Being Seen as a State-backed Journalist: Reflections from Tracing Chinese Migrants in Quito, Ecuador and San Diego, USA

Abstract (English)

How should an anthropologist study migrants whose very presence is fleeting and fugitive—intentionally occluded from careless spectator? In light of journalistic fascination with thousands of People’s Republic of China (PRC) citizens surrendering themselves to border patrols along the US-Mexico border starting in 2020, anthropological intervention in this migration story seems urgently needed. However, ethnography as a set of practices, such as long-term participant observation and dedication to local communities, quickly falls short of aligning with norms and expectations of behavior where migrants anxiously wait for pickups and evade unwanted attention, especially from the Chinese state. Precisely because the “halfie” anthropologist already straddles both social worlds, she becomes a target of suspicion to various actors in an underground migratory network. When being seen as a Chinese state-backed journalist, the anthropologist is called upon to reveal her positionality, confront geopolitical tensions, and assemble new sets of responsibilities and ethics.
The paper identifies and reflects on the political, ethical, and methodological challenges of conducting ethnographic research on Chinese migrants en route to seeking asylum in the US as a US-educated Chinese anthropologist. Anthropological literature on migration has elucidated migrants’ experiences at sites of departure, destinations, crossing, and institutionalized waiting rooms, often to interrogate specific reconfigurations of the state and migrants’ interactions with such. I aim to problematize the conceptual and discursive boundaries between non-state migrants, state institutions, and the elusive ethnographer passing through the situation by presenting ethical and practical dilemmas from three months of preliminary dissertation research in Quito, Ecuador, and San Diego, USA. The fleeting nature of this migration results in fragmented ethnographic data: from snippets of participant observation at Chinese restaurants and hostels in Quito and in border towns along the US-Mexico border, to semi-structured interviews with US-bound Chinese migrants, Chinese travel agents or “snakeheads,” and aid workers in San Diego. Although this wave of migration subsided after Ecuador’s end to visa-free entry for PRC citizens on July 1, 2024, the paper sheds light on shifting ethnographer-interlocutor power dynamics relevant to other contexts of border-crossing migration.