ANR Project (2020-2022)
Coordinator: Simeng Wang, Cermes3
The MigraChiCovid Research Project (“Chinese migrations in France facing Covid-19: the emergence of new forms of solidarity in times of crisis”) is funded by the National Research Agency (France).
This project aims to study the representations, perceptions, attitudes and behaviours related to Covid-19 through the lens of Chinese migration in France. On one hand, some Chinese migrants and French born Chinese - among which some are medical experts, journalists, association leaders, researchers - have been actively involved, since January 2020, in healthcare organization, supply of medical equipment as well as information sharing and dissemination, dissemination of expert knowledge. On the other hand, some individuals have been experiencing discrimination and anti-Asian racism linked to Covid-19, which was first detected in China. Thus, we want to document these two co-existing realities: national and transnational solidarity dynamics in order to improve the control of the disease, in which Chinese living in France participate to, on one side ; discrimination, racism, stigmatization and exclusion towards them and their struggles against these injustices, on the other side.
Our research will cover three Work Packages (WPs):
(1) analysis of professional practices carried out by health workers and medical researchers of Chinese origin in France facing Covid-19 (WP “MEDIC”);
(2) analysis of the experiences of discrimination and anti-Asian racism related to Covid-19 and mobilizations against these differentiated treatments (WP “DISCRI”);
(3) analysis of the changes in Chinese migrants and their descendants’ relationships to China and their transnational civic responsibilities in the fight against Covid-19 (WP “TRANSNA”).
This research will be based on quantitative and qualitative datas s (interviews, participant observations, online and offline ethnographies, questionnaire). We will question the emergence of new forms of solidarity at the national and transnational scales, to which Chinese migrants and their descendants contribute, at a time of global health crisis.
Project website
