The Global Asia Research Center holds an online workshop with Dr. Zi Wang in order to broaden the perspective of sustainable living and conviviality through the lens of migration studies.

Title: Chinese and Japanese-speaking migrant groups in Germany: From community-building to questions of wellbeing

Speaker: Dr. Zi Wang (Marie Curie Fellow, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations, Paris, France)

Discussant: Dr. Yoshihiro Nakano (Waseda University)

Moderator: Dr. You Gene Kim (Waseda University)

Date: September 27 (Mon), 2021 *Postponed to October 4 (Mon), 2021.
Time: 16: 30-18: 00 (Japan time)

Language: English

Eligible Participant: students, faculty members, and public

*This is online workshop and please proceed with prior registration by September 20, 2021: https://bit.ly/globalasiaevent2021

*For inquiry: sgu.event2021[at] gmail. com

Abstract:

Migration research has gained traction in the past several decades. However, research foci have largely remained uneven. East Asian migrants in Germany represent a case in point. Germany is Europe’s largest migrant-receiving destination. Among migrants who hail from more than 100 origin countries across all continents, the Chinese and Japanese groups have some of the longest community-building histories. They also enjoy a high degree of vitality: the Chinese being the fastest-growing non-European migrant group, whereas the Japanese communities command an over-proportionate cultural presence in certain regions. Yet, the dynamics of Chinese and Japanese migration to and integration in Germany have largely remained unexplored. In this talk, I attempt to put these two East Asian migrant groups on the contemporary German migration research landscape. After a brief review of similarities and differences in their community-building histories, I proceed to present major findings from my mixed-method research on migration and wellbeing which was conducted among Chinese and Japanese-speaking migrant communities in Germany in the past three years. Special emphasis will be put on attitudes towards multiculturalism and integration, their language behaviour, as well as how this affects migrants’ general sense of subjective wellbeing.