Chinese Migrants in Paris

Simeng Wang, Ph.D (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, Sociology, 2014), is a Permanent Research Fellow at The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and faculty member at the CERMES3 (Research Centre, Medicine, Science, Health, Mental Health and Society). She has published on Chinese diaspora in France, health issues in the era of globalization, and anti-Asian racism and discrimination, including Mental Health and Mental Suffering: An Object for the Social Sciences (CNRS Éditions, 2018) and Chinese Immigrants in Europe: Image, Identity and Social Participation (De Gruyter, 2020).

• ForewordList of FiguresAbbreviationsIntroduction: Illusions and Suffering of Migrants: a Sociological Approach1 The Contributions to Social Science Theory of Studying Psychological Suffering2 Intersecting Migration and Mental Health: What are the Stakes?2.1 Shedding Light on the Subjectivity and Intimate Life of Migrants2.2 Understanding the Family Configurations and Intergenerational Relationships2.3 Providing Information about the Therapeutic Relationships and Modes of Care in the Era of Global Health3 Which Sociological Approach?3.1 Gaining Access to the Medical Field3.2 The Place of “Culture” in the Clinic3.3 Ethical and Epistemological Reflections on the Posture of Ethnographer in the Medical Setting1 From China to France: Contexts of Emigration and Conditions of Immigration1 The Global Context of Chinese Emigration to the West1.1 Social Stratification and the Determinants of Social Status in China.1.2 Changing Images of the West: Who Emigrates, Where and Why?1.3 What France Represents for Chinese Aspirant Migrants2 The Chinese Population in the Paris Region: Waves of Migration and Literature Review2.1 Skilled Chinese Migrants: a ‘Forgotten’ Category?2.2 The Descendants of Chinese Immigrants2.3 Chinese Associative Life2.4 The Heterogeneity of Chinese Migrations in the Paris Region2 The Sufferings of Exile1 The Events of Tiananmen2 Living the Exile and Its Paradoxes2.1 “A Dialogue between Two Social Scientists”2.2 “The Road to Exile, the Road back Home”2.3 “In France, I Am a marginal”2.4 “I Have Not Lost the Chinese Feeling”2.5 Paradoxical Political Dispositions3 Exiles at the Psychotherapist’s Door3.1 “A Generation That is Suffering and Needs to Express It”: Seeking Healthcare in the Private Psychiatric Sector3.2 ‘Hero’ or ‘Victim’: a Social Image Consolidated by the Therapeutic Setting3.3 An Opportunity for Subjectivation: “It was a Period of the ‘Great Me’ before the ‘Little Me’ ”.4 The Politicisation of Suffering and the Suffering of Politicisation3 Conflicting Matrimonial Norms1 Social Origins of Young Skilled Migrants, Choice of Career Path and Sociabilities2 The Sociological Stakes of Studying the Matrimonial Destiny of International Migrants3 Matrimonial Ethos in China3.1 The Phenomenon of Sheng Nü and Sheng Nan3.2 The Timeline of a Romantic Relationship in Chinese Society3.3 The Passion of Young Chinese Women for ‘Uncles’4 Disruption of the Matrimonial Market in a Transnational Context4.1 The ‘I Never Meet Anyone [I like]’, Configuration of the Matrimonial Market.4.2 A Twofold Absence: beyond Matrimonial Failure?4.3 Matrimonial Worry for Skilled Chinese Women: Transnational Socialisation through the Prism of Intimacy4.3.1 Types of Legal Union and Age Gaps4.3.2 Different Ways of Using Romantic Relationships to Serve the Migratory Project5 Managing Gendered Sufferings: Case Studies6 The Genesis and Management of Matrimonial Worries in a Transnational Context4 The Disillusions of Illegal Migration1 Discovering the ‘Collective Lie’2 Maintaining the ‘Collective Lie’3 The ‘Illness Clause’ and Regularisation on Medical Grounds3.1 Regularisation on Medical Grounds: a Weapon of the Weak3.2 The Ordinary Moral Perceptions of the Use of the Law4 Interaction with Doctors over Time: Moral Stakes, Medical and Migratory Uncertainties5 Returning Home6 From Diagnosing Migrants to Analysing the Social Conditions of Migration5 Abandoned Children, Sacrificed Children1 Providing Services to One’s Parents1.1 Contributing Sociocultural Services1.2 The Children’s Economic Contributions for Their Parents1.3 The Presence of Children as an Administrative Resource2 Reflections on the Reverse Parenting Obligations3 Connecting with the ‘Outside World’3.1 Justifying ‘Deviance’ through Associative Participation3.2 Circumventing Reverse Parenting Obligations through Matrimonial Choice3.3 Undergoing Psychiatric Care for ‘Tranquillity’4 Living with Reverse Parenting Obligations6 Social Mobility and Mental Suffering1 Psychiatry as a Refuge: Children of the Lower Classes2 Class Position as the Origin of Psychological Difficulties: Children of the Middle Classes3 The Pressure to Succeed ‘on the World Stage’: Children of the Chinese Elites4 Heterogeneous Social Aspirations in Young French People of Chinese OriginConclusion: Mental Suffering, Social Suffering1 The Socio-historical Diversity of Chinese Immigration to Paris2 A Differentiated Expression of Mental Suffering, a Socially Situated Care-seeking2.1 Effects of the Migratory Generation on Access to Care2.2 Access to Care Linked to the Type and Volume of Capitals Detained by the Migrant3 Migrations through the Prism of ‘Suffering’, an Effective Analytical Framework4 From Migration Studies to a General Sociology5 What Position Should be Assigned to ‘Culture’?6 ‘Alternative’ Medicines and Care-seeking in the Era of GlobalisationBibliographyIndex of Cases AnalysedIndex