Category Archives: Publications

[Publication] Compendium of stories: Spaces

BelMix (Lucas Monteil, Jenthe Blockx, Angelie Marilla, Mimy Keomanichanh, Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot, and Aaron Raphael Ponce) (2023). SpacesOtherwise, (10), 15 November 2023.

BelMix
This piece collects six spaces of intimacy as people migrate between continents and cultures.

This compendium of stories on spaces is the fruit of long-term collaboration among the members of the BelMix  research team, based at the Laboratory of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds (LAMC) at the Université libre de Bruxelles. The team has been studying migration and conjugal mixedness in Belgium and selected Southeast and East Asian countries. Recently, BelMix has expanded its analytical gaze to include other cases and situations of mixedness beyond the Europe-Asia social spaces. It aims to bring new insights into the dynamics and evolution of present-day societies as well as the changing meanings of intimacy and the family.

*Space’s illustration is by Athos Bayani Flot

  • “In-between spaces” by Jenthe Blockx
  • “More than a couch” by Angelie Marilla
  • “Comfort zone” by Mimy Keomanichanh
  • “Living apart together” by Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot
  • “The room for intimacy” by Lucas Monteil
  • “A night in Brussels” by Aaron Raphael Ponce

“Otherwise is a space for sharing stories that matter.”


[Publication] General audience: “Rich but Vulnerable”

Chen, C. (2023). “Rich but Vulnerable”: Chinese Migrants Meet Street-Level Bureaucrats in the DRC. Routed Magazine, n° 23 (Inequalities and Migration), 12 November 2023.

Contrary to media’s depictions of China’s expanding influence in Africa, the Chinese in Africa, despite their economic privilege, experience “politico-administrative vulnerability” in their interactions with street-level bureaucrats. However, they are neither exclusively privileged nor vulnerable.

 A police officer standing in the middle of the road (Courtesy of Babur Yakar on Unsplash). 

[Publication] Journal article: Rethinking the Gay Chinese Migrant through the Prism of Migration Aspirations

Aaron Raphael Ponce & Cai Chen (2023). Rethinking the Gay Chinese Migrant through the Prism of Migration Aspirations: Observations from France and Belgium. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 19(2), 220–247. https://doi.org/10.1163/17932548-12341489

On the basis of data gathered by two independent ethnographic studies of gay Chinese migrants in France and Belgium, this paper aims to identify the role of intersecting and parallel aspirations which shape their migration trajectories toward Western countries. These aspirations include motivations to respond to or appropriate traditional family configurations, imaginaries that characterize the countries of destination, the desire to fulfill same-sex sexual and relationship goals, as well as class, educational, national, and ethnic affiliations. Using concepts of intersectionality and super-diversity, this paper further argues that the simultaneous and overlapping nature of these motivations deserves to be discussed as a subset of current Chinese diasporas.