Diffuse or Enclosed? the Ethnic Communities of Taiwanese Migrant Workers in China

This paper focuses on how the spatial characteristics of cities influence ethnic communities of Taiwanese migrant workers in China. Although Taiwanese migrants and Chinese both fall under a ‘pan-Chinese’ context, most Taiwanese migrant workers still see themselves as a different ethnic group and thus inhabit ethnic communities that are distinct from those of the locals.

Within this context, this paper tries to answer two questions which are directly related to urban sociology and community studies. First, whether the spatial characteristic of cities affects the openness or insularity of an ethnic community and—if it does—why is this so? Second, in what degree does such pan-ethnicity affect the lives of those living in different cities.

By comparing data collected from 35 interviews, as well as by examining other factors such as the cultural practices of Taiwanese migrant workers in Beijing and Shanghai, this paper highlights either the openness or insularity of such ethnic communities, derived from factors not only based on ecological characteristics (such as physical arrangements for work and leisure), or industrial differences, but also on how Taiwanese immigrants perceive and interact with the local Chinese in different cities .

In this paper, I will first define what I mean by the openness or insularity of an ethnic community and how the insularity/openness relates to life styles, social bonds, and ethnic relations. I will show that openness/insularity is an idea that I have arrived at by combining Claude Fischer’s (1984, 1995) concept of the institutional completeness of a subculture, Louis Wirth’s (1938, 1956) theory on the cultural heterogeneity of cities, Robert Sampson’s (2012) discussion of neighborhood effects, and the subjective experience of the city in which they live. Continuing, I will list empirical indicators of openness and insularity, such as residential pattern, social/ethnic relation, friendship network, and the perception of local societies.