Migration from Post-Reform Vietnam: Transnational Brokers, Digital Technologies, And New Mobility Pathways

【Speaker】Lan Anh Hoang（墨爾本大學社會與政治科學發展研究教授）  
【Time】10am-12pm, 6/14, Friday, 2024
【Venue】 台文系館88155
【Moderator】台文系曾薰慧助理教授
【Organizers】主辦單位：台灣文學系
                        協辦單位：性別與婦女研究中心、多元文化研究中心

Abstract
Globalisation and the digital boom have reconfigured the global economic order, engendered new possibilities and aspirations, and altered the meanings of migration. Within the past three decades, Asia has emerged as the second largest destination in the world, having experienced the most remarkable growth in intraregional migration. Intraregional migration has also become a key feature in Africa and South America as immigration and border regimes are increasingly hardened in Europe and North America. However, existing migration theories are largely based on empirical research on South-North migration, resulting in a significant knowledge gap about the people who migrate and those who stay put as well as the implications of new migration pathways and regimes for individuals, economies, and societies. In this talk, I draw from empirical research conducted over the last 20 years in Vietnam, Taiwan, Russia, and Australia to show how transnational migration is imagined, mediated, and experienced in the Digital Age. With a focus on migrant networks and the migration industry at the intersection of social-digital spheres, I highlight transformational effects of the digital boom on migrants’ aspirations and practices. Digital divides create uneven mobility pathways, reproducing and exacerbating social inequalities among people on the move and those who stay behind.