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Migration and Diasporas in East Asia

Code: 101529 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500244 East Asian Studies OT 4

Contact

Name:
Joaquin Beltran Antolin
Email:
joaquin.beltran@uab.cat

Teachers

Kei Matsushima
Uh Jeen Lee

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

To take this subject, students should ideally have obtained the programme's first-year, second-year and third-year credits. Students must be able to read and understand academic texts in English. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of this course is to enable students to understand East Asia’s international migration flows, focusing especially on those related to China, Japan and Korea. The course looks at the concepts of transnationalism, diaspora, and the new mobilities paradigm from a theoretical perspective. It covers the history of the different diasporas and their places of origin and destinations, the evolution of migration policies, and the social, o political and economic organisation and cultural development of migrant communities. Finally, it aims to equip students for critical reflection on East Asian diasporas and their presence in our society.


Competences

  • Comparing and critically assessing the different social environments in the field of East Asia.
  • Designing and managing projects.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  • Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  • Know and understand the characteristics of society and social processes in East Asia.
  • Knowing and comprehending the phenomenon of the internal and international migration in the societies of East Asia.
  • Knowing and using the information and communication technology resources (ICT) in order to collect, produce, analyse and present information related to the East Asian Studies.
  • Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Solving conflict situations.
  • Solving problems of intercultural communication.
  • Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  • Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  • Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Assessing the obtained results in the search information process in order to update the knowledge about political sciences, economy and sociology.
  2. Comparing and critically assessing the different social environments in the field of East Asia.
  3. Designing and managing projects.
  4. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  5. Developing self-learning strategies.
  6. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  7. Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  8. Know and understand the characteristics of society and social processes in East Asia.
  9. Knowing and comprehending the phenomenon of the internal and international migration in the societies of East Asia.
  10. Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  11. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  12. Solving conflict situations.
  13. Solving problems of intercultural communication.
  14. Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  15. Using different tools for specific purposes in the fields of political sciences, economy and sociology.
  16. Using the specific terminology of political sciences, economy and sociology.
  17. Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  18. Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Content

1. Theoretical and conceptual introduction. Diaspora, transnationalism and the paradigm of new mobilities

Part I. Migration and the Japanese diaspora

2. The Japanese diaspora: a historical approach.
3. The Nikkei experience in the world: specific cases of the Japanese diaspora in America.
4. The Nikkei and foreign experience in Japan: specific cases of the "return".
5. The current situation: diversity in Japan

Part II. Migration and the Chinese diaspora

6. The Chinese Diaspora: Historical Approach
7. Chinese migration in Europe and Spain: Family migration and new mobilities.
8. Production and reproduction of the "qiaoxiang" zones: return, transnational links and migratory culture.
9. Descendants of migrants: ethnicity and identities from an intergenerational perspective.

Part III. Migration and Korean diaspora

10. The Korean diaspora: A historical approach
11. The Korean government's planned migration in the 1960s and 1970s
12. The experience of descendants in South Korea: The Korean diaspora in the CIS, China and the USA.
13. The new Korean migration: The case of the Korean community of Catalonia


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures and papers discussion 50 2 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16
Type: Supervised      
Presentations 15 0.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Type: Autonomous      
Written essay and study 35 1.4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16

To achieve the established objectives, this subject involves both lectures and practical classes.Given that its teaching is shared, the lecturers will inform students of the characteristics of assessment activities on the first day of class. The work students carry out mainly consists of lectures, individual/group presentations in class, debates and discussions in class based on selected readings, watching documentaries, documentation searches, reading assignments, and written assignments. Students must keep abreast of the news and information published on the Virtual Campus / Moodle.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Articles review 30% 17.5 0.7 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Group assignment. Presentation in class 30% 15 0.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Written essay 40% 17.5 0.7 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Continuous assessment

Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing various tasks and tests. These activities are detailed in the table at the end of this section of the Study Guide.

Review

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.

Missed/failed assessment activities 

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for.

Classification as "not assessable" 

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript. 

Misconduct in assessment activities

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the student involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject. Assessment activities in which irregularities have occurred (e.g. plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from recovery.

Single assessment

This subject may be assessed under the single assessment system in accordance with the terms established in the academic regulations of the UAB and the assessment criteria of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.
Students must make an online request within the period established by the faculty and send a copy to the teacher responsible for the subject, for the record.
Single assessment will be carried out in person on one day during week 16 or 17 of the semester. The Academic Management Office will publish the exact date and time on the faculty website.
On the day of the single assessment, teaching staff will ask the student for identification, which should be presented as a valid identification document with a recent photograph (student card, DNI/NIE or passport).

Single assessment activities

The final grade for the subject will be calculated according to the following percentages:

- Writing exam (40%)
- Individual written work (30%) 3,500 words
- Oral presentation of a group work (30%)

Grade revision and resit procedures for the subject are the same as those for continual assessment. See the section above in this study guide.


Bibliography

1. Theoretical and conceptual introduction 

Brah, Avtar (2011 [1997]) Cartografías de la diáspora: Identidades en cuestión. Madrid: Traficantes de Sueños
Cresswell, Tim. 2010. "Towards a Politics of Mobility." Enviroment and Planning D: Society and Space 28: 17-32.
Salazar, Noel B. 2011. "The Power of Imagination in Transnational Mobilities." Identities 18 (6) (December): 576-598.

I. Japanese migration and diaspora

Adachi, N. (ed.) (2006) Japanese diasporas: unsung pasts, conflicting presents, and uncertain futures. London; New York: Routledge.
Befu, H. and Sylvie Guichard-Auguis, S. (eds.) (2001) Globalizing Japan: ethnography of the Japanese presence in Asia, Europe and America. London: Routledge.
Daniels, R. et al. (eds.) (1991) Japanese Americans, from relocation to redress. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Goodman, R. et al. (eds.) (2003) Global Japan: the experience of Japan's new immigrant and overseas communities. New York: Routledge.
Graburn, N. H. H. et al. (eds.) (2008) Multiculturalism in the new Japan: crossing the boundaries within. New York: Berghahn Books.
Guarné, B. and P. Hansen (eds.) (2018) Escaping Japan: reflections on estrangement and exile in the twenty-first century. London & New York: Routledge.
Masterson, D. (2004) The Japanese in Latin America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Murphy-Shigematsu, S. (2012) When half is whole: multiethnic Asian American identities.Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

II. Chinese migration and diaspora

Beltrán Antolín, Joaquín, ed. (2004) La presencia china en el mundo/La presencia xinesa al món. Barcelona: UOC
Beltrán Antolín, Joaquín y Amelia Sáiz López (2015) "A contracorriente. Trabajadores y empresarios chinos en España ante la crisiseconómica (2007-2013)". Migraciones, nº 37: 125-147
Benton, G.; Gomez, A., (2014) "Belonging to the Nation: Generational Change, Identity and the Chinese Diaspora." Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (7) (March 28): 1157-1171.
Goodkind, Daniel. 2019. The Chinese Diaspora: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Trends. Washington, DC: United States Census Bureau.
Künnemann, V.; Mayer, R., eds. (2011) Chinatowns in a Transnational World. Myths and Realities of an Urban Phenomenon. New York, London: Routledge.
Liu, Yue, and Simeng Wang, eds. (2020). Chinese Immigrants in Europe: Image, Identity and Social Participation. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Miles, Steven B. (2020). Chinese Diasporas. A Social History of Global Migration. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Thunø, Mette, and Minghuan Li. (2020). “Introduction: New Dynamics of Chinese Migration to Europe.” International Migration 58 (3): 5–21.

III. Korean migration and diaspora

Lee, U (2021) Hábitos y prácticas culturales de la comunidad coreana de Cataluña, Barcelona: Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona. https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/674120#page=1
Min, P (2011) “The Immigration of Koreans to the United States: A Review of 45 Year (1965-2009) Trends”, Development and Society, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp.195- 224.
Yoon, I (2012) "Migration and the Korean Diaspora: A Comparative Description of Five Cases", Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp.413-435. dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2012.658545


Software

No specific software will be used.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Spanish first semester morning-mixed