About the Event
Migrant activists today are not only mobilizing for immigrant inclusion—they also fight for ethnic recognition as pan ethnic groups, for homeland democracy as diaspora, and for democratic change as transnational allies. Yet what counts as an ethnic minority, immigrant marker (such as "Chinese) may reappear abroad as hegemonic nationalist identity in homeland. How do these shifting, paradoxical terrains of pan-ethnic, diasporic, and immigrant identities produce varied pathways for immigrant coalitions to re-emerge both on the Left and Right in the host country? Drawing on five years of global ethnography and 161 interviews with Hong Konger activists and their coalitions, Kennedy Wong argues that transnational migrant politics cannot be reduced to a single binary. Instead, it unfolds through multipolar dynamics, as actors align and realign their “grounds” of solidarity across events that connect or fracture different chains of equivalence. Two cases illustrate this: pro-Trump Hong Kong democracy activists who built ties with Chinese Republicans, and progressive pro-regime “Chinese” activists whose calls for policing strained pan-Asian coalitions. These cases highlight why Western Left–Right polarity is insufficient for understanding diaspora politics. A multipolarity perspective reveals how ethnic identity can embody both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic positions, producing fragile solidarities and unexpected fractures in migrant political organizing.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Kennedy Chi-pan Wong is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at The King’s University. His research focuses on diaspora organizing processes and the political polarizations that emerge in alliance formations. His current book project, Multipolar Politics, based on five years of global ethnography, examines how political fault lines and transnational repression shape the formation of alliances in the context of global migration and diaspora organizing. His work has appeared in American Behavioral Scientist and the Journal of International Migration and Integration. He has received several graduate student paper awards, including an Honorable Mention from the ASA Human Rights Section.
Discussant:
Bernice Hoi Chung Cheung, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto
RSVP:
Please email chk.library@utoronto.ca