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Afro-Caribbean People in China: Away from Home and at Home with Self C. Jama Adams John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York

Abstract

Migration, both involuntary and voluntary, is one of the defining characteristics of the peoples of the Caribbean. Historically the traditions of storytelling, oral and written, have been used to convey a sense of the psychological dimensions of Caribbean migration. There is however a dearth of formal research on the subjectivities of Afro-Caribbean migrants. The current paper melds first persons’ narratives with psychological theories to present a preliminary exploration of the reflective and self-improvement activities of Afro-Caribbean migrants in mainland China. Thirteen Afro-Caribbean migrants participated in semi-structured interviews. Results indicated that successful migrants were able to maintain a stance of adaptive ambivalence that allows them to integrate features of both cultures to promote self-development within the contexts of varied constraints. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed in the conclusion. Key words: China, migration, Afro-Caribbean, psychoanalysis, self-projects

Afro-Caribbean People in China: Away from Home and at Home with Self

“What Cathay shores for them are gleaming golden what magic keys they carry to unlock what golden endragoned doors?” (Braithwaite, 1973, p. 52). China is undergoing rapid and profound changes that, in turn, make it an attractive

location for a range of immigrants across the labour spectrum including traders, students and technically-skilled and creative types (Bodomo, 2010a, 2010b, 2012; Skeldon, 2012). For some Africana immigrants, China is an attractive site to address themes related to self-development, such as rediscovery, reinvention and renewal of the self; to develop a different life trajectory which is a process facilitated by geographic mobility. The current paper is an initial attempt to understand the psychosocial experiences surrounding self-development and identity construction of Afro-Caribbean migrants in China, with a view to generating themes for further research.

The migrant in China is partially embraced by the host country because of the cognitive and creative skills he can offer even as he faces obstacles to becoming fully integrated into the culture. As the current research will show, many of the Africana

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migrants who were interviewed are doing well from economic and intellectual perspectives, while some tend to be isolated, with unsatisfied emotional and spiritual needs. Many adopt a stance of what I term adaptive ambivalence from which they perceive the advantages and shortcomings of both their home culture and also that of the host country. They therefore construct a healthy ambivalence around a hybrid combination of psychosocial qualities that adequately manage the tension between disenchantment with the original home and obstacles to becoming embedded in the Chinese culture. At the same time they also relish both the fond memories of certain aspects of home and the sense of growth and autonomy that they experience within their new cultural space.

Afro-Caribbean migrants to China therefore find themselves embedded in a society which allows for self-projects that are not easily realizable in the Caribbean. There are however, constraints especially around political activities such as the assertion of group rights, and the migrant is also aware of the antipathy to the stranger or foreigner which is an expression of a low level of social trust by the Chinese. The migrant in this context therefore has to weigh the costs and benefits of being a Black, Western foreigner who is educated and reflective.

There is no published research on Afro-Caribbean migrant experiences in China, therefore what is discussed in the current paper is both revelatory and tentative. The first part of the paper briefly outlines the history and current population of Africana migrants in China. This is followed by a discussion of contemporary Chinese society, including its pursuit of modernity and its attitudes toward race with reference to the ways in which these facilitate or constrain the self-development projects of immigrants. The scant research on Africana migrants in China is then discussed, followed by some general perspectives on migrant experiences, as it relates to Afro-Caribbeans. Psychological features of self-construction by migrants are then considered, including the idea of adaptive ambivalence to describe both the pleasures and challenges of self-development, among Afro-Caribbean migrants in China. Finally, I present the methodology, results and discussion, and note areas for further research in the conclusion.

History of Africana Peoples in China

Africans were reported in China from as early as 600 CE, but their presence was discussed more frequently from the twelfth century (Wyatt, 2009). These early accounts portray Africans as enslaved persons across a wide variety of roles including sailors, soldiers, and domestic workers. In the context of the documented history of enslaved persons of Africana heritage, there is usually an under-reported shadow history of free Africana persons in the same terrain, such as merchants and elite visitors (Akyeapong, 2000; Dikotter, 1992, 1994). This merchant class came about, in part as a result of the steady trade between the East Coast of Africa and China up until the early sixteenth century (Snow, 1988).

Apart from its experiences with the West, China’s internal history affected its views towards foreigners and persons of other races. A detailed history of Chinese elites from antiquity to 1950s, noted that many held xenophobic and racial attitudes towards non-Chinese peoples (Dikotter, 1992, 1994). These elites established a hierarchy of barbarism, with dark-skinned people at the bottom. Whites were placed below Chinese and were both

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feared and denigrated. There was also a parallel ethnic hierarchy within the Chinese population where the Han ethnic group was seen as superior to the other Chinese ethnic minorities (Harrell, 1997). Both hierarchies created a culture of wariness toward ethnic difference and until recently made it difficult for foreigners to assimilate into Chinese society.

Peoples of Africana Heritage in China

Defining Africana. Bodomo (2012), in his pioneering work on Africans in China, notes that defining Africana in the Chinese context is quite challenging. Many Chinese have a tendency to define all dark-skinned persons as African and generally, Afro-Caribbean people are to them, indistinguishable from the larger Africana diaspora in which they are embedded. Bodomo’s (2010) study of the socio-economic aspects of African traders in China provides an expansive definition: “...the term African as it is used here is first and foremost meant to refer to someone who is a citizen of any of the countries in Africa. It also includes people who are not citizens of any of the countries in Africa but who consider themselves to be from Africa or to be of African origin” (Bodomo, 2010a, p. 4). Given that Africana communities in southern China are organized with different aggregations including nation, regions, race/ethnicity and religion, migrants have many options for self-identification. For example, Afro-Caribbean migrants in China may think of themselves as persons of Africana heritage from a particular country or region, or as New World Blacks or simply as Black. This multiplicity of potential identity claims allows Africana migrants in China to construct and strategically deploy a hierarchy of identity postures in a given locale, to advance their self-projects (Bodomo, 2012; Torres-Saillant, 2009).

Population estimates. The estimates of the contemporary population of peoples of African heritage throughout China vary widely in the absence of detailed government-issued statistics. Bodomo (2012) suggests that there are approximately 500,000 Africans in China, of which 100,000 are West African traders in the south. West Africans dominate in Guangzhou in Guangdong Province and significant numbers of North Africans are found in Yiwu in Zhejiang Province. There are smaller groups of Africans dispersed within the cities of Shanghai and, to a lesser degree, Beijing.

Persons of Africana heritage in China can also be disaggregated into four distinct and substantive populations. The first group comprises traders, most of whom are unmarried young men from West Africa, who have some college education and are found mostly in Hong Kong and southern China (Yang, 2010). Students comprise the second major group. Since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, it has granted scholarships to thousands of foreign students (Bodomo, 2012). The third group is the oldest, established Africana community in China, and is comprised of Lusophone Africans and the descendants of Africans who have lived in Macau since the seventeenth century (Bodomo, 2010a; Morais, 2009). The fourth group, and the one most populated by Afro-Caribbeans, consists of a growing but mostly transient population of formally skilled Africana professional immigrants. They work either as executives in Western or Chinese corporations, consultants, entrepreneurs or teachers. Africana members of the professional business

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community are predominantly found in Shanghai and to a lesser degree in Beijing and Guangzhou. Africana teachers of English, like students, can increasingly be found dispersed across China (Bodomo, 2012). Contemporary Context of Migration to China: The Pursuit of Modernity and Attitudes toward Race. China is not a homogenous and singular entity and has historically demonstrated a multifaceted stance toward Western style modernity. On the one hand, elements within China admire the creativity and technological prowess of the Western nations and have co-opted their knowledge and skills to attempt to transform China into a technological superpower (Mitter, 2004). On the other hand, other elements within China are highly skeptical of the West’s embrace of unfettered individuality. China therefore embraces technological and material advancements associated with Western modernization but is also wary, if not opposed to modernization’s other ideologies such as human rights. For example, it is only now beginning to address concerns about care of the environment (Haugen, 2011; Kleinman, et al., 2011). Support for China’s interest in foreign talent can be seen in the more recent and thoughtful approach to immigration, with the introduction of a talent visa policy, while at the same time streamlining the process for foreigners working in China (China Law & Practice, 2012; Zhang, 2012). The new law allows for visas for creative workers, traders, family unification and permanent residency. Paradoxically, and consistent with the notorious antipathy to foreigners (Dikotter, 1992), there are African migrants who have resided there for decades, adapted well, owned property, and may even have had Chinese families but who have had difficulty securing permanent residency status (Bodomo, 2012). In the past, permanent migrants were virtually non-existent, as China almost never granted permanent visas much less citizenship to foreigners (Haimei, 2011).

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence of racism in contemporary China (BanFa, 2012; Hevi, 1962; Presswood, 2013), but very little formal research (Johnson, 2011). Individuals have given many accounts of personal experiences of racist attitudes against them expressed on the internet, despite the state’s official a priori stance that there is no deep-rooted racism. A study by Johnson (2011) on the daily interactions between mostly African students and Chinese hosts suggested that a lot of hostility exists between the groups. Based on data collected between the 1980s and 2006, he attributes the hostility to a lack of direct exposure of the Chinese to peoples of Africana heritage, the effects of Western media culture on the image of Africans, the segregation of foreign students, and the pervasive sense of superiority on the part of the Chinese. Although Johnson’s research sheds some light on the state of racism in contemporary China, the methodology is weak. Research by Bodomo (2012) suggests that there is a continuum of Chinese

responses to Africans as a function of location and role. For instance, African traders in

Yiwu appear to be more positively received than traders in Guangzhou. Similarly, within

China, the issue of wariness regarding difference is evident in the inequities between the

dominant Han ethnic group and other indigenous Chinese ethnic groups (Dikotter, 1992;

Harrell, 1997).

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Literature on Africana Migrants in China The research literature on Africana migrants in China (Bodomo, 2010a, 2010b,

2012; Haugen, 2011, 2012; Hevi; 1962; Johnson, 2011; Li et al., 2007; Matthews, 2011; Morias, 2009; Yang, 2010), while growing is still modest, and makes little reference to migrant subjectivities. By way of contrast, there is a considerable trove of internet-based ruminations on the experiences of Black migrants in China. Research studies tend to focus on the experiences of the African traders in southern China in relation to the Chinese authorities (Bodomo, 2012; Li et al., 2007; Yang, 2010). One such study (Bodomo, 2012), which focuses on trade relations, suggests that the Chinese perceive Africans as a mercantile vanguard which aspires to expand to all the major business centers in China and to ascend the value chain. The Chinese believe that over time, these businessmen and women should be a substantial bridge to the African mainland and therefore facilitate a growing and substantive relationship between China and Africa.

Another study by Haugen (2011) explores some aspects of the psychosocial world of the Nigerian migrant through the complex role of religion among marginalized and mostly undocumented African immigrants who worship at unregistered Pentecostal churches in Guangzhou in southern China. Religious gatherings are a source of reassurance that the congregants will achieve their material goals in China and will regularize their visa status thereby becoming more mobile. In a related study Haugen (2012) argues that many of these immigrants have sought to escape immobility in Nigeria only to experience a second immobility in China due to their undocumented status.

In summary, there is limited research on people of Africana heritage in contemporary China, and none on Afro-Caribbeans. The few studies which focus on African migrants, say very little about their subjectivities. There is relatively little research on the migrant’s pursuit of the good life that goes beyond the material and the cognitive. Therefore the psychological dynamics of relatively affluent migrants are not well understood (Benson & O’Reilly, 2009). Examining these dynamics is even more challenging in the case of Afro-Caribbean migrants in China, given that they are a virtually invisible subset embedded in the often negatively racialized category of the Africana population in China. Perspectives on Caribbean Migration Experiences

There are two broad perspectives on the psychological experiences of migrants, including those from the Caribbean. On the one hand, there is a patina of sadness to the literature on migration of the period straddling the World War II generation of migrants (Selvon, 1989). Most of these persons, despite the intention to only stay for a temporary period (Peach, 1991) often, for complex reasons could not return permanently to their homelands and were forced to stay in psychosocially alien if not inhospitable places (Brown, 1995). Their experiences are described by the traditional two-country model definition of the migrant (Akhtar, 1995; Ginsberg & Ginsberg, 1982), and are still valid in the twenty-first century. In this model, migration is done reluctantly and is often permanent. Over time, the migrant becomes increasingly invested in his new home and defines his development, psychic health and achievements in terms of the standards of his new home.

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This model speaks to the trauma of leaving and to life-long melancholia for the lost home (Ginsberg & Ginsberg, 1982). The early Caribbean migrants were in flight from unemployment, poor education and limited possibilities for self-growth. So while not necessarily fleeing political persecution, many fit the psycho-social profile of the reluctant émigré of that period, experiencing a life-long yearning for home, and melancholia over the loss of the familiar (Bhurga and Becker, 2005; Selvon, 1989). This model is not, however, all-encompassing and does not reflect the full range of experiences of the three percent of the world population who are migrants (Castles, 2010).

On the other hand, alternate models that speak to psychologically healthier outcomes also exist (Benson & O’Reilly, 2009; Strenger, 2013). The perspectives in the early twenty-first century are more differentiated in that they include a more positive and less traumatic set of experiences for some Caribbean migrants. The ease of communications, relatively low cost of travel, increased opportunities to acquire skills and well-paying employment in the developed countries offer more possibilities for psychological self-work than were available to the earlier generations of Caribbean migrants. For example, some contemporary Afro-Caribbean migrants are partial expatriates who temporarily leave to pursue opportunities which are not available at home. Such migrants still consider their respective Caribbean nations to be their homes, but unlike previous immigrants, they may return home quite frequently and maintain substantive contact with folks in their homelands. Other contemporary migrants may never return permanently, especially those who migrate to be reunited with family members. Despite leaving permanently, these migrants do not psychologically renounce their home of origin. For example, migrants called sojourners engage in what has been referred to as lifestyle migration, and move from one part of the developed world to another (Benson & O’Reilly, 2009, p. 609). These are migrants who, given a particular temperament, emotional and relational legacy and sought-after technical and creative skills, with a peripatetic bent, do not strongly feel the need to identify any one country as home. A subset of Caribbean migrants may be considered lifestyle migrants because they have gone in pursuit of growth opportunities to developing countries in the Middle East and to China both of which are thought to be more facilitating locales than the traditional North. For example, pilots and flight attendants have gone to the Emirates and other persons have headed for antipodean destinations such as Australasia and to China. As a result of this trend the community of peoples of Africana heritage in China has been growing over the last twenty years. Complexities of Migrant Self-Construction As Stuart Hall (2002) notes, the migrant is deeply influenced by home, carries it

with her in deeply internalized ways, even as she seeks to selectively distance from it. The

Afro-Caribbean migrants studied in the current paper tend to a large degree, to fit this

profile. This ambivalence is characteristic of, for example, migrants working for

corporations and in non-governmental organizations in the areas of advocacy and capacity

building. It is also evident in those who work as teachers in the international schools that

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are found in large cities across the globe. Given this ambivalence, the migrant is sometimes

less emotionally invested in the place that they think of as home, and more invested in the

self as curious, creative and productive (Strenger, 2013). The pursuit of knowledge and

wealth can lead to an intellectually stimulating and materially rewarding lifestyle for some,

but can also be emotionally costly given frequent moves, tenuous community ties and serial

and short-lasting monogamous intimate relationships (Strenger, 2013).

Pursuit of the Good Life For some classes of migrants the pursuit of ‘the good life’ is the overarching goal of migrating. The good life is to some degree subjectively defined, as the individual constructs an evolving model that speaks to cognitive, material and socio-emotional goals. These components resonate pleasingly with the migrant, such that she feels a sense of authenticity and a self that is experienced as integrated and coherent.

The migrant’s goals and the quality of her pursuit are influenced by foundational ways of thinking and acting developed early in her lifespan. A psychoanalytic perspective emphasizes that these core ontological positions reflect the influence of primary caregivers and, over time, the influence of the social institutions in which the individual is embedded (Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist and Target, 2004; Walls, 2004). The migrant’s pursuit of a subjectively defined sense of the good life and well-being, could therefore be explained by exploring influences from intimate family relationships and from larger socially-mediated factors that unconsciously influence ways of thinking and, feeling as well as choices and actions.

A foundation of support and encouragement helps the individual to develop the resiliency necessary to manage setbacks and anxiety and to tolerate the inherent narcissistic injuries which result from being reflective (Winnicott, 1973). I argue that a history of healthy attachments to primary caregivers engenders a sense of confidence in the self. Both are invaluable assets to migrants in that they provide the base for a willingness to explore, take risks and develop emotional affinities with a wide range of individuals (Akhtar, 1995). These assets further allow the migrant to influence and be influenced by the psychosocial demands of the host country in which he resides. In summary this psychoanalytic perspective speaks to developmental achievements such as secure relationships, self-confidence, curiosity, reflectivity and emotional resilience, all of which facilitate good-enough functioning in general, and more specifically are the attributes necessary to be a successful migrant. Self-Making, Hybridity and the Construction of Blackness Equipped with the attributes described above, and a pre-dispositional need to belong, attach and affiliate (Hollinger, 2002), migrants must also construct their selves within a cultural context that profoundly, but not necessarily consciously, influences the process of self-construction. The ways in which culture shapes the individual’s subjectivities with respect to issues such as agency and ethics are not well understood (Scheffler, 1999). The Caribbean migrant interacts with both his culture of origin and the host country’s culture in his self-construction project.

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Within the Caribbean, identity-formation experiences reflect an epistemological fluidity that is manifested in the mixture of ethnic, racially and class-informed ways of constructing the self and the concomitant shifting hierarchies (Hintzen, 2003). Caribbean cultures are a manifestation of Gupta and Ferguson’s (1992) point that no culture is pure and neither does it occupy a discrete and singular space. Such plurality of cultural experiences gives rise to multiple ways of the Afro-Caribbean individual expressing his Afro-Caribbean heritage, among others.

Against that cultural background, Caribbean migrants internalize a complex psycho-social sense of their home countries, and this contributes to the on-going construction of hybrid selves (Hall, 1990). This would include revered elements of home, varying degrees of acknowledgement of its shortcomings, along with a varied sense of the opportunities and constraints on self-development within potential host countries (Thomas-Hope, 2002). The ability to construct such hybrid selves is facilitated by growing up in multi-cultural and relatively tolerant New World settings. Such contexts, despite their structural inequality and limited mobility, expose the Caribbean individual to multiple cultural heritages, and by extension, ways of being. Equally important given the longstanding practice of migrating, within Caribbean cultures there are ways of thinking and networks that clearly link migration to self-development (Hall, 1990; Thomas-Hope, 2002).

Self-construction also includes both negative and positive ascriptions of Blackness, themes that would be part of the migration networks and would influence choice of host countries. Some host locales affect Black identity construction in negative ways. They irrationally construct ‘the Black’ as a problem and question Blacks’ right to exist within their presence (Brown, 1995; Hintzen, 2003). As Fanon (2008) said, it seemed that wherever the Negro went, he was a Negro. In addition the widespread and longstanding Euro-American ideology that Blacks are psycho-socially and intellectually inferior created structural limitations to accessing resources which Blacks needed for self-development and for healthy assimilation (Bashi, 2004; Brown, 1995; Dresser, 1986). Therefore in the lived experiences of the individual constructing his or her Blackness, and in Africana identity projects in general, there is always an aspect of emancipation - a struggle with the dominant group to express one’s humanity and one’s subjectivity (Edwards, 2005).

This kind of emancipation animates the migrant’s healthy sense of Blackness as an expression of his larger humanity and commonality with the citizens of his host country. The skepticism regarding Black intellectual skills is no longer as evident, given the active recruitment of skilled Caribbean citizens to the developed countries of the North, and now to the Middle East and China. At the same time Blacks still face daunting obstacles to being fully integrated into these societies. They must work the tension between deploying an over-privileged sense of Blackness that crowds out other ways of presenting and representing self (Appiah, 2006), and maintaining some degree of detachment from these networks and therefore pose healthy ontological questions to himself. Such a stance facilitates dis-embedding/re-embedding and acknowledges individual agency and self-making (Chun, 2009). In summary, understanding the experience of Afro-Caribbean migrants to China entails appreciating both the opportunities for self-development, alongside the structural constraints imposed on them in both home and host countries. In addition one would want

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to also understand, the strategies for self-development that inform the choice of host countries and the impact of the experiences there on self-identity issues such as competence and ethnic and racial identities. The current study is an initial attempt to explore how these issues play themselves out among Afro-Caribbean migrants in China. Specifically, the following research questions are posed. 1) How might some Caribbean migrants conceptualize the idea of home? 2) What are some of the subjective experiences of being a Black migrant in China? 3) What is the nature of the ambivalence that some contemporary migrants experience and can it be adaptive?

Method

The current study is part of a larger investigation of themes of self-work and self-development by Africana migrants in mainland China. Ethical approval for the full research proposal was obtained and data was collected in Guangzhou and Shanghai between 2011 and 2013. I was exposed to members of the Caribbean community in an earlier visit to Shanghai in 2010. This community was mostly comprised of professionals working legally in a variety of fields. All the participants resided in China at the time of data collection, and were from Africa, North America and the Caribbean. Participants Demographics on the participants (N = 13) for the current study are presented in Table 1. Participants’ fluency in Chinese ranged from full literacy and very good speaking skills, to barely any literacy skills and basic fluency. All the participants had travelled abroad prior to coming to China and some lived for extended periods in Europe and the United States. All maintained regular contact, ranging from daily to monthly, with family and friends in the Caribbean and used a variety of mostly electronic media. Sampling Method and Procedures Participants were contacted through word of mouth. Knowledgeable individuals within the expatriate Africana community organizations in China were enlisted to recruit participants. Participants had to self-identify as having some relationship to Africana heritage and had to be living in China for at least one year. Snowball sampling was also used whereby the participants who were initially recruited made referrals of others. All were asked to participate in a two hour semi-structured interview that explored their sense of home. An example of an interview item is “Give three phrases to describe home”. (Subjects would then be asked to give examples of experience that illustrated what they meant by that particular phrase). Participants were also questioned about their motives for coming to China. For instance, they were asked “What were the circumstances that led you to come to China?”, “What goals did you have in mind that you hoped to achieve in China?”. Items about their experiences in China included “What have you achieved since coming to China?”, and “Use five phrases to describe your perceptions of the Chinese?”. Subjects would then be asked to give examples of experiences that illustrated what they meant by that particular phrase. Additionally, they were asked “What are some

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of the challenges of having Chinese friends?” and questions about their perceptions of themselves (“Looking at your experience in China so far, tell me about three ways in which it has affected how you think about yourself). Only aliases are used in the results and discussion section to protect the identities of the participants. The data was analyzed using themes emerging from the psychologically attuned literature on the experience of being a migrant. Table 1 Demographic Data

Alias Gender Age Nation-ality

Arrived in China

Ethnicity (subjectively defined)

Education Occupation Site

Krystal F 29 Jamaican 2010 Black Bachelor of Arts (BA)

English Teacher

Sao- Xing

Elaine F 32 Jamaican 2008 Black Caribbean

Masters of Science (MSc) China

English Teacher

Zhengzhou

Perlene F 41 Jamaican 2009 Black Masters of Arts (MA) en route

Teacher Shanghai (SH)

Emeline F 27 French 2009 Guadeloupe/ French

Masters of Business Administration (MBA)

Sales Manager

SH

Natasha F 31 American 2010 Black/ Jamaican/ Caribbean

MA Teacher SH

Mikhaila F 29 Jamaican 2009 Black BA Entrepreneur SH Ann F 29 Jamaican 2009 Jamaican MA Language

Teacher SH

Dean M 27 Bahamian 2008 Black BA-China Trader Guangzhou William M 35 Bahamian 2001 Black BA Designer SH BigE M 23 Dominican 2008 Black Undergraduate Student/

Musician SH

Envoy M 27 Antiguan 2009 Black Undergraduate Student SH Mike M 38 Canadian 2008 Black/

Barbados MBA Information

Technology (IT) Executive

SH

Raoul M 35 Guadeloupean

2002 Black MFA (Master of Fine Arts)

Entrepreneur SH

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Results & Discussion The literature suggests that self-making in migrants involves a focus on certain

themes such as the ambivalence regarding home, the perceptions of the host country and

the process of embedding there, the sense of identity including race and issues of agency,

and the building of a community of support. Some of these themes are reflected in samples

of participants’ comments which are either quoted or paraphrased below, and interpreted.

Home The participants had a view of home that reflected a rapturous vision of its

aesthetics and of familial love. Raoul, a Guadeloupian artist and businessman spoke wistfully of the aesthetics of his island home, “The light, the heat of the raindrops.” Many spoke of the natural beauty, wonderful beaches, vivid sunsets and tasty cuisine. They also expressed a strong sense of being loved and feeling secure. Mikhaila, a Jamaican business woman portrayed home as, “Your comfort zone, where you can be yourself, where they know who you really are.” Others gave a perspective on home that decoupled it from the Caribbean and instead linked it to a comforting state of mind and to China. William, a Bahamian designer has travelled extensively and noted that, “Home is my personal place. It is what is mine. For all intents and purposes Shanghai is my home as of now.” At the same time, many were clear that their Caribbean island would always be home and none in this cohort saw themselves living in China permanently. Elaine, a Jamaican university lecturer stated, “Home is always home. It’s not like I was leaving forever.”

Although some participants described the Caribbean as home, it could not facilitate their development as individuals in important ways. Many participants spoke of the dire economic situation. Perline, a Jamaican secondary school teacher stated, “My country is not growing. Financially it is not feasible. I was happy I left.” Krystal, another Jamaican who teaches English at a university stated, “Jobs but no career prospects at home; living from pay check to pay check, nothing changes with regards to your ability to generate change.” As BigE so pointedly stated, “For me to get a good job, (at home) someone have to retire or die.”

Some participants, who previously lived in the developed economies of the West, saw limits on their possibilities for self-growth in those countries as well. Emeline is a sales manager from Guadeloupe who has lived for extensive periods in France. She stated that, “Not many opportunities in France to gain experience. In Guadeloupe everything is fixed. It is like being in a bubble.” Natasha, a Jamaican and a naturalized American citizen, is a kindergarten teacher who had lived in South Florida. She stated, “I was tired of South Florida. Monotonous, mundane, too familiar, not challenging….no excitement, no change; wanted to be exposed to something new culturally. I would not return there if I could help it.”

The perspectives of the participants with regards to home resonate with themes in the research literature. There is evidence that the idea of home is deployed in a variety of ways. It can be comforting in its beauty, and reassuring in its validation of one’s specialness. Consistent with Hall (1990), and Strenger (2013) it can also be detached from

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its space and place and be primarily a state of mind that can be deployed to strengthen will and assuage loss.

The participants’ view of home also reflects foundational legacies evidenced by the persistence of striving for growth and embracing difference (Fonagy, et al., 2004). In this vein the participants demonstrated the capacity to hold in tension both the virtues and shortcomings of home, without the need to privilege one at the price of the other (Akhtar, 1995). This capacity is a crucial psychological stance to be able to maintain a position of adaptive ambivalence. The feelings of pride of achievement attained in the host country, as well as the appreciation of the revered legacies and features of home serve to enhance growth for the participants, albeit tinged with melancholy, given the difficulties associated with permanent return to their native lands.

In summary, this group of participants had a sense of their unrealized potential, clear-eyed views of the comforts and limitations of home, and the need to leave to pursue further self-development.

Going to China All the participants except one were able to tap into networks that offered varying

degrees of assistance for employment. Some persons used these networks to search for employment online and most received job offers as English language teachers. Others leveraged contacts that resulted in attractive job offers. They were also all able to cobble together support networks either prior to arriving in China or upon arriving. The China of the participants’ imaginations was positive, but quite limited. Participants had both negative and positive experiences of the transition into the society. Mikhaila’s approach: “Knew no one here. Did research and found Jamaicans in China. Found a key person who introduced me to everyone else. She was very helpful in showing me the ropes and introducing me to her church community.” Natasha’s experience was quite turbulent, “Knew no one here. I was introduced to a Black woman already here through the company that recruited me. We supported each other technically and emotionally, with her being Black. The program was a scam run by an American guy. I knew but I still stayed. Went to a (small) fourth tier city where I was very warmly received; much warmer reception than the (big) city.” Others had a relative in China or were assisted by the companies that had recruited them. The approaches outlined above suggest a rich migration culture and networks that Caribbean people participate in and utilize to inform their peregrinations. They also highlight the resilience of this vanguard group. Migrants’ Perceptions of the Culture of China

The participants had a nuanced awareness and respect for China’s history in the context of its current state. Dean observed, “With such a long history comes responsibility. A lot of younger Chinese feel the pressure to measure up to parental expectations, e.g., marriage, house, goods. This is not an option, like in the West. The young feel it is too demanding; must live by tradition. They do it, even though they do not want to.” This resonated with the research literature (Kleinman et al., 2011) and comments from other participants who noted the tension between tradition and modernity in China. Natasha also noted that the Chinese were hungry for change but resisted it at the same time. This

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perhaps led to surprising gaps in the Chinese population’s worldview. There was a sense that while many Chinese were curious about the world, there was much they did not know. Elaine observed, “Money is their God. Their moral compass is out of sync. There is a lot of corruption and there does not appear to be much concern if someone is hurt.”

The perceived culture described above appears to create both risk and opportunity for everyone, including migrants. Trust issues abound as William noted: “Low social trust. You must be careful. They will not help you if they do not know you. Once your credentials are established you are fine.” Mikhaila observed that, “They are insular, not to be trusted. They privilege their own; will use you. If you are getting ahead it is only because they are benefitting. They like cunningness and will admire you if you have it.” The issue of ethics in a changing society therefore, is very much prominent in China (Kleinman et al., 2011).

The migrants perceived that many of the Chinese they came into contact with appeared to lack well developed analytical thinking skills and a capacity for initiative. Perline made an observation that was echoed by all the participants, “It can be very frustrating as you walk into a store and you want to change an order but you can’t. They don’t think. Some of the things they do are illogical, they do not make sense. I got a ticket for making a legal stop.” Raoul reiterated that, “I think they are traumatized, blocked. They cannot see broadly. Do not know how to think. Weird. Follow, copy but do not ask ‘Why?’ No pride in creativity, only in making money.” William noted, “They are not good at problem solving; figuring out new problems. My assistant got upset when I required her to do something that required her to think. She said, ‘It is my job to do what you say. Do not ask me to figure it out by myself’. There is a reluctance to show initiative. Do not want to be wrong. Do not want to lose face. Do not want to show up someone with power as being wrong.” Many participants exulted in the opportunities that were available to them in China. Mikhaila noted, “If you want a chance to remake yourself, this is the country for you. Safe, in China, my guard is lowered here. I like my lifestyle. Input from a woman is valued. No limit on what you can do and when you do it. If you have a good job you can do what you want to do. You can make your mark on the world; offers so much opportunity. I plan to open a Caribbean-Chinese Business Council that will have a positive effect on the Caribbean.” BigE noted, “In China I get more from my degree than I would in England. Here I get the language and the culture and I am more competitive.” Natasha noted, “Massive Beautiful Onion-layered: You think you know it and you don’t know.” A major issue in China is the tension between modernity and tradition as experienced by immigrants and as reflected in the larger Chinese culture. The push for modernization in China unfolds unevenly presenting both opportunities and challenges (Kleinman et al., 2011). Fei (2011) notes the lag in addressing social justice issues, resulting in China experiencing ‘incomplete modernity’. This is reflective in the immigrants’ comments where they extol the cognitive and material opportunities while bemoan the ethical shortcomings and the low social trust. A less obvious source of tension is evident in the immigrants, many of whom seek to distance from some of the tradition bound constraints of their home country and at the same time place high value on other aspects of that tradition; practices that are not validated in their experiences in China.

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Self-Growth Reflecting on their stay in China, many participants felt that they had matured in a

variety of ways. They most frequently noted a sense of being more aware and tolerant of difference. Krystal stated, “I am more patient and accommodating, given the language and cultural differences.” Ann, spoke to the same theme when she said, “I let things slide a bit. It is easy to get very aggressive in response to the pushing on the Metro.”

Participants also noted that they were now more skilled and experienced. Elaine noted, “I got my Masters in China and I have travelled a lot in the region. I also speak some Chinese. I am much more open-minded to non-Western ways of thinking.” Envoy noted that, “I can speak and read Chinese. I am not just tranquil anymore. At times I can be profound.” A major accomplishment for BigE was mastering Chinese, “In class no one spoke English. I had to study hard. For a long time I did not understand anything. My love of music and me playing as a guitarist, kept me going. Without me composing and playing I would have left. It got easier in the second year. Now I am fluent and literate.”

This cohort felt that their self-worth was more than validated by being in China. This is a function of being primed, prior to coming to China to being alert to opportunity and also being resilient in the face of the inevitable setbacks. Consistent with the work of Fonagy et al., (2004), and Winnicott (1973), success in China, for these immigrants has its foundation in early familial experience that stressed the validation of curiosity, risk taking, problem solving and a resilience that is tolerant of setbacks.

Race and Blackness in China The participants agreed that immigrants had to deal with race and being foreign in

China. They all remarked that most Chinese believed that Africana people came from Africa, although those with high levels of education or who had travelled knew better. Elaine noted that, “It took a while to realize I was not just a foreigner, I was also Black. The city had not seen many foreigners. I stood out. All Black people are from Africa which is a country. I showed a Chinese friend a map of where Jamaica was in the Caribbean. The next day she introduced me to someone as being from Jamaica in Africa. I am a lot more race conscious. I have been routinely rejected for jobs because I am Black. Sometimes those jobs have been given to non-native White English speakers such as people from the Ukraine and Germany. As a Black person you have better chances of getting work if you are on a US/UK passport”.

The Chinese appear to have a racial worldview that privileges cognitive and material aspects of Whiteness and initially devalues Blackness. Emeline noted, “They pay a lot of attention to the shade of your skin. Chinese women avoiding getting a sun tan. The whiter you are the higher your status within Chinese culture. During the summer I go to the beach. In the winter I am ‘whiter.’ A Chinese friend said that in the winter I look very good, that my skin is more pale and nicer.” Perline noted that, “If you are White your problems go away,” (in relation to the Chinese). Several participants mentioned the heavy advertising of ‘whitening’ skin cream and the operations to ‘Westernize’ their eye-folds. Natasha pointed out that the creams are advertised as “toothpaste for the face and body.”

Most of the English language teachers lost jobs to White persons who were not native English speakers. As a precautionary step, they would send a photo of themselves

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with their job applications so the hiring officer would know in advance that they were Black. The participants who worked in large Chinese firms did not report these difficulties because they were recruited to their positions. These persons noted that they were working with Chinese who had extensive exposure to foreigners and travelled abroad.

All the participants noted experiences where Chinese people stared at them, and in some cases, attempted to touch their skin and hair. Many felt discriminated against at times. Others argued that once the Chinese got to know them as a thinking, knowledgeable and skilled persons, race was not a major issue, given their hunger for talented people. This conditionality is interesting in the context of the uncertainty which many of the participants had about how the Chinese felt about them. The participants often noted that they never really knew how the Chinese perceived them because the Chinese would lose face if they were rude to the Black migrants. This desire to save face did not fully transfer into business negotiations. Most of the participants noted that in these scenarios, the Chinese form of interaction often had a predatory-like quality.

For the most part, participants from the Caribbean identified as Black and also claimed a national affiliation. One subject from Guadeloupe was explicit in affirming his Africana heritage, while another Guadeloupian embraced Africana aspects of the self more indirectly. Two potential participants who were perceived as being Black by colleagues (based on their relatively dark skin and Caribbean heritage), declined to be interviewed stating that they did not consider themselves as Black.

The diversity of racial and other experiences which the participants recalled made many of them reflect on what it meant to be Black. Raoul’s perspective was that, “I am a more world-wide Black person than just Black. Important to be a good Black, so they see we can be embraced like others in the world. The Chinese have no direct contact with Black countries so most of what they see is on CNN. We are normal people, not what you see on television. We are normal people trying to survive in hostile environments by being human.”

The racial hierarchies reported in the current study are consistent with the observations of Dikotter (1994), Johnson (2011.) and Myers, et al., (2013). Two points are worth highlighting. The first is that many of the participants had a sense that racism did not appear to be as institutionalized as it is in the West. Some participants experienced substantive engagement with Chinese individuals which facilitated the individualization of relationships, and in such cases racism was less evident. Secondly, these immigrants also reported a recommitment to a pride in their Blackness that prior to coming to China was not something they gave much thought.

Relations with the Chinese Many of the participants reported close and enjoyable encounters, acts of kindness from strangers and relationships with Chinese based on the degree to which they could surmount the barrier of language. Dean noted, “I have a (Chinese) friend and he treats me like family. They treat me as if they have known me for a long time despite the fact that it is the first time they are welcoming a Black person into their home. They call me brother; they tell me that they love me.” Additionally, there was a noticeable small-town versus big-

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city difference. Participants living in small towns found that, while there was intense curiosity about them, the people were friendlier.

Most of the immigrants did not have a substantive command of the Chinese language and this constrained the depth and diversity of their interactions with Chinese nationals. Many reported that interactions with Chinese persons outside the work place were limited to commercial transactions conducted in what Bodomo (2012) refers to as ‘calculator language.’ Those who have mastered the language report more substantive and gratifying relationships with a diverse range of Chinese persons.

Support Groups in China All the participants presented as resilient individuals who were adept at creating support groups for themselves. Many were involved with the Caribbean Association of China (CAC) in Shanghai, which has members from the Caribbean, China and the Western expatriate community. This association engages in social and community service activities. Some participants also worshiped at the international non-denominational church in Shanghai. Encounters at these places sometimes caused participants to observe that the common identity that they shared with others was that of Western foreigner, and that other differences would to some degree, be subordinate to that. A challenge of living in a large expatriate community such as Shanghai and to a lesser extent Guangzhou is the tendency to associate primarily with other expatriates. As a result, many expatriates especially in Shanghai have little contact with a wide range of Chinese citizens. These support groups presented both opportunities and risk. Immigrants were able to access myriad resources and emotional support from the various constellations of the expatriate communities in which they were embedded. One consequence of this was a more culturally diverse way of defining themselves depending on which groups they were affiliated with. At the same time there is also the risk of being overly buffered against substantive involvement in mainstream Chinese society, given that the various Western enclaves were easier to access relative to Chinese communities.

Conclusion

The current paper is a preliminary exploration of the psycho-social experiences and self projects of Afro-Caribbean migrants in China. Given the smallness of the sample and the type of methodology used one should be cautious in interpreting these findings and generalizing the results. The study raises more questions than it answers. The participants are mostly young, so that their responses are probably biased in favor of passion and certainty. Their observations reflected an age-appropriate willingness to take risks and discount loses, given that they viewed the future as limitless. The sample is also skewed towards professionals, many with advanced degrees, and did not include Afro-Caribbean migrants who have violated their visa conditions or worked in low-paying jobs. Despite the limitations, the study suggests a variety of areas for further research and supports the frameworks of hybrid self-identification and emancipatory self-projects. The migrants appear to have a developmentally and culturally-driven need to understand and

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improve themselves. It is cultural in the sense that obstructed self-construction is a feature of Caribbean society and is rooted in its people’s history of movement, loss, coping and re-inscribing. Nostalgia for home is therefore constrained by a sense of opportunity which China provides. Although China has its own deficiencies, it is tolerable and even developmentally advantageous in the short to medium run. China facilitates subjective reflection about the world from the perspective of an emerging self-agenda for Afro-Caribbean migrants, among others. The relative disruption of tradition and normative elements of oppression and the new demands placed on migrants in the Chinese context offer attractive opportunities for the conscious remaking of the self. There, these individuals are fashioning a self, based on their awareness of and existence in a place that both demands and makes this process of self-fashioning possible; providing opportunities which are unobtainable in one’s native homeland.

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Author’s Note

C. Jama Adams, PhD, is trained as a clinical psychologist and is Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Africana Studies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice-City University of New York. Dr. Adams’ research interests include the interface between psychoanalysis, neoliberalism and youth, and the psychodynamics of immigration. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to C. Jama Adams, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Department of Africana Studies, 524 W 59th Street, New York, NY 10019. Email: cadams@jjay.cuny.edu