Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 2016 Emotions and Home-making

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Original Article

Emotions andhome-making:Performingcosmopolitan sociabilityamong first generationnew Chinese migrantsin New Zealand

Bingyu WangUniversity of Auckland

AbstractEmotions matter in home-making, and this is particularly true in migration.Drawing upon qualitative research with 35 first generation new Chinesemigrants in New Zealand, this article explores how emotions intersect withhome-making and its role in generating ‘‘cosmopolitan sociability.’’ Migrantsinvest in ‘‘emotional labor’’ to engage in cosmopolitan sociability in order toform new relationship networks, rebuild comfort points and generate a senseof home. For the Chinese migrants in this research, emotional dissonancegenerated from the early settlement period and everyday encounters havedisrupted their opportunities for performing cosmopolitan sociability andfeeling at home in a transnational setting.

Keywordsemotions and migrations, home-making, cosmopolitan sociability, firstgeneration Chinese migrants, New Zealand

Introduction

Home-making is emotional. This is particularly true in the context of migra-tion. Migrants experience a variety of emotional ups and downs during their

Corresponding author:

Bingyu Wang, Asian Studies, School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics, University ofAuckland, 54 Towai Street, Auckland 1071, New Zealand. [AQ1]Email: bwan973@aucklanduni.ac.nz

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DOI: 10.1177/0117196816639058

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cross-border and cross-cultural migratory movements (Skrbis

, 2008; Wise andChapman, 2005). On the one hand, migrants invest a great deal of time andeffort in ‘‘emotional labor’’ (Hochschild, 1983) to maintain closeness and famil-iarity with the family in their homelands (Baldassar, 2008; Velayutam andWise, 2005). On the other hand, the process of home-making in the host coun-try is inevitably filled with emotional dynamics and can potentially engenderdifferent levels of discomfort and uncertainty relating to relocation to a newcultural context (Butcher, 2010). Indeed, as Butcher (2010) argues, home-making strategies are essentially the affective response to the evaluation of aplace in terms of how it feels like home. During the process of home-making,individual migrants have different levels of ability to cope with emotionalbarriers and to perform ‘‘cosmopolitan sociability’’ (Glick Schiller et al.,2011: 402) in order to negotiate differences they encounter from interactingwith cultural others.

This article aims to untangle the emotional complexities of the home-making process for migrants in a transnational setting, illustrating the central-ity of emotional dynamics in migrants’ lives. Specifically, it will focus on howemotions articulate with opportunities for engaging in cosmopolitan sociabil-ity as attempts are made to form intercultural relations and pursue a sense ofhome. The key premise is that home-making for migrants demands practicesof cosmopolitan sociability to build relationship networks (especially with thedominant population of the host society), and thus build up a home spacewhere they feel familiar and comfortable, and have a sense of belonging.The process of conducting cosmopolitan sociability requires an investmentof significant ‘‘emotional labor’’ (Hochschild, 1983) to overcome feelings ofdistance, discomfort, awkwardness, anxiety and fear generated from inter-cultural interactions. Accordingly, this article attempts to demonstrate thathome-making for migrants hinges on the degree to which they are able toutilize cosmopolitan sociability and cope with emotional barriers in a cross-cultural context.

In order to investigate these questions, this paper draws on qualitativeresearch with 35 first generation new Chinese migrants1 in New Zealand. Itexamines the emotional struggles these first generation Chinese migrantsencounter in terms of performing cosmopolitan sociability and home-making. This research builds on the scholarship relating to emotions andmigrations, cosmopolitan sociability and home-making, reviewed below.Following a brief discussion of recent migration to New Zealand and themethodology used in this study, the paper focuses on three perspectives ofthe emotional dimension of home-making: emotional dynamics emergingfrom the early settlement period; emotions generated in everyday intercultural

1New Chinese migrants refer to those who came to New Zealand from the People’s Republic ofChina (PRC) following immigration policy changes in 1987.

2 Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 0(0)

encounters; and emotional complexities involved with home-making in atransnational context. Together, these three perspectives demonstrate the cen-trality of emotions in understanding how migrants’ home-making processclosely interrelates with the way they engage with diverse peoples andplaces in cross-cultural settings.

Emotions and migrations

As Massumi (2002: 1) has pointed out, ‘‘[i]t moves. It feels. In fact, it does bothat the same time. It moves as it feels, and it feels itself moving.’’ People’semotions are closely interrelated to people’s mobilities—how people feeland how people move resonate with each other (Massumi, 2002). Emotionsplay a significant role in the process of ‘‘moving’’: they affect the speed,rhythm, and pattern in which people move. In my research, ‘‘move’’ mainlyrefers to migrant mobilities that occur in a cross-border and cross-culturalcontext. These mobilities include those conducted by migrants on a day-to-day basis, such as what they do, where they go, whom they socialize with, andthose conducted in a transnational or cross-border context, such as visiting thehomeland, return migration, step migration to a third country and the like.

Emotions matter and this is particularly true when it comes to migrantmovements. Emotions interact with migrant mobilities in two ways. First,emotions are inseparable from the fundamental nature of the migrationexperience itself. According to Skrbis

^(2008), migration is inevitably a process

that disassociates individuals from their family, friends and established socialnetworks, and this, of course, can have significant emotional connotations.Skrbis

(2008) further notes that migrant stories are linked with variouspotent sources of emotions—the experiences of adjustment, settlement, nos-talgia, in-betweenness, loss, discrimination, abrupt endings, new beginningsand new opportunities. Second, the migration journey is a process wheremigrants constantly encounter new and different people, ideas, languagesand cultural norms. These encounters then lead to a set of transformationsin terms of the way migrants identify with places and with themselves, as wellas the way they socialize with people from different cultural backgrounds.These ongoing transformations are invariably filled with a variety of emo-tions, such as excitement, disappointment, anxiety, discomfort and so on.

The decision to leave a homeland and migrate to another country involves awide range of influences and emotions, and alongside the physical move-ments, there is an emotional journey to be traveled while relocating andadapting to a new country (Burrell, 2006). Indeed, as Conradson andMcKay (2007: 172; cited in Svas

ek, 2010) have pointed out, ‘‘[f]ar from beinga secondary or unimportant dimension of mobility [. . .] affect and emotion arecentral aspects of international migration.’’ It is important to conceptualizeemotions in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of migrant

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mobility patterns and their impact on the transformative subjectivities ofpeople who are involved in the moving process (Conradson and McKay,2007). Over the past ten years, an increasing number of scholars have startedto focus on the emotional dynamics generated from migratory movements,exploring how emotional complexities interact with migrants’ identity dynam-ics, notions of home and mobility strategies (Baldassar, 2008; Svas

ek, 2008,2010). This article will focus on the emotional dimension of the home-makingprocess in which first generation new Chinese migrants seek a sense of belong-ing and home in a transnational setting while being beset with emotionalstruggles and challenges.

Home-making and cosmopolitan sociability

Home should be perceived not only as the physical location of a dwelling, butalso as ‘‘a space of belonging, intimacy, security, relationship and selfhood’’(Gorman-Murray and Dowling, 2007). This is particularly true in a migrationcontext, where home is an integral part of the continuous process of ‘‘uproot-ing/regrounding’’ (Ahmed et al., 2003). For migrants, home is experiencedless as a fixed or static object and more as a dynamic process in whichpersonal security, emotional commitment and self-discovery is sought(Valentine, 2001). Blunt and Dowling (2006: 199) call this process ‘‘home-making practice’’ and they point out that homes should not be consideredsimplistically in either ‘‘physical’’ or ‘‘emotional’’ terms. Drawing on thesevaluable conceptualizations of home, I agree with Blunt and Dowling’s argu-ment: homes can be seen through a ‘‘spatial imaginary’’ that recognizes‘‘home is neither the dwelling nor the feeling, but the relation between thetwo’’ (Blunt and Dowling, 2006: 22). Within this research, for most inter-viewees, the physical, symbolic, social and emotional aspects of home areinextricably interwoven in their migrant lives. That is to say, home does notsimply relate to a house, household or a particular geographical location (e.g.,New Zealand, China, Auckland) but to a space where they feel safe, familiarand comfortable and where they feel they belong. In this regard, rebuilding asense of comfort and familiarity is the key to their home-making process in thehost society.

In order to rebuild comfort zones and a sense of belonging (Butcher, 2010),migrants desire to build relationships with people they encounter in their hostsociety (especially those from the dominant socio-cultural group). Theseefforts require ‘‘cosmopolitan sociability,’’ which is defined by Glick Schilleret al. (2011: 402) as ‘‘forms of competence and communication skills that arebased on the human capacity to create social relations of inclusiveness andopenness to the world.’’ In this research, I view cosmopolitan sociabilityas interactions across cultural differences that actively seek to build social

relations, and to overcome the distance generated in such interactions. Thispaper is concerned principally with the emotional contours of performingcosmopolitan sociability to build a sense of home out of interculturalencounters.

When migrants ‘‘move,’’ a set of sensory responses and affective feelingsemerge (Svas

ek, 2010). These diverse feelings generate desires to encounterand socialize with objects, people and places. These sociabilities take manyforms, and some may emerge as ‘‘cosmopolitan,’’ which is explicitly renderedas a form of sociability across difference (Glick Schiller et al., 2011). To reiter-ate, this article proposes that home-making and engaging in cosmopolitansociability are entangled and emotionally charged processes. This is particu-larly true for migration as a process of negotiating differences and searchingfor comfort and familiarity in new social environments, filled with a set of newand different cultural norms and social expectations.

Home-making practice is an emotional process in which ongoing andmediated interaction between self, others and places transpires (Blunt andDowling, 2006). Home-making in a host country requires a concomitantinvestment of significant emotional labor, to engage in cosmopolitan sociabil-ity and to build intercultural relationship networks. Constantly negotiatingdifference in terms of language, culture and socializing patterns is inevitablyan emotional process. This process of re-evaluating and re-shaping identitiesgenerates affective responses to cope with feelings of discomfort, vulnerabilityand uncertainty (Butcher, 2010). Concurrently, migrants will often wish tomaintain their intimate relationship with their original cultural heritage(Skrbis

, 2008; Svas

ek, 2010), creating an emotional and/or physical co-pre-sence with their homeland, as well as with the family members and socialnetworks remaining there. Moreover, migrants often find themselves in situ-ations where they are seized by a sense of nostalgia and longing just as emo-tionally intense as the actual experience of co-presence (Skrbis

, 2008).According to Svas

ek (2008), migrants generally have difficulty in maintain-ing emotional connections with family and friends in the homeland. It is morechallenging to maintain established relationship networks with those backhome while struggling to cultivate a sense of belonging in host country, and,to adapt to a migrant life in new surroundings (Svas

ek, 2008). That is to say, dueto limited physical and emotional energy, for migrants who retain emotionalties to family and social networks in their homeland, home-making in the hostcountry is filled with double layers of emotional struggle. This article aims todemonstrate that the process of home-making for first generation new Chinesemigrants in a transnational setting largely depends on whether they possess theability or willingness to negotiate differences and build relationship networks inan intercultural context, and that such a process of engaging in cosmopolitansociability and home-making is necessarily emotional.

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The research

In 1987, New Zealand adopted a comparatively liberal immigration policybased on personal merit rather than nationality or ethnicity (Spoonley andBedford, 2012). This allowed significant numbers of well-educated and skilledChinese migrants (from the PRC) to begin to settle in New Zealand fromaround the mid-1990s, making the PRC one of the top sources of NewZealand’s overall immigrant intake. Most of these new Chinese migrantsmigrated to New Zealand primarily to seek better educational opportunitiesfor their progeny, a more relaxed lifestyle and a more pleasant natural envir-onment, rather than in order to pursue economic or career ambitions (Ip, 2011).They were mostly from relatively wealthy and well-established middle-classfamilies in China, and obtained residence in New Zealand as skilled or businessmigrants. Subsequently, they followed a transnational migration pattern, withclose contacts with their country of origin, China (Ip, 2011). Therefore, most ofthem have formed a transnational socio-cultural space in which their lives spangeographic, cultural and political boundaries that allow for a combination oflifestyle choices in two or more places (Faist, 2000).

In the New Zealand context, Chinese migrant groups from Hong Kong andTaiwan have received much research attention (Beal, 2001; Ho, 2002). To date,not much research has focused on Chinese migrants from the PRC. The mostrecent research on PRC migrants is on highly mobile transnational newChinese migrants, and has found that their conceptions of home (whethermaterial or immaterial) are increasingly fluid and ambivalent (Liu, 2014).Utilizing a transnational approach, Li et al. (2010) and Li and Chong (2012)have paid particular attention to older Chinese migrants aged over 60 yearsold and who came to New Zealand under the family reunion program. Theirresearch has examined the difficulties experienced by these older migrants interms of achieving social well-being and constructing a sense of belonging inNew Zealand. My research diverges from previous work and explicitlyexplores the emotional dimension of the home-making process and its relationto cosmopolitan sociability. At the same time, it has a specific focus on firstgeneration new Chinese migrants who migrated as skilled or businessmigrants (aged generally between 35 and 55 years old).

Fieldwork for this research was conducted from October 2013 to March2014. Focusing on participants’ everyday living experiences, 35 in-depth inter-views were undertaken, each one lasting approximately 90 minutes.Interviewees were asked to provide everyday examples of interactions withothers from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Interview questionswere also designed to find out about the ethnic diversity of the variouskinds of relationship networks they had developed in different social settings.In answering the questions, interviewees were encouraged to consider theirsense of home toward both homeland and host country. Most interviews inAuckland were face-to-face; some participants who live or work outside

Auckland (including Wellington, Hamilton, Sydney, Beijing)2 were inter-viewed via Skype. Most participants had received their education mainly inChina and preferred to be interviewed in Mandarin Chinese. All the inter-views were transcribed and translated into English prior to analysis by theresearcher.

The participants were all born in mainland China, were at least 18 years oldat the time of interview and currently have either permanent residence in NewZealand or New Zealand citizenship. They are all first generation Chinesemigrants who came to New Zealand in their twenties or thirties. They arewell-educated (holding at least a Bachelor’s degree) and are engaged in a widerange of occupations (e.g., lawyer, doctor, teacher, bus driver, nurse).Interviewees described their level of English proficiency as follows: five con-sidered themselves ‘‘beginners,’’ 20 chose ‘‘conversational,’’ seven chose‘‘good,’’ and three chose ‘‘fluent.’’ Most interviewees indicated that they canengage in basic conversation, but continued socialization was difficult as theirunderstanding of English was limited compared to native English speakers.Almost all interviewees said that they had some discomfort in communicatingin English. According to Brubaker et al. (2006: 255), communication is ‘‘notsimply a matter of grammatical mastery’’ but involves ‘‘relating (and relatingto) stories, telling (and understanding) jokes, making (and appreciating) allu-sions.’’ Due to their lack of English language proficiency, relatively low inter-cultural familiarity, and lower social-economic status, most participants facedifficulties and struggles as they try to find their footing and establish a senseof belonging in New Zealand. Many of them have a strong sense of attach-ment toward China, Chinese culture and the Chinese community in NewZealand. Consequently, they find it challenging to socialize with the ethnicallydiverse population of their host country.

A rather binary logic emerged from the interview narratives, with mostof the interviewees focused on their emotional encounters with two socio-cultural groups: Chinese and European New Zealanders (hereafter‘‘Pakeha’’). There appear to be three reasons behind this bifocal view. First,these first generation Chinese migrants have always aspired to ‘‘go to theWest’’ and explore the other side of the world, motivated by an imaginationof the ‘‘cosmopolitan west’’ strongly signified to them by racial ‘‘whiteness.’’For these migrants, socializing with Pakeha, whom they view as the ‘‘realKiwis,’’ or ‘‘real New Zealanders,’’ seems to be the prime indicator ofhaving successfully settled in New Zealand. Second, they have realized thatinteracting with Pakeha (who represent the dominant group in New Zealandsociety) is of great significance in career promotion and social networking. Put

2Among the 35 interviewees, two were from Wellington, three were from Hamilton, and 30 werebased in Auckland (but two of them were overseas when the interviews were conducted—one ofthem was in Beijing for a one-month family visit; the other was in Sydney for a holiday). Allinterviewees outside Auckland were willing to be interviewed via Skype.

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another way, some Chinese migrants seek to build relationship networks withPakeha out of clearly pragmatic or strategic concerns. Third, mostinterviewees consider other socio-cultural groups (e.g., Koreans, Indians,Filipino) to be ‘‘just the same’’ as themselves, that is migrants, and this high-lights the centrality of Pakeha in migrants’ lives. In addition, many first gen-eration Chinese migrants have gradually become financially well-off in NewZealand, which limits their interactions with groups who are associated withlower socio-economic positions, such as Maori, Pacific Islanders and others(Johnston et al., 2011). Consequently, most participants mainly discussed theiremotional experiences of interacting with Pakeha, beyond the Chinese com-munity. The next section of this article examines how the emotional complex-ities produced by the participants’ interactions with Pakeha affect theirperformance of cosmopolitan sociability, which reveals the emotional difficul-ties of their home-making process.

Emotions in early settlement period

When migrants leave their homeland and move to a new country, theyencounter new smells, tastes, languages and social customs that inevitablyaffect how they feel about themselves, others and the outside world(Conradson and Latham, 2007). Feelings of excitement, anxiety, loss and dis-orientation, anger, trauma and despair may emerge as they struggle to fit in(Svas

^ek, 2008, 2010). On the one hand, the decision to leave the home country

may ‘‘trigger different feelings in those who leave and those who staybehind—conflicting emotions, including excitement, anger, fear, guilt, hopeand joy, may arise before departure’’ (Svas

ek, 2010: 866). On the other hand,migrants may also go through a complicated emotional journey during thefirst few years after moving to a new country. The early settlement processgenerally requires migrants to make emotional adjustments to new jobs, newsocial norms and even potential anti-immigration sentiments (Svas

ek, 2008).As to the home-making process in New Zealand, most interviewees went

through a hard time during their early settlement period. When they decided toleave China, they felt sad, excited, nervous or scared, and uncertain about theirnew life in a new country. Upon arriving in New Zealand, shyness, awkward-ness and fear were their predominant emotions, because of unfamiliarity withtheir new environment. The comments of Jake (28; 50; M; Auckland3) about hisinitial experience in New Zealand were shared by other interviewees:

It was tough . . . During the first Chinese New Year here, we missed home and

friends back home. You didn’t know what you are getting yourself into. It was

3‘‘28’’ is the age at migration; ‘‘50’’ is his current age; ‘‘M’’ represents ‘‘male;’’ Auckland is thecurrent residence. This schema will apply to all the interviewees cited in the article.

financially difficult, socially quite difficult as well. When we looked out from the

top of Mt. Eden, at all the lights from all the houses, none of them were on for us.

We didn’t really have a home. We felt homeless.

Jake and his family had feelings of loneliness, uncertainty and homesicknessin their first few years in New Zealand. To Jake, feeling a sense of home in adifferent place was not only about financial stability, but also about buildingsocial networks that make him feel accepted in the new cultural context.Collins (2010: 54) has pointed out that ‘‘making the unfamiliar familiar israrely a straightforward individual endeavour . . . it is an exercise that requiresboth social as well as personal resources.’’ The emotional challenges and bar-riers during the early settlement period made it almost impossible for Jake toengage in cosmopolitan sociability and interact with cultural others, which, ashe acknowledges above, jeopardized his home-making process. Besides,‘‘getting by’’ rather than socializing with locals was their family’s priority,when they were just starting out in New Zealand.

Another interviewee, Jade (31; 45; F; Auckland), had the same experience.She further explained why home-making in the early settlement period wasespecially emotionally demanding:

I worked for very little money for long hours. I did dish washing, waitress-

ing . . . everything I could do. It was a huge step down . . . (starts sobbing) . . . we

didn’t feel a sense of superiority or achievement. We felt suppressed and limited,

because we even felt we couldn’t communicate with people here. There was this

sense of instability—we felt like we were in this floating mode with constant

changes. This extremely frustrating past has been haunting us.

These negative feelings were triggered by her contrasting experience in Chinaand what she had to go through as a new migrant in New Zealand. Similar toJake, Jade also felt frustrated in negotiating cultural differences and overcom-ing barriers to socialize with locals. She felt suppressed and limited becauseher socializing skills could not be utilized in a new and different culturalcontext. The feeling of being an interloper in the host country is a recurringtheme among the interviewees, due to frequent changes in employment andresidence, exacerbated by the unfamiliar socio-cultural setting. A strong senseof ‘‘emotional dissonance’’ (Middleton, 1989: 189) was produced in Jade’searly migration period, and emotional instability (e.g., sense of inferiority,disappointment, displacement) made the process of home-making evenmore challenging. Moreover, as Jade said, her family’s ‘‘extremely frustratingpast has been haunting [them]’’ in their present. This emotionally demandingand traumatic experience in the early settlement period has negativelyinfluenced the way in which these interviewees view cultural difference,themselves and New Zealand. These unpleasant memories, feelings and

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emotions also have an adverse influence on their future cosmopolitan soci-ability engagements, and may subsequently impair their home-makingprocess.

Different interviewees had different emotions associated with their home-making experience during the early settlement period. Some felt the move toNew Zealand was worthwhile because it allowed them to experience theiridealized Western suburban lifestyle—such as the detached house with alarge private garden in a quiet neighborhood. The new physical surroundingsand cultural atmosphere of New Zealand gave them a sense of satisfaction andachievement, which helped them perceive their emotional hardship in a positiveway and encouraged them to interact with cultural others. These emotionsfacilitated their home-making process. Other interviewees regretted leavingChina. This was true for those who did not realize their idealized notions oflife in a Western country. They were emotionally overwhelmed during theperiod of early settlement. They had feelings of loss and displacement becausethey were struggling to fit in socially and culturally. The process was difficultdue to the language barrier and cultural unfamiliarity. Over time, some devel-oped negative feelings about the host country which also made it difficult forthem to interact and build relationships with cultural others in the new country.

Emotions in everyday encounters

The process of adjusting to a new society can set off a wide range of emotions.Based on ethnographic research in the suburb of Ashfield in Sydney, Wise(2010) explored the cross-cultural interactions between long-term elderlyAnglo-Celtic residents in the area and newly arrived Chinese immigrants,asking how people from different backgrounds mix with each other in variouscontact zones (e.g., workplaces, neighborhoods, street shops). She found that avariety of emotions, such as (dis)comfort, anger, excitement, disappointmentand frustration can be generated from everyday intercultural interactions, andthese affective responses shape and are shaped by these quotidian encountersin culturally diverse social settings.

Similarly, in my research, different emotional experiences were describedby many interviewees in the course of their daily intercultural interactions.Almost all of them expressed a preference for socializing with Chinese in NewZealand. Shared frames of reference and understandings make them feel morerelaxed with Chinese friends, while cultural uncertainty with Pakeha engen-ders some negative feelings and some degree of ‘‘emotional dissonance’’(Middleton, 1989: 189). Will’s narrative (25; 36; M; Auckland) underscoresthe importance of comfort in terms of building relationships:

I can say I am a pretty adaptable person in all aspects . . . I make myself less

comfortable to make other people comfortable. When I am at work, I can talk

to my Kiwi colleagues, talk about things they like, but that doesn’t necessarily

mean I enjoy that conversation. So most of the time, things gradually become

‘‘well, I’d rather hang out with Chinese people’’ since making friends with

Pakeha is a less comfortable thing to do.

According to Butcher (2009), inclusion or exclusion from particular relation-ship networks seems linked with feeling comfortable. This sense of comfortaffects socializing patterns. Will’s narrative shows that he developed a pref-erence for socializing with Chinese people because he feels less comfortablewhen interacting with Kiwi colleagues. His reference to ‘‘my Kiwi colleagues’’suggests that he does not identify himself as a Kiwi. In contrast, he feels morecomfortable with Chinese culture and people, having spent his childhood andreceiving his education in China.

Being prompted by feelings of ‘‘comfort’’ narrows interviewees’ socializa-tion to fellow Chinese. Their limited attempt at fostering cosmopolitan soci-ability with the local non-Chinese population, particularly Pakeha, may havealso decreased their sense of belonging in New Zealand. Over time, theirhome-making process has been stalled due to their weaker identification asa Kiwi and lesser interaction with Pakeha, who represent the dominant socialand cultural power of their host country.

Due to emotional dissonance, most interviewees showed decreasing inter-est and confidence in building intercultural relationship networks resultingalso in inadequacies in practicing cosmopolitan sociability in their daily lives.Josh (28; 42; M; Auckland) discussed how negative emotional dynamics les-sened his ability to feel a sense of home in New Zealand:

The other day, I wanted to talk to my Pakeha neighbors, but I felt awkward and I

didn’t know how to start a conversation. They are just different from us. You

don’t know what they are thinking and you don’t know whether and when you

should ask them what is going on when there is a problem. I don’t want to

handle the awkwardness and unnatural feelings. So over a long time, I just

don’t really talk to Pakeha unless I have to. But the problem is, not being able

to socialize with my Pakeha neighbors or colleagues makes me feel I have never

been really accepted here and I don’t feel a real sense of belonging to New

Zealand, which is saddening.

Like the other interviewees, Josh’s discomfort in relating with Pakeha createdemotional barriers which discouraged him from approaching his Pakehaneighbors and colleagues in his daily life. His inability to build relationswith Pakeha has also diminished his regard for New Zealand as home.Moreover, uneasy intercultural contacts can result in prejudices, stereotypingof local cultures and people and a heightened sense of foreignness (Butcher,2009). These emotional responses generally lead to a weaker sense of home

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and belonging to the host society. Paul (28; 39: M; Auckland) further elabo-rated on this:

Some Kiwis at my work can be a bit narrow-minded and arrogant. They have

prejudice toward the Chinese people and China. ‘‘Tall poppy syndrome’’ is very

common in New Zealand. They cut you down when you are working hard and

do better than them. I don’t like the overly laid back Kiwi lifestyle here. That is

also why I don’t really want to be friends with Pakeha and I don’t feel [I] belong

to this country.

Paul is not happy with the way in which his Kiwi colleagues perceive Chinaand the Chinese people. In this respect, he seems to identify himself as aforeigner whose views differ from the locals. Identifying himself as a foreignerhas implications on how he sees and evaluates New Zealand and the Kiwilifestyle. His intercultural encounters with Pakeha in the past may not havebeen encouraging or positive, which may have contributed to his lack of inter-est in socializing with them. Consequently, his feelings of foreignness havebeen gradually amplified, leading to a diminished willingness to engage incosmopolitan sociability and a weakened sense of belonging to New Zealand.Paul’s example suggests how home-making depends on the capacity ofmigrants to cope with emotional barriers in their attempts to foster intercul-tural relations.

Moreover, for many of these first generation interviewees, family liferemains the sole focus of their life in New Zealand. While important for theprocesses of adaptation, the focus on family needs also leads many partici-pants to ‘‘shrink to the four walls of their home’’ (Wise, 2005: 177) in theireveryday life. While offering emotional stability, an inward focus on the homeas the primary contact zone is characterized, paradoxically, by a desire tomoderate feelings of isolation, estrangement and insecurity, but commonlyresults in their amplification. Only migrants who can actively handle ‘‘emo-tional dissonance’’ generated by intercultural encounters with cultural othershave a high likelihood of fully engaging in potential cosmopolitansociabilities.

To summarize, the emotional feelings these migrants have toward theChinese community (mainly comfort, affinity, ease and closeness) interplaywith the way they socialize in daily life: whom they socialize with, where theygo, the kind of social activities they prefer, and the kind of social networksthey build. Most interviewees only socialize with Chinese and tend to bedisinterested in socializing with cultural others. For many of them, their emo-tional experiences in interacting with Pakeha can be negative and frustrating,which undermines their initiative in building intercultural relationship net-works. Over time, their desire or ability to engage in cosmopolitan sociabilityis weakened and thus, their home-making process is disrupted.

Emotions and home-making in a transnational context

In addition to the long-lasting effects of negative early experiences and every-day encounters, interviewees also experienced stress, difficulties and chal-lenges living in cross-border and cross-cultural settings. Almost allinterviewees, regardless of age and time in New Zealand, are involved inan ongoing process of home-making, a task that demands significant ‘‘emo-tional labor’’ (Hochschild, 1983) to establish and maintain a sense of home in atransnational context.

Participants who are closely connected with China as a homeland and feelrooted in Chinese culture tend to have strong Chinese social networks acrossnational borders, and generally have less motivation or willingness to enlargetheir socializing radius beyond pragmatic or career concerns. This potentiallyhinders the development of cosmopolitan sociabilities and sense of home intheir host country, New Zealand. Some migrants, for a number of reasons(e.g., family obligation, cultural heritage, language barrier), continue to feelculturally and socially displaced in New Zealand, and therefore remain emo-tionally attached to China. In contrast, those who feel a sense of less attach-ment to China and Chinese culture tend to gravitate toward developing moreflexible identities and are more open to socializing with non-Chinese (espe-cially Pakeha). They are more likely to develop stronger attachments to NewZealand as home. Mrs. Ruan (32; 55; F; Auckland) explained her complicatedfeelings toward China and her shifting sense of home:

The first time we went back to China was in 1996. Before that trip, I was feeling

excited, because I missed my hometown and my friends. Also, I finally got the

chance to visit my parents after many years . . . But after a month, I realized,

China is not my home any more. New Zealand is the place where my family

and career are based . . . I went back to China a few years ago, I still felt familiar

with China, but the feelings were complicated—it is a combination of familiarity

and strangeness. I have to say my sense of home has been drifting toward New

Zealand . . . it is something I can’t really control.

Mrs. Ruan’s return visits to China are integral to her migration process, toemotionally reconnect with her parents and fulfill her familial obligations andexpectations. Mrs. Ruan felt excited about going back to China, but her emo-tions toward China have gradually been disturbed by a growing disconnect.Her attachment to China has been weakened by the reality that, for more than20 years, her family and career have increasingly transferred to New Zealand.Over time, there has been a shift in her socio-cultural expectations and norms,reinforced by a growing number of friends, family and social networks beingbased in her host country. This shifting sense of home toward New Zealandwas shared by many interviewees who realized that their notions of belonging

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and identity have been changed greatly along the migratory process. This shifthas resulted from years of lived experience in the host society. Furthermore, asense of rootedness toward one’s homeland does not necessitate a terminationof desire to identify with their host country, although the home-makingprocess can be heavily disrupted by the previously discussed emotionaldifficulties.

Indeed, positioned in a transnational setting, migrants’ emotional dynamicsof home-making tend to be filled with contradiction, ‘‘as migrants are morallypulled in different directions in social networks that stretch over large dis-tances’’ (Svas

ek, 2008: 216). Dee (32; 56; F; Auckland) articulated this in thefollowing narrative:

Since I moved to New Zealand, I have always been thinking about China,

because my parents are living there and they are really old now. I have to

stay here because my husband and my daughter are here, but I feel really bad

about not being able to take care of my aging parents. I feel like I have made a

huge sacrifice by leaving China. I was not able to be there for my daughter when

she was growing up because I had to come back to China for several years due to

financial concerns. Those two things make me feel doubtful and even resentful of

my migration decision back then. I just can’t feel that I belong to New Zealand,

but I can’t go back to China either. I can’t afford being away from my family

anymore.

The narrative of Dee is indicative of the wider sentiments of first generationinterviewees who expressed their strong sense of rootedness toward Chinawhere their parents or other family members still live. It is clear that Dee stillfeels torn after years of building a sense of belonging in a transnationalcontext. During the process of flying back and forth between China andNew Zealand, she has struggled to achieve a semblance of intimate familylife and maintain emotional closeness with her family members across bor-ders. In addition, it must be emotionally challenging for Dee to foster cosmo-politan sociability in her daily life and to be open to cultural others whilealready feeling emotionally torn and frustrated about her migration journey.Just as Skrbis

(2008: 238) has pointed out, ‘‘much emotional investment goesinto the maintenance of transnational contact with the left-behind family andsignificant others.’’ Dee has suffered a sense of regret and loss, since she feelsnegatively about not being able to be a filial daughter to her aging parents inChina or a good mother who can raise her own daughter in New Zealand. Thesacrifices she has made have raised doubts about her decision to migrate,which has worsened her feelings of loss, confusion and displacement inNew Zealand.

Many participants also discussed the challenges of their financial and hous-ing situation, adapting to new social norms and employment, and taking care

of aging parents. These problems can be intensified in a migration context andhave limited both their social activities and experiences, inclining them tofocus on working and dealing with many day-to-day worries. The material-ities of migrants’ everyday life situated in cross-border and cross-cultural con-texts can seriously undermine their capacity for socializing and engaging incosmopolitan sociability, preventing the formation of spaces of comfort andfamiliarity. The material and embodied aspects of the migratory process areclosely interrelated to the emotional dynamics of Chinese migrants; theyarticulate, in significant ways, the emotional contours of narratives and soci-abilities, which are beyond the scope of this paper.

Concluding thoughts

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 35 first generation Chinese migrants inNew Zealand, this paper has sought to unpack the emotional dynamicsinvolved in the home-making process during their migration journey. Thisresearch has shown that emotions and home-making interact with eachother in an amplified and more dramatic way in a migration context.Performing cosmopolitan sociability to build intercultural relationship net-works and seek a sense of home cannot be understood outside of the emotionsfrom which they emerge. Put another way, the process of engaging in cosmo-politan sociability and home-making is emotional and emotions generatedfrom these attempts influence migrants’ ability and willingness to engage infuture intercultural encounters.

Most interviewees spoke about traumatic experiences and unpleasantmemories from their early settlement period. Due to limited family resources,lesser access to mainstream social networks and lower intercultural compe-tency, almost all of the participants recalled housing and employment crises,unemployment, underemployment and de-skilling (Ip, 2006). Having experi-enced a series of emotional struggles has greatly affected their perceptions ofthemselves, their difference from the majority population, as well as their non-white migrant status. Based on individual migrants’ life stories, this researchexplored how emotional hardships encountered during the early settlementperiod dampened their desire to engage in cosmopolitan sociability and theirhome-making process in general. Future migration research would benefitfrom continuing to utilize a biographical (life-history) approach, with theaim to better understand how migrant experiences unfold over time, since‘‘it is the biographical past—memories, associations, histories, experi-ences—that contributes to orientating bodies in the present’’ (Valentine andSadgrove, 2014: 1982).

The research also found feelings of anxiety, awkwardness and discomfortexperienced by migrants in interacting with Pakeha in different social settingsin their daily life. The ‘‘emotional dissonance’’ (Middleton, 1989: 189) with

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Pakeha has undermined their willingness to build relationship networksbeyond the Chinese community. These negative experiences, emerging fromdaily intercultural encounters, result in emotional barriers that most of theinterviewees found difficult to overcome. The lack of self-confidence andfears of frustrating encounters led most interviewees to withdraw to theircomfort zones (e.g., home, Chinese church, Chinese friends’ gatherings andhouses, Asian supermarkets, Chinese cultural festivals). This preferenceundermined their ability and desire to develop cosmopolitan sociability andimpeded the home-making process. Home-making is an emotionally difficultprocess in and of itself, as individual migrants struggle to maintain a sense ofhome in a transnational setting, with family members scattered in differentgeographical locations. Most interviewees went through various emotionalhardships while undertaking multiple family obligations and maintainingclose ties with family members across national boundaries.

Migration can be a costly and risky exercise, particularly wherehome-making can be filled with a set of challenges in the host society.Home-making is a process that necessarily involves encounters with culturaldifference and difficulties in social interactions as migrants seek to re-create aspace filled with ‘‘comfort and cultural fit’’ (Butcher, 2010). During this pro-cess, migrants tend to go through a set of emotional challenges in coping withfeelings of displacement, estrangement and discomfort—striving to build aspace of home where they feel safe, comfortable and accepted in the hostsociety. In moments of emotional dissonance, most of these first generationinterviewees find it very challenging to extend themselves through forms ofcosmopolitan sociability that require both high intercultural competency andsubstantial emotional labor. It is evident that these interviewees have, to vary-ing degrees, failed to obtain opportunities for cosmopolitan sociabilities thatmay have enabled them to achieve a greater sense of comfort and familiaritywhile immersed in the new languages, cultural norms and socializing patternsof their host country.

This paper has addressed the emergence and absence of cosmopolitan soci-abilities in migrants’ lives and examined the ways in which a reduced abilityto conduct cosmopolitan sociabilities can frustrate the migrant home-makingprocess. Most participants expressed their struggles and frustrations in inter-acting with cultural others. Indeed, performing cosmopolitan sociability tobuild a sense of home is a struggle, and is impeded by how migrants feelabout themselves and the cultural others they encounter. As visible minorities,the first generation Chinese migrants in this research are positioned in asocially disadvantaged place in a Pakeha-dominated New Zealand society.Feelings of emotional dissonance, reinforced by negative experiences duringthe early settlement period and everyday challenges of migration, have stalledopportunities for performing cosmopolitan sociability and for them to feel athome in a transnational setting. Situated in a context of increasing ethnic

diversity in New Zealand (particularly its largest city, Auckland), this researchhas demonstrated that the process of home-making for first generationmigrants is inevitably an emotional process that involves emotional labor(Hochschild, 1983). It is not a one-time project, but rather an ongoing processthat demands constant emotional work and active engagements with cosmo-politan sociability.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship, and/or publication of this paper.

Funding

This work was supported by a scholarship (number 201206220081) provided by theChina Scholarship Council.

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