identities in relation to constructions of South Asian and Black British diasporas.

Drawing on our research, we discuss how East and South East Asianness is constructed among different groups of young people in the UK. We highlight both commonalities and hierarchies among differently positioned ethnicities and show how these have been constructed in state and public discourse and also within communities. We examine the myriad ways in which differently imagined notions of ‘Asian diaspora’ becomes significant to individuals and communities, and how it offers new means of social boundary-making and creating alternative imaginations of the future. In particular, we examine the formation and visions of different groups such as BEATS, Daikon, Asia-Art-Activism, Eastern Margins, Diaspora Disco and Bitten Peach. Contestations around constructions of ‘Asianness’ in relation to gender, sexuality, political community and imperialism re-define the place of ‘Asianness’ in British and other societies.

Finally, we reflect on the significant transformative role of COVID-19 on constructions of ‘Asianness’ in the UK as a catalyst for new politicised activities around civil society, community and solidarity. We also consider the related role of online platforms as a facilitator in these processes. In our conclusion, we argue that we are seeing a new proliferation of Asian diasporic consciousness in the UK. Exploring this emergence reveals both the limits and possibilities of ‘diaspora’ as a category for facilitating solidarity building and progressive politics. We suggest that the concept of ‘diaspora space’ is more useful for enabling inclusive and fluid understandings of diasporic consciousness and community building which can move beyond historical legacies and power dynamics to enable new visions.  Diaspora space also better represents the practices and activities of young East and Southeast Asian populations in the UK, which are far from unitary but instead multiple, distinctive and transformative.

This chapter reviews and evaluates the main arguments for and against diaspora engagement policies. It examines the equally common normative argument that migrant-sending states have obligations to treat their diasporas fairly. The chapter also considers the increasingly widespread argument that better 'diaspora governance' is required to enhance international cooperation in the area of migration. It reviews and evaluates prominent arguments surrounding diaspora engagement policies, focusing on three main areas: the interests of states, the mutual obligations between states and emigrants, and the cooperation between sending states, receiving states and migrants themselves. The chapter has shown that migrant-sending states are confronted with imperatives and opportunities to pursue their interests through engaging their diasporas, but that these arguments alone do not necessarily override the territorial norm around which world politics are theoretically organized.

Using mainly official data, this chapter maps the position of female migrants in the labour market and society. It examines their comparative activity, unemployment, incomes and working conditions in order to contextualise some of the integration issues that have arisen with the new migration. Given the limitations of the official data, this chapter also focuses on irregular migration with particular emphasis on trafficking and informal employment in domestic services and prostitution. This chapter also critically evaluates the data generated by official European and national statistical institutions and national surveys on regular migration. Female migrant workers are concentrated in a narrow range of occupational sectors, and third-country migrant women in particular are over-represented in low-skilled, low-paid, vulnerable jobs and are more likely to be in part-time and temporary employment. The evidence indicates that third-country migrant women are incorporated into the labour market in particular ways which may reduce their ability to achieve long-term integration into both the labour market and wider society.

This chapter considers migrant women’s experiences with regard to welfare and labour market policies in Europe and in particular in relation to tendencies towards greater privatisation and deregulation of labour markets, along with the downsizing of welfare regimes. While the effects can be felt across European societies, the policies also impact on different groups in different ways. In contrast to the ‘inclusion’ and ‘cohesion’ promoted in policy agendas, our research shows that female migrants experience the impact of labour market deregulation and flexibilisation in ways which reinforce their already disadvantaged position. Furthermore, the insecurity and instability they experience as a result significantly impact on their long-term integration strategies. In this chapter, we are particularly concerned with examining the relationship between employment and the wider, long-term integration process into both the labour market and the wider society. In our account of migrant women’s employment experiences, we focus in particular on casual and informal work, on the one hand, and the ethnicisation of labour market sectors, on the other. In addition to considering the structural constraints faced by women migrants in European labour markets, we also explore the strategies they employ in order to negotiate these and some of the opportunities available which help them do so.