PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 2- Conceptual frameworkexpatriates‘ practices of belonging. Firstly, I elaborate the ways in which myinvestigation of Taiwanese expatriates‘ everyday practices of belonging intersects withrecent intellectual work on grounded transnationalism which places stress on migrants‘mobile yet situated lived experiences (Smith 2005). Secondly, I argue that this researchon Taiwanese expatriates‘ home-making practices in China evidences that the binaryof home and host country should be reconsidered, as migrants in a contemporarytransnationalised world‘s longing for home can be fulfilled through their practices in anumber of sites. In addition, the ways in which the empirical study of Taiwanese ITexpatriates may advance the understanding of middling transnationalism will also bepresented.In the last section, I consider how this research on Taiwanese skilled migrants as asub-group among the overseas Chinese may contribute to the scholarship of Chinesetransnationalism that focuses mainly on overseas Chinese transnational businessactivities. I also consider the appropriateness of the discourse of shared Chinese-nessand discern the heterogeneity of the ethnic group by addressing the cultural politics andidentity negotiations embedded in different overseas Chinese practices of belonging.The chapter concludes by summarising key arguments and highlighting contributionsthis research makes to scholarships of migrant belonging and transnationalism.2.2. Reflections on migrant belongingBelonging is a concept that has affective dimensions as it is often interpreted as opposedto the feeling of dispossession and displacement (Stratford 2009) and used to understandemotional aspects including feelings of homeliness (or being at home) (Hedetoft andHjort 2001), safety (Anthias 2006) and emotional attachment (Krzyzanowski and35