The present study examines how global multiple migration—a pattern of migration characterised by multiple changes of destination internationally in one’s lifetime—becomes a strategy and a form of capital employed by highly educated, Chinese self-identified gay men to navigate social stigmatisation, negotiate family pressure, circumvent state oppression, and achieve desired life goals. By examining the intersection between sexuality, migration, and class, the present study contributes to two bodies of literature. For the migration literature, it explores how relationships between sexuality and migration are mediated by classed-based capital. It adds to the discussion that migration has increasingly become a multi-directional and open-ended process. For the class and social inequality literature, it seeks to understand how global multiple migration has become an element of social stratification and generates mobility capital. It also highlights how sexuality influences the value of mobility capital for the pursuit of an authentic self.

Speaker

Susanne Choi Yuk Ping

Susanne Choi Yuk Ping is Professor at the Department of Sociology and the Co-Director of the Gender Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her D.Phil. in Sociology from Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Susanne uses a feminist lens to explore a diverse set of issues related to migration, gender, sexuality, family, work, and social movements in Chinese societies. Her lead–authored book Masculine Compromise (published by University of California Press) explores how men’s rural to urban migration shapes gender and family dynamics in post-socialist China. Her articles were published by American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Marriage and Family, Sociology, British Journal of Sociology, Social Science and Medicine, Sociology of Health and Illness, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, The China Quarterly, Work, Employment and Society, Gender, Work and Organization, and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies among others.