Iranian Diaspora in China: Demographic Profile and Social Integration Ref.No.SSTCRC2609
1. Introduction
China’s rise to become the world’s second-biggest economy and the plethora of job vacancies, as well as economic and business opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs attracts many immigrants from different parts of the world. According to the sixth national census, of 1,020,145 foreigners and immigrants living in China, 406,917 came for business and employment purposes. In addition, China has been considered as an attractive destination for students seeking academic and research opportunities due to its high-quality education, reasonable fee and proximity in geography. Moreover, with the increasing scholarships from Chinese universities, there has been an increase in the number of foreign students from 202 countries in China with the majority of them (60.4%) coming from Asian countries. As a result, China is home to many types of immigrants including traders, professionals, businesspeople, and fortune seekers coming to China with diverse aspirations and resources. Although some groups of immigrants in China have been the subject of research (e.g. Africans; Koreans), no studies have thus far addressed Iranian diaspora in China. This is while the interaction and exchanges between Iran and China have begun in the distant past, symbolized by the Silk Road, and has tremendously increased in recent years. As a result of the close cooperation between Iranian and Chinese governments and the creation of new trade and investment opportunities and bilateral economic relations, a plethora of Iranian businessmen and citizens have migrated to China, the conditions of which in the host country merit more attention. This study aims to identify the socio-demographic features of Iranian diaspora in China as well as their social integration in the country.
2. Research Progress
In an attempt to identify the socio-demographic features and the social integration of Iranian diaspora in China, research proposal has been developed including the steps to identify research design, theoretical framework, research questions, participants, data collection methods, data analysis, and procedure. The research design comprises a mixed-method one including the demographic questionnaire aiming to portray the diverse features of the Iranian immigrants and researcher’s field notes as well as semi-structured interviews with participants about their social integration in China.
The research questions include: 1) what are the socio-demographic features of Iranian diaspora in China? 2) What are the key factors that facilitate or hinder their integration in China?
As for the theoretical framework, Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological system will be employed to identify the factors affecting Iranians’ integration in china at different levels of microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem. The concept of ecological systems stress that human behavior does not occur in a vacuum but should only be interpreted with reference to the particular contexts in which they participate. The microsystem includes the immediate settings in which individuals participate directly, such as the home, school, or workplace. The mesosystem concerns the interrelationships among the microsystems such as the interactions between the immigrant families and their peers. The exosystem involves the wider social contexts in which the immigrants participate including the surrounding neighborhood and the social networks which impact immigrants indirectly. Finally, the macrosystem reflects policies, cultural norms, ideologies and customs at the exosystem and macrosystem levels. The participants of the present study will comprise Iranian immigrants in China who are accessible and willing to take part in the current study. Accordingly, snowball sampling method will be employed to locate participants. In the quantitative phase of the study 300 people will be asked to complete the demographic questionnaire and in the qualitative phase, 50 will be interviewed about the factors which facilitate or prohibit their social integration in the Chinese society. An attempt will be made to include participants with a variety of socio-demographic features including different ages, genders, occupations, etc.
Three types of data collection methods will be employed for the purpose of this study. First a demographic questionnaire will be utilized to document the social, academic, and economic features of the Iranian immigrants in China including their age, gender, education, occupation, marital status, residential status, income, duration of stay in China, size of household, head of household, life satisfaction in China and the tendency to return to Iran. Next, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 50 of the participants to identify the factors facilitating of preventing their integration in the host country. In addition, field notes will be collected by the research team about the factors affecting immigrants’ life in China. The quantitative data will be analyzed using the descriptive statistics and the data collected from the researcher’s field notes as well as the interview data will be subjected to thematic analysis. The identified categories will then be divided based on the levels of ecological systems comprising microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem levels. In addition to the overall design of the study, a thorough review of literature has been done on the studies conducted on immigrants’ integration, as well as the immigrants in China. Furthermore, part of the literature review has been already written by the researcher. The steps remained to be conducted include finding the potential participants through snowball sampling, collecting the qualitative and quantitative data, data analysis, and writing the final report.
3. Cooperation Required
Need help with finding the potential participants to collect data and possibly with relocating to China to have more access to Iranian diaspora there.
4. Benefits
The study will help the decision makers, associations, groups and societies both in Iran and in China to better analyze and solve the social, cultural, and psychological issues of the Iranian-Chinese community. The data from this study can also be employed by service providers and policy makers to provide tailored social support, foster a sense of empowerment in Iranian immigrants, enhance community and social integration, and contribute to their physical and mental health thereby reducing the negative impacts of immigration including feelings of loneliness and social isolation, loss of identity, discouragement (e.g. about seeking employment).
5. Outputs
Publishing a paper in an international journal (preferably in highly-indexed ones)
Conference presentation