[URBANTH-L]NEW BOOK : Nicole Newendorp's Uneasy Reunions: Immigration, Citizenship and Family Life in Post-1997 Hong Kong

[Angela Jancius]

From: Nicole Newendorp <newendor at fas.harvard.edu>

Dear List Members,

I would like to announce the publication my ethnography: Uneasy Reunions:
Immigration, Citizenship, and Family Life in Post-1997 Hong Kong
(Stanford University Press).


http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?book_id=5813


Migrating to reunite with family members is one of the most common forms of
migration in the world today. This book focuses on the family reunion 
migration
that takes place between mainland Chinese wives and their Hong Kong husbands 
in
post-1997 Hong Kong. Despite sharing one formal citizenship status (that of 
the
Peoples Republic of China) and strong similarities of culture, ethnicity, 
and
history, mainland Chinese wives wait for periods of up to ten years to join
their husbands and other family members in Hong Kong. Once there, they
experience significant social and economic marginalization. Nicole Newendorp
follows the paths these immigrant women take: from marriages to Hong Kong 
men
and long periods of waiting, to the downward mobility and familial struggles
they face in Hong Kong. When these immigrant women seek help from Hong Kong
social workers and other government officials, they receive an education in 
the
qualities of civility idealized in Hong Kong discourses of belonging.
Throughout, the author focuses on the ways in which ideologies of membership
are constructed in Hong Kong, and how these normative ideals influence 
mainland
Chinese immigrants' everyday experiences of inclusion and exclusion in Hong
Kong.


Reviews:
"Uneasy Reunions is a fresh, accessible contribution to ongoing discourses
concerning citizenship, nation-state formations, gender and migration, and
post-colonial formations. Newendorp's emphasis on the experiences of PRC
migrants in Hong Kong offers an important counterpoint to the bulk of
scholarship emphasizing Hong Kong's concerns regarding 
reunification."-Madeline
Hsu, University of Texas at Austin

"This book provides a compelling contribution to the topic of marital
immigration from China and sheds light on the new challenges Hong Kong faces 
as
a post-colonial society. By integrating issues central to the transnational
world in which we live, Newendorp delivers an engaging and well-researched
ethnography of citizenship."-Sara Friedman, Indiana University, author of
Intimate Politics: Marriage, the Market, and State Power in Southeastern 
China


Nicole Newendorp

Lecturer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies
Harvard University

59 Shepard St.
Hilles Library 4
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel. 617-496-5819

--
Nicole Newendorp, Ph.D.
Lecturer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies
Harvard University
59 Shepard St.
Hilles Library 4
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel. 617-496-5819