PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 6 –Grounding belonging in leisure spacegatherings. Such understanding thus adds to the scholarship of migrant belonging byarguing that not only is the ‗difference‘ highlighted by migrants in their identitypractices and performance, but that ‗same-ness' can also be a useful indication anddrawn upon in their practices to forge (social) belonging in public leisure spaces .Furthermore, my discussion of Taiwanese expatriates‘ online interactions andnetworking as practices to constitute belonging, not only confirms the vital importanceof telecommunications in contemporary transnational migrants‘ daily lives, but alsohighlights the usefulness of social relationships built in virtual space in forging a senseof community and turning Cyberspace into a space of belonging. In a similar vein, thesocial space shaped by Taiwanese expatriates‘ collective activities (i.e. taking part invarious types of gatherings) in which a sense of community may be forged is also adistinct space of belonging. Accordingly, this research has made distinct contributions tothe understanding of space of belonging, by arguing that both physical environment andvirtual space are imperative spatial settings of transnational migrants‘ everyday livesand for their practices to forge belonging.246