The Diplomacy of Migration: Transnational Lives and the Making of U.S.-Chinese Relations in the Cold War

by Meredith Oyen

Overview

During the Cold War, both Chinese and American officials employed a wide range of migration policies and practices to pursue legitimacy, security, and prestige. They focused on allowing or restricting immigration, assigning refugee status, facilitating student exchanges, and enforcing deportations. The Diplomacy of Migration focuses on the role these practices played in the relationship between the United States and the Republic of China both before and after the move to Taiwan. Meredith Oyen identifies three patterns of migration diplomacy: migration legislation as a tool to achieve foreign policy goals, migrants as subjects of diplomacy and propaganda, and migration controls that shaped the Chinese American community.Using sources from diplomatic and governmental archives in the United States, the Republic of China on Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, and the United Kingdom, Oyen applies a truly transnational perspective. The Diplomacy of Migration combines important innovations in the field of diplomatic history with new international trends in migration history to show that even though migration issues were often considered "low stakes" or "low risk" by foreign policy professionals concerned with Cold War politics and the nuclear age, they were neither "no risk" nor unimportant to larger goals. Instead, migration diplomacy became a means of facilitating other foreign policy priorities, even when doing so came at great cost for migrants themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501701467
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2016
Series:	The United States in the World
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Meredith Oyen is Assistant Professor of History at University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Floating Population and Foreign PolicyPart I. Migration Diplomacy at War1. Unequal Allies: Renegotiating Exclusions2. The Diaspora Goes to War: Human Capital and China's Defense3. A Fight on All Fronts: The Chinese Civil War, Restored Migration, and Emigration as National PolicyPart II. Migrant Cold Warriors4. Chinese Migrants as Cold Warriors: Immigration and Deportation in the 1950s5. Remitting to the Enemy: Transnational Family Finances and Foreign Policy6. Crossing the Bamboo Curtain: Using Refugee Policy to Support Free ChinaPart III. Shifting Exclusions7. Cold War Hostages: Repatriation Policy and the Sino-American Ambassadorial Talks8. Visa Diplomacy: The Taiwan Independence Movement and Changing U.S.-Chinese RelationsConclusion: Coming in from the ColdNote on Sources
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Carl Bon Tempo

Meredith Oyen's The Diplomacy of Migration is a 'must-read' for scholars of migration and U.S.-Sino relations. Impeccably researched and compellingly written, the book demonstrates how migration, foreign policy, and domestic politics were interwoven into the relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan. In telling this story, Oyen urges us to reconsider what we know about the evolution of the United States’ relationship with China.

Mary Lui

In The Diplomacy of Migration, Meredith Oyen takes an in-depth look at the issue of citizenship for Chinese Americans, particularly around questions of national belonging and dual citizenship, as well as the changing domestic politics of migrant communities in the United States and Southeast Asia. Oyen's book is extremely well researched; particularly impressive is her deep investigation of Chinese archives in both the PRC and ROC and her extensive use of Chinese-language primary and secondary sources throughout the work.

Glen Peterson

This is a compelling, well-crafted book that significantly widens and deepens our understanding of U.S.-China relations during the Cold War. Meredith Oyen breaks new ground by revealing how the use of migration policy for diplomatic goals was woven into the very fabric of the alliance between Nationalist China and the United States from the early 1940s through the early 1970s. Wide-ranging, meticulously researched and based on archives from several continents, The Diplomacy of Migration skillfully dissects the multiple ways in which both countries used policies ranging from the wartime repeal of exclusion, immigrant selection criteria, deportation and repatriation, and the politics of refugee resettlement to send positive or negative signals to one another, bolster their international prestige and support, and even remake the community of Chinese Americans in ways that both governments sought.

Editorial Reviews

Makes a valuable contribution to the study of international relations and the Chinese diaspora and rightfully places migration policy as a significant factor in determining the dynamics of power and politics between governments and nations.

Pacific Affairs

Oyen makes a brilliant effort to bridge diplomatic history and Chinese migration history by bringing into sharp focus the diplomacy of migration and its impact on the triangular relationship between the United States, Nationalist China, and Communist China.

H-Net Reviews - Mao Lin

Offers a new conceptual bridge between two related subfields: foreign relations history and transnational migration history.... The book is deeply researched, beautifully written, and makes a number of important contributions to our understanding of Sino-American relations and Asian American studies from WWII to the Cold War.... This book deserves the attention of scholars of American foreign relations, especially Chinese-American relations, Asian American history, and transnational migration history.

Pacific Historical review

"This is a compelling, well-crafted book that significantly widens and deepens our understanding of U.S.-China relations during the Cold War. Meredith Oyen breaks new ground by revealing how the use of migration policy for diplomatic goals was woven into the very fabric of the alliance between Nationalist China and the United States from the early 1940s through the early 1970s. Wide-ranging, meticulously researched and based on archives from several continents, The Diplomacy of Migration skillfully dissects the multiple ways in which both countries used policies ranging from the wartime repeal of exclusion, immigrant selection criteria, deportation and repatriation, and the politics of refugee resettlement to send positive or negative signals to one another, bolster their international prestige and support, and even remake the community of Chinese Americans in ways that both governments sought."

Glen Peterson

"Meredith Oyen's The Diplomacy of Migration is a 'must-read' for scholars of migration and U.S.-Sino relations. Impeccably researched and compellingly written, the book demonstrates how migration, foreign policy, and domestic politics were interwoven into the relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan. In telling this story, Oyen urges us to reconsider what we know about the evolution of the United States’ relationship with China."

Carl Bon Tempo

"In The Diplomacy of Migration, Meredith Oyen takes an in-depth look at the issue of citizenship for Chinese Americans, particularly around questions of national belonging and dual citizenship, as well as the changing domestic politics of migrant communities in the United States and Southeast Asia. Oyen's book is extremely well researched; particularly impressive is her deep investigation of Chinese archives in both the PRC and ROC and her extensive use of Chinese-language primary and secondary sources throughout the work."

Mary Lui

"Oyen makes a brilliant effort to bridge diplomatic history and Chinese migration history by bringing into sharp focus the diplomacy of migration and its impact on the triangular relationship between the United States, Nationalist China, and Communist China."—Mao Lin, H-Net Reviews (April 2016)

"In The Diplomacy of Migration, Meredith Oyen takes an in-depth look at the issue of citizenship for Chinese Americans, particularly around questions of national belonging and dual citizenship, as well as the changing domestic politics of migrant communities in the United States and Southeast Asia. Oyen's book is extremely well researched; particularly impressive is her deep investigation of Chinese archives in both the PRC and ROC and her extensive use of Chinese-language primary and secondary sources throughout the work."—Mary Lui, Yale University

"Meredith Oyen's The Diplomacy of Migration is a 'must-read' for scholars of migration and U.S.-Sino relations. Impeccably researched and compellingly written, the book demonstrates how migration, foreign policy, and domestic politics were interwoven into the relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan. In telling this story, Oyen urges us to reconsider what we know about the evolution of the United States’ relationship with China."—Carl Bon Tempo, University at Albany, author of Americans at the Gate: The United States and Refugees during the Cold War

"This is a compelling, well-crafted book that significantly widens and deepens our understanding of U.S.-China relations during the Cold War. Meredith Oyen breaks new ground by revealing how the use of migration policy for diplomatic goals was woven into the very fabric of the alliance between Nationalist China and the United States from the early 1940s through the early 1970s. Wide-ranging, meticulously researched and based on archives from several continents, The Diplomacy of Migration skillfully dissects the multiple ways in which both countries used policies ranging from the wartime repeal of exclusion, immigrant selection criteria, deportation and repatriation, and the politics of refugee resettlement to send positive or negative signals to one another, bolster their international prestige and support, and even remake the community of Chinese Americans in ways that both governments sought."—Glen Peterson, University of British Columbia, author of Overseas Chinese in the People's Republic of China

From the Publisher