THE EFFECTS OF COVID19 ON CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.

DENARDI, LUCIANA; BAUMAN, CLARA

Amsterdam

Workshop; Racialisation and Social Boundary-Making in Times of COVID-19; 2020

Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam

Although Chinese workers and merchants had come to Latin America since the early XIX century, their migration to Argentina is a relatively recent phenomenon: After the first wave of Taiwanese families arriving in the 1970s, merchants, academics and highly skilled professionals from mainland China followed throughout the early XXI century. Despite the active participation of their heterogeneous community in the daily life of the receiving society, they are frequently facing ethnic discrimination.Our study aims to shed light on two different but interrelated effects of Covid19 on Chinese immigrants in Argentina. Our hypothesis indicates that, while the outbreak of Covid19 has reinforced racial prejudices against ethnic Chinese, it contributed to the creation of new forms of empowerment of the discriminated minority: Using social media, they started to raise their voice and defend themselves.Throughout this study, we combine data of ethnographic fieldwork with overseas Chinese in Buenos Aires conducted since 2012 with various strategies of online ethnography.In the first place, we elaborate on the prevalent prejudices against Chinese people in Argentina before the pandemic, and point out their rather unorganised ways to respond. Secondly, we analyse how Covid19 is presented and related to China by public and social media in Buenos Aires. Thirdly, we review the responses by Chinese migrants on social networks, pointing out their increasingly strategic self-organisation. We conclude that social networks are used as strategic tools for empowerment, as they enable the formerly unheard minority to find and raise their voice against discrimination. Relatedquestions for further research will be discussed in the final considerations.