跨国移民的身份认同与社会世界:基于媒介生成性的视角

Identity and Social World of Transnational Immigrants:From the Perspective of Media Generation

深度媒介化时代,跨国移民的日常生活与媒介相伴,他们由交往建构的社会世界与媒介深深交织在一起。研究比照罗伯特·E·帕克的移民研究,通过对加拿大华人移民为期1年的参与式观察和深度访谈,探讨当代跨国移民的身份认同特点,描述媒介为移民生成了怎样的社会世界与认同,以及这种认同与媒介生成性之间的关系。研究发现:与帕克所在的报刊时代不同,融入或同化不再是移民群体的必然选择;媒介及其基础设施的脱域化和无边界化重塑了移民的社会世界,他们对周遭世界与共同世界、全球与地方、虚拟与实在之间的感知逐渐模糊,地域不再是身份认同明确或唯一的支撑,媒介创造出与地点无关的认同和归属感。在这个意义上,媒介生成了跨国移民新的身份认同,而且这种认同往往是混杂的、纷乱的、碎片化的、不定向的。媒介基础设施的脱域性和无边界化弱化了曾经跨国移民身上独有的漂泊情结,维系着他们与母国千丝万缕的勾连,保留着其精神世界的认同和归属。

In the era of deep mediatization,the daily lives of transnational immigrants are intricately connected to media,intertwining their social worlds with various forms of communication.This study compares Robert E.Park's immigration research with a one-year participatory observation and in-depth interviews of Chinese Canadian immigrants to explore the identity characteristics of contemporary transnational immigrants.It describes the social worlds and identities generated by media and examines the relationship between identity and media.The research finds that,unlike the Americanization of immigrants in Park's newspaper era,integration or assimilation is no longer an inevitable choice for immigrants.The dis-embedding and borderless nature of media and its infrastructure reshape the social worlds of immigrants.Their perceptions of the surrounding world,both global and local,virtual and real,become increasingly blurred.Place is no longer the sole or clear support for identity;instead,media creates identities and senses of belonging that are independent of physical location.In this context,media generates new identities for transnational immigrants,which are often mixed,misplaced,fragmented,and nondirectional.The delocalization and boundarylessness of media infrastructure weaken the unique sense of wandering traditionally associated with transnational immigrants.This infrastructure maintains their intricate connections with their homeland,preserving their spiritual identity and sense of belonging.