Paper short abstract:

Within this paper I draw on 4 years of ethnographic fieldwork with young Chinese migrants in Tokyo to posit that extant framings of migrant community reduce questions of togetherness to a political economy of exclusion. I focus on play as a way of moving beyond the migrant as 'suffering subject'.

Paper long abstract:

Within this paper I draw on 4 years of ethnographic fieldwork with young mobile Chinese people in Ikebukuro, Tokyo to problematise how we frame migrant togetherness. I posit that extant framings of migrant community rely too heavily on negative aesthetic modalities that reduce questions of togetherness to coping strategies within a political economy of exclusion. Whether as Chinatowns, enclaves, networks or communities, much of the work on Chinese migration has focused on these socialities as a politics of recognition that responds to forms of marginalisation. However, for new and relatively mobile Chinese people in Tokyo, the politics of recognition and concerns about stigma are often a lower priority than we might assume. Finding inspiration in theories of play and playfulness, I explore how learning from the playful practices of migrants is an important opportunity for social theoretical reflection. There is a rich tradition of ethnographic work on migrant playfulness, and on play as a concept metaphor for anthropological inquiry. Yet, within migration studies and its cognate fields these approaches are too often side-lined through a focus on migrants as suffering subjects. From challenging assumptions about migrant communities and identities, to theorising how meanings and affects are re-produced in new contexts, putting play at the centre of migration studies affords new possibilities. It directs our attention away from focusing on those who move as a means to address the ‘problem’ of migration, and encourages us to learn from migrant lives to reflect on other anthropological horizons.