Discussions about involuntary migration cut across disciplines from social scientific and humanistic inquiry. While the movement of people from one place to another has been happening sincethe beginning of human history, people move for many different reasons and movement does not always signal the freedom of mobility. For example, the conditions of “Asian” and Asian diasporic migration are deeply shaped by a history of coerced and forced labor in regions in the Asia-Pacific that is itself the outcome of racial and global capitalism, colonization, and empire-making. Since the sixteenth century, from Asia to the Américas, Africa, and Europe, involuntary migration has had many names, including indentured servitude, abduction, (transnational) adoption, human trafficking, slavery, “coolitude,” denial of citizenship, and contracted labor.

Focusing on involuntary migration creates opportunities for us to recognize that Asians are both agents and objects of involuntary migration—and in their movement they form the core of Asian diasporas and hybridized cultures worldwide. During the Global Asias Summer Institute 2024, our outstanding cohort investigated involuntary migration and its role in the making of Global Asias by working with historical perspectives that engaged these issues from the vantage point of the past and present while exploring Asian futurities. Under the direction of Tina Chen, Annie Isabel Fukushima, and Kristin Roebuck, cohort members led daily seminar discussions of recent publications concerning issues of involuntary migration and provided critical feedback on each others’ works-in-progress.

We are incredibly excited to see the work, collaboration, and supportive connections that have already begun to form over the past week!

Here’s a video collage of photographs from the week, thanks to the amazing documentary efforts of Annie Isabel Fukushima.

This year’s participants included:

Da In Choi
University California, Los Angeles

Chenxi Luo
Washington University in St. Louis

Ashley Morford
Weber State University

Hana Lethen
Columbia University

Phuong Vuong
University California, San Diego

Trung Nguyen
University of California, Merced

Jeehyun Choi
Harvard University