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Navigating the Ethnic Boundary: From “In-Between” to Plural Ethnicities

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Engendering Migration Journey

Part of the book series: Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship ((MDC))

Abstract

The chapter examines the self-ethnic identification of Thai migrant women in Hong Kong. It looks into how different generations of Thai migrant women identify themselves differently in the host community. Drawing on ethnographic study and in-depth interviews with Thai migrant women in Hong Kong, we found that the process of self-ethnic identification evolves from in-between ethnicity for the older generation to plural ethnicities for the younger generation. The way they perceive themselves, as we argue, determines how they navigate the ethnic boundaries in the host community. The results suggest that the older generation oscillates between being Thai and Hong Konger, whereas the younger generation go beyond the dual ethnic identification and, in so doing, they disrupt, transgress, or even subvert the ethnic boundaries set between the Thai and the Hong Kong people in the era of globalization with increasing mobility and the use of information and communication technologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong

    Herbary Cheung

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  1. Herbary Cheung
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Correspondence to Herbary Cheung .

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Cheung, H. (2022). Navigating the Ethnic Boundary: From “In-Between” to Plural Ethnicities. In: Engendering Migration Journey. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15975-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15975-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-15974-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-15975-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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