David Ip

The Chinese diaspora and mainland China : an emerging economic synergy

Preface - Introduction - PART 1: RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES - Chinese Diaspora Capitalism - China, Reforms and Opportunities - Towards a Synergy - Cobwebs Across the Divides - PART 2: INTO CHINA THROUGH TRANSNATIONAL NETWORKS - Introduction: The Sleepers - The Tycoons - Networking into China by Smaller Investors - Transnational Small and Medium Enterprise - PART 3: IMPACTS AND OUTCOMES - Introduction: Dependency and Development - Diaspora Tycoons and Development in China - Long Term Perspectives and Local Meshing - Ripples on a Pond - Diaspora Capitalists Come of Age - Labour and Capital - Conclusion - Index

Veiled entrapment: A study of social isolation of older Chinese migrants in Brisbane, Queensland

ABSTRACT This paper presents the findings of a study of the support and service needs of older Chinese people in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia. There were two specific objectives: to ascertain the problems encountered by older Chinese-Australians in their daily lives and social activities; and to develop policy and service development recommendations, with a view to mitigating their problems, meeting their unmet needs, improving their quality of life, and enhancing their participation in Australian society. The study used multiple methods, including a literature review, focus group meetings, and a community survey. The findings indicate that older Chinese people, and particularly women, experience significant restrictions in their activity patterns, social isolation and loneliness. Their lack of proficiency in the English language, and the difficulties they have in accessing language-support and interpretation services, limit their autonomous mobility and make them heavily dependent on their adult children, not least for transport. Their physical and psychological wellbeing is affected further by strained relations with their adult children, and these are compounded by financial concerns. The implications of the findings for welfare policy and practice are discussed at the end of the paper.

Concepts of Citizenship and Identity among Recent Asian Immigrants in Australia

Theories of citizenship and, in particular, its exclusionary features in a period of globalization have particular significance for an avowedly immigrant society such as Australia with a policy commitment to multiculturalism. The nature of Australian national identity and citizenship reemerged on the political agenda in conjunction with the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations of European settlement. Debate continues as moves towards becoming a republic with an Australian head of state replacing the British monarch strengthen. As elsewhere, government is focusing attention on the need for citizenship and civics education. An important constituency in this process are the immigrants, especially those from Asia whose ancestors were the target of nationalistic exclusion critical to the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia. This article examines the views on citizenship and identity of a national sample of recent Asian immigrants to Australia. We argue that for considerable numbers an instrumental conception of citizenship underlies their approach to acquiring Australian citizenship. This ‘instrumental citizenship’ is located within their migratory experience and the political traditions of their homelands as well as within their Australian settlement experiences. For many, legal citizenship has not led to a sense of full incorporation into Australian society as indicted by their continuing perception of themselves as ‘migrants’. Reasons for this are complex and involve an interplay of personal factors as well as attitudes and experiences in Australian society whose significance varies from group to group. Such a disjuncture between legal citizenship and personal identity has implications for both governmental policies and theorization about the nature of citizenship.

Reluctant Entrepreneurs: Professionally Qualified Asian Migrants in Small Business

The abandonment of the White Australia Policy after World War II and the implementation of a points system in Australias immigration program have led to a dramatic increase in the number of highly educated Asian migrants in the country. A study of 144 entrepreneurs of small business in the Indian and Chinese communities in Brisbane and Sydney found that, faced with institutionalized blockages, few of these highly educated migrants could practice what they were originally trained for. The majority of them, with their class resources, determination and optimism, became reluctant entrepreneurs.

Ethnic experience of cancer: a qualitative study of Chinese-Australians in Brisbane, Queensland.

This article reports on the findings of a recent study of cancer experiences of members in the Chinese community in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland. Results of the study have shown that the belief in fate and luck, as well as stoicism about cancer, is very common among cancer patients and their family members. Their general strategy for coping with cancer is often passive. Families play the most important role in determining the strategy for helping the cancer patients in coping with the illness. Most prefer to keep the illness secret and private within the family. Implications of the findings from this study will be discussed for the development of culturally appropriate programs for cancer prevention and treatment for the Chinese community.

A systematic review of psycho‐oncology research in Chinese populations: emerging trends

The burden of cancer in China is increasing with future psycho-oncological interventions crucial. A systematic review of psycho-oncology research in China was undertaken to assess quantity, design and target trends over time. Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ProQuest, Web of Science (1999-November Week 4, 2012) were searched. Inclusion criteria were: included cancer patients and/or partners or caregivers from resident Chinese populations (either at least 80% of participants are from China, Hong Kong or Taiwan); assessed psychological adjustment relating to cancer and published in English after 1 January 1999 and prior to 30 November 2012. In all, 208 articles met inclusion criteria. Of these: 52 were cross-sectional descriptive quantitative; 30 were cross-sectional descriptive qualitative; 27 were prospective descriptive quantitative; 2 were prospective descriptive qualitative; 18 assessed interventions; 79 presented instrument validation. Publications increased eightfold from 1999 to 2012. Most studies included patients (n = 195) with 11 articles focusing on caregivers and two on patient-caregiver dyads. The most common cancer studied was breast cancer. The psycho-oncology research effort in China is dramatically increasing. A focus on culturally relevant approaches to underpin the evaluation of empirically derived interventions is warranted; as is direction of efforts to other cancers such as lung and prostate.

Transnationalism and gendered identity: The case of the “one and a half generation” Taiwanese migrants

After a decade of contention and debate, transnationalism has finally gained credence as a valid and significant perspective for rethinking international mobility and migration (Glick-Schiller et al., 1995; Portes, 1997; 2001; 2003; Portes et al., 1999; Foner, 1997; Kivisto, 2001; Waldinger and Fitzgerald, 2004). There is now a general acceptance that while the phenomenon of transnationalism is not new and while not all migrants are transnationals, an increasing number of people who are involved in movement and settlement across international borders maintain or build multiple networks of connection to their country of origin while at the same time settling in a new country. In other words, it is not unusual to find people leading lives in which they are incorporated simultaneously into two or more states and organise their daily economic, familial, and social relations within networks that extend across their borders (Fouron and Glick-Schiller, 2002, p. 171). The literature on transnationalism continues to grow and there is increasing acknowledgment of and interest in the study of transnational households. Many of these studies focus mainly on the multiple ways transmigrant parents adopt transnational practices in their lives in multi-layered, multi-transnational social fields. Migrant children – both those who were born in the destination country (commonly referred to as the second Asian Studies Review September 2006, Vol. 30, pp. 273–288

Systematic review of research into the psychological aspects of prostate cancer in Asia: what do we know?

BACKGROUND To review the peer reviewed literature on the psychological aspects of the prostate cancer experience of men in Asia. MATERIALS AND METHODS Medline and PsycINFO, CINAHL, ProQuest, and Web of Science (1999 - November Week 4, 2012) were searched. Inclusion criteria were: included men with prostate cancer and/or their partners or caregivers who identify as Asian recruited in an Asian country; and assessed health-related quality of life, psychological and social adjustment relating to prostate cancer and published in English after 1st January 1999 and prior to 30th November, 2012. Study aims; design; quality; level of evidence, and key results were assessed. RESULTS 43 articles met all inclusion criteria and were retained for initial review. Of these most focussed on health-related QOL with only five evidence Level IV studies from Japan and Taiwan including a specific psychological focus. Of these, one was a cross-sectional case control study; three were cross- sectional descriptive quantitative designs; one was a cross-sectional descriptive qualitative study. From the data available, a substantive sub group of men with prostate cancer (approximately one third) in these countries experience clinically high psychological distress and decision regret. CONCLUSIONS Research on the psychological needs of men with the increasingly prevalent condition of prostate cancer in Asian countries is scant with only a small number of low level evidence descriptive studies identified. Future research to underpin the development and evaluation of effective and culturally relevant psychological and supportive care interventions for such men is urgently needed.

Putting Transnationalism in Context: comparing Hong Kong Chinese-Australians in Sydney and Brisbane

Abstract The nature and extent of transnational links, identities and citizenship are embedded within the places where migrants reside. A comparison between Chinese-Australians with Hong Kong heritage in Sydney and in Brisbane demonstrates the effects of place. A data set of 182 respondents was extracted from the 2005–06 telephone survey of the Australian Transnational Project. The data provide an insight into variations and similarities in return visits, family visits to Australia, remittances, international communication, dual citizenship, cultural retention, belonging in Australia, and senses of identity. Members of the Brisbane community are more recently established, more highly qualified, and this is reflected in their higher rates of communication with, and remittances to, family in Hong Kong, and reliance on Web-based Chinese media. There may be a heightened sense of anxiety about cultural loss and generally more involvement in Chinese community cultural activities and events. Members of the Sydney community are longer established and have a more diverse socio-economic profile. A greater proportion of the Sydney respondents never communicated with family in Hong Kong. More had only Australian citizenship and self-identified as only Australian. The important effects of place on transnationalism include: size and function of the city; nature of the housing market; migrant reception infrastructure; migrant groups’ cultural infrastructure; the extent of diversity; and the nature of community relations. The differing longevity of presence of a group in a city is reflected in their embeddedness and in subtle variations in their transnationalism.

Asian Women in Business in Australia

Much of the literature on migrants in the work-force, in Australia as overseas, has tended to paint a picture of passive victims — unskilled, weak and lacking the ability to shape their own fate or to defend themselves against exploitation or the marginality of secondary or reserve army of labor status.1 On the other hand, an alternative emphasis has drawn attention to the resources of many of these workers in skills, industrial and trade union experience and community solidarities not always available to native workers.2 In the case of migrant women, the first approach has predominated, although there has been some emphasis on ways waged work can provide liberation from traditional patriarchy.3