1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 Aims and Rationale of this Study
This book is a unique, multi-sited, and qualitative study of the transnational lives of 109 Chinese Singaporean migrants . These Chinese Singaporeans were researched with in-depth interviews (Patton 2002; Chase 2005) when they lived in one of four global cities , in the East or in the West : Hong Kong , London , New York , or back in Singapore .1 Twenty-five participants were studied in Hong Kong in spring 2009, 24 participants in London in summer 2008, 22 participants in New York in summer 2009, and 38 participants were researched in Singapore between 2009 and 2010. The latter are Chinese Singaporeans who (temporarily) returned to live in Singapore after having lived elsewhere. This book addresses the questions if, how, and why living in one of these four global cities âat the time of researchâdifferently affected the transnational lives of the Chinese Singaporeans . The 109 participants shared race , had lived in Singapore , had strong links with Singapore , and nearly always were Singaporean citizens . They were middle- or upper-middle-class, well-educated, often had multiple migration experiences, and if they worked, as the large majority did, they worked in mid- or high-skilled work .
The questions if, how, and why the transnational lives of a group of migrants who shared many characteristics, and who lived in one of four global cities were differently influenced by the characteristics of these cities, have not yet been answered in the scholarship of migrants (Kusek 2015; Moore 2016) or of global cities (Sassen 2000; Beaverstock et al. 2002). To provide such an answer is important, and very timely: more and more people in the world cross national boundaries to live elsewhere. In 2013 (United Nationsâ Department of Economics and Social Affairs 2013), 232 million people, or 3.2% of the worldâs population , moved to live in another society. Global cities (Sassen 2000; Beaverstock and Hall 2012) attract disproportionate numbers of migrants . The scholarship of global cities (Beaverstock et al. 2002) often explains their characteristics in terms of these citiesâ shared role in a globalizing economy: the ability to operate global networks of exchange. This emphasis results in that the characteristics of global cities (Kennedy 2004; Ley 2004) often are viewed as rather being âuniformlyâ global, and as similarly impinging on the lives of transnational migrants who live in these cities, especially if these migrants share social status. Recent research (Moore 2016) shows that transnational migrants who live in different global cities understand the characteristics of these cities differently. There also is only little research (Nagel 2005; Kusek 2015) on differences in how migrants who live in a global city perceive the characteristics of this city. Furthermore, there exists no known single-authored, and multi-sited research on the experiences of one group of migrants who lived in one of four global cities , and who were researched in that respective city. This book contributes toward filling these significant gaps in the scholarship of transnational migrants and global cities . Furthermore, this study also contributes to the scholarship of migrants because high-skilled migration (Koser and Salt 1997) has accelerated faster than low-skilled migration , but is less often researched.
I decided to conduct this research on Chinese Singaporean transnational migrants who lived in Hong Kong , London , New York , or back in Singapore because these cities are places to which Singaporeans often (temporarily) move or return.2 The selection of these cities also stems from that I have lived in two of them (Hong Kong and Singapore ) and visited the remaining two (London and New York ) for extended periods. This provides me with contextual knowledge (Davies 2008), which is especially important for a qualitative and multi-sited study. Multi-sited research (Falzon 2009) seeks to understand the nuances and complexities of a phenomenon studied by studying this phenomenon in different locations. Multi-sited research in four global cities needs a high number of research participants: one hundred and nine Chinese Singaporeans . This number provides this book with a large qualitative database. To understand if there were impacts of living in either Hong Kong , London , New York , or back in Singapore on the transnational lives of the 109 Chinese Singaporeans , this book answers the following questions:
- 1.Did the 109 Chinese Singaporeans think that their global-city lives were similar, and similarly impinged on their transnational lives ?
- 2.Did the 109 Chinese Singaporeans think that life in one of the four global cities had city-specific characteristics, and therefore, differently influenced their transnational lives ?
- 3.Did the Chinese Singaporeans feel that living in one of these four cities did not much influence their transnational lives because other characteristics in these lives were more important to explain them?
To answer these questions in a fine-grained and encompassing manner, this book develops and applies a new analytical framework , which this chapter explains.
It is well known that what characterizes the transnational lives of migrants (Basch et al. 1994) is that these lives span across the boundaries of different societies, or nations, in which these migrants live and lived. These cross-border connections are cultural, social, economic, and/or political. Transnationality (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004) means that when migrants think about their life in one society, they also consider their life elsewhere, and vice versa. The result is that migrants experience transnational simultaneity , i.e., they make time-space compressions . These time-space compressions are the migrantsâ simultaneous relating to characteristics of different places, societies, or regions. Time-space compressions also is an important concept in the scholarship of globalization (Held 2004). Although the scholarship on transnational migrants is bourgeoning (Portes et al. 2007; Khagram and Levitt 2008), this research mostly pertains to migrants who lived in a small number of societies, typically two. Studies of transnational migrants who have lived in more than two societies are much rarer (DâAndrea 2007; Ossman 2013). Furthermore, research on the lives of transnational migrants mostly studies these lives in a small number of transnational contexts , such as the migrants â transnational work contexts (Castells 2000; Beaverstock 2005), transnational education contexts (Bai 2008; Kim 2012), transnational family contexts (Cooke 2007; Ho and Bedford 2008), or transnational lifestyle contexts (DâAndrea 2007). When migrants â experiences in several transnational contexts are studied, such research usually focuses on two such contexts: transnational education and work contexts (Waters 2007; Pritchard 2011), transnational education and family contexts (Nukaga 2013; Rutten and Verstapp...