Asian Migration and New Racism: Beyond Colour and the ’West’

Studies of racism against migrants have recently attempted to move away from the presumed dichotomy between ’white’ and ’Others’, yet the focus of much research remains predominantly trained on ’white’ people racializing ’Others’ whether Black, Asian or Muslim. Attending only to this ’white’/’Other’ binary homogenises select groups of non-’white’ including Asians. This approach also ignores racialisation and racism by Asians and among Asians. Consequently, there is a dearth of studies on issues of race in non-’white’ settings. Through engaging the themes of co-ethnicity, intersectionality and postcoloniality, this book contributes to extant studies of migration in three ways through: (1) examining new geographical sites of racialisation and racism; (2) illuminating racialisation and racism beyond the ’white’/’Others’ binary; and (3) introducing new dynamics in racialisation and racist discourses, including intersectional factors such as nationality, class, gender, language, religion, temporal framings and postcoloniality.

Asian Migration and New Racism will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of Sociology, Social and Political Geography, Social Anthropology, History and Politics.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Sylvia Ang is Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University. Her research with migrants in and from Asia is interested in the production and experiences of difference and inequities, with a focus on ethnic relations, class and gender.

Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Her research addresses how citizenship is changing as a result of multi-directional migration flows in the Asia-Pacific.

Brenda S.A. Yeoh, FBA is Raffles Professor of Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Research Leader of the Asian Migration Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, NUS. She was awarded the Vautrin Lud Prize for outstanding achievements in Geography in 2021.