[Air-L] CfP: Transnational Migration to/from China: The Role of Digital Platforms, Publics, and Policies

Saif Shahin saif.shahin at gmail.com
Mon Jun 30 00:15:16 PDT 2025


Dear friends!

The deadline for submitting to our special issue on "Transnational
Migration to/from China: The Role of Digital Platforms, Publics, and
Policies" is approaching fast.

Please review the call below and let me or my guest editors know if it
interests you. Please also share the call in your circles.

Many thanks,
Saif

===

Call for Papers from Chinese Journal of Communication for a Special Issue on

Transnational Migration to/from China: The Role of Digital Platforms,
Publics, and Policies

https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/transnational-migration-to-from-china/

Submission deadline: 31 July 2025

Guest Editors:
Saif Shahin, Tilburg University, s.s.shahin at tilburguniversity.edu
Mingyi Hou, Tilburg University, m.hou at tilburguniversity.edu
Sagnik Dutta, Tilburg University, s.dutta_1 at tilburguniversity.edu

Digital technologies have assumed a multifaceted role in transnational
migration, especially for people who migrate to/from a highly platformized
society such as China. More than 50 million people of Chinese origin are
estimated to live outside China, especially in Southeast Asia, Oceania, and
North America, although emigration to other parts of Asia, as well as
Africa and Latin America, has also picked up. While the majority identify
as Han Chinese, many ethnic minority Chinese also migrate around the world.
At the same time, China hosts nearly 1.5 million immigrants. The country’s
digital ecosystem creates unique opportunities and challenges for both
groups. Researchers have examined the Chinese diaspora’s homeland and
ethnic media use from the perspective of identity construction and
political intervention. Others have looked at how Chinese emigrants employ
homeland platforms, such as WeChat and Sina Weibo, as a migration
infrastructure and ethno-transnational media, and how they serve as tools
for digitized diasporic governance. Some scholars have also investigated
the use of local and global platforms by immigrants arriving in China. Even
as Chinese migrants experience racism online, Chinese platforms are not
immune to exclusivist narratives targeting immigrants, either. Digital
nationalism and populist discourses are important contexts in which
immigrants and emigrants are represented by Chinese social media.

This special issue of the Chinese Journal of Communication aims to expand
our understanding of transnational migration in the digital age, especially
as it relates to platforms, publics, and policies. It explores how digital
platforms (Chinese and non-Chinese), their sociotechnical affordances, and
the discourses they produce (or censor) bear upon transnational migration
between China and various parts of the world, including Southeast Asia,
Oceania, Africa, and Latin America, as well as North America, Europe and
the rest of Asia. We are particularly interested in submissions that draw
attention to the implications of digital technologies for migrant
communities and the relations of power they (re)produce, user practices
that work with or around digital affordances to achieve individual or
collective goals, and national or supranational laws and regulations that
shape digital industries and ecosystems and their impact on transnational
migration.

We invite contributions that address questions such as, but not limited to,
the following:

What are the ways in which transnational migrants to/from China— or
particular ethnicity-, religion-, income-, gender-, or sexuality-based
groups within migrant communities—use digital technologies?

How do the sociotechnical affordances of digital devices and platforms,
from interface design to algorithmic features such as filter bubbles, shape
their use by transnational migrants to/from China?

How do transnational migrants to/from China deal with technological,
financial, and/or linguistic barriers to communication through digital
devices and platforms?

How do the business models of digital industries bear upon transnational
migrant experiences to/from China? Who are its key stakeholders and
intermediaries?

How does the attention economy of digital platforms influence transnational
migrant experiences to/from China? How do these migrants negotiate their
(in)visibility in this attention economy?

What are the discourses about transnational migration to/from China
emerging in digital spaces? What are the ideological underpinnings of such
discourses, and how do they impact domestic or international politics?

What are the emerging national/supranational laws and policies vis-à-vis
digital platforms, and how do they impact transnational migration to/from
China or migrant experiences? Who are their key stakeholders and
intermediaries?

How will emerging trends in digital society, from augmented reality to the
increasing use of artificial intelligence, impact transnational migration
to/from China?

Submission Instructions

During the submission process, please indicate that your submission is
intended for inclusion in the special issue “Transnational Migration
to/from China: The Role of Digital Platforms, Publics, and Policies”.

All submitted manuscripts are subject to rigorous blind peer review.
Accepted manuscripts will first be published online. The planned printed
publication date is in 2026.

For inquiries, please contact Guest Editors.

Please visit the online call for the submission link
https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/transnational-migration-to-from-china/




_____
*Saif Shahin, Ph.D.*
Assistant Professor <https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/staff/s-s-shahin> of
Digital Culture
Director, Digital South Research Lab
<https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/humanities/digital-south-lab>
Tilburg University, Netherlands

Associate Editor
<https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/witp20/about-this-journal#editorial-board>
Journal of Information Technology & Politics

Google Scholar
<https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pzy87iEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao> |
ResearchGate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saif-Shahin>

Recent articles
Fractured Spectacle
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565251335427> (
*Convergence*, 2025)
#StopAsianHate as Hashtag Activism
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051241309701> (*Social Media
+ Society*, 2025)
Black Lives Matter Goes Global
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448211057106> (*New
Media & Society*, 2024)
Platform Affordances and Spiral of Silence
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160791X23002361>
(*Technology
in Society*, 2024)


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