Hidden Geographies: Migration, Intersectionality, and Social Justice in a Global Contemporaneous Space

Abstract

In June 2020, a group of transnational scholars responded to an invitation to participate in a themed issue on migration and social justice, following the American Association of Geographers statement against discrimination and hate crimes resulting from COVID-19 (May 2020; followed by a 2021 statement against anti-Asian racism and violence) and its statement on Racism and the Death of George Floyd (June 2020). The six articles bring together an exceptionally diverse scholarship on hidden geographies of migration, immigration, and transnational migration; the intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, class, nationality, and citizenship in creating systems of oppression and discrimination; and social justice in a global contemporaneous space. This article (1) introduces the context shaping the birth of this Focus section, including the conjuncture of events, embodied effects, and the disciplinary past; (2) discusses its echoing with antiracist and feminist geography scholarship and race and ethnicity scholarship (primarily by women of color), and its creative contribution, as a collection, to connecting the conceptual theme of “hidden geographies” with the epistemological thinking of “contemporaneous geography;” and (3) highlights the analytical tool of intersectionality and summarizes all six articles and their contributions to the Focus section themes as the global “hidden geographies” project continues to empower more.

2020年5月, 美国地理学家协会发表声明, 反对COVID-19歧视和仇恨犯罪（随后于2021年发表了抵制反亚裔种族主义和暴力的声明）, 并于2020年6月发表了关于种族主义和乔治·弗洛伊德之死的声明。2020年6月, 来自于不同国家的一些学者应邀回应了移民与社会正义议题。这六篇文章汇集了极其多样的学术研究, 包括移民和跨国移民的隐藏地理, 种族、性别、族裔、阶级、国籍和公民身份在建立压迫和歧视制度时的相互作用, 以及全球现实空间中的社会正义。本文（1）介绍了本焦点专栏的诞生背景, 包括事件耦合、具体效果和学科历史；（2）讨论了它与反种族主义和女权主义地理学研究、种族和民族学（主要是有色女性人种）的呼应, 以及本专栏在衔接“隐藏地理”概念和“当代地理”认识论思考上的创造性贡献；（3）在全球“隐藏地理”研究持续取得进展的背景下, 本文强调了交叉性分析工具, 总结了这六篇文章及其对焦点专栏的贡献。

En junio de 2020, un grupo transnacional de académicos aceptó la invitación a participar en un número especial sobre migración y justicia social, atendiendo la declaración de la Asociación Americana de Geógrafos contra la discriminación y los crímenes del odio resultantes del COVID-19 (mayo de 2020; seguida de una declaración en 2021 contra el racismo y la violencia antiasiáticos) y su declaración sobre el racismo y la muerte de George Floyd (junio de 2020). Los seis artículos reúnen una erudición excepcionalmente diversa sobre las geografías ocultas de la migración, la inmigración, y la migración transnacional; las intersecciones de raza, género, etnicidad, clase, nacionalidad y ciudadanía en la creación de sistemas de opresión y discriminación; y la justicia social en un espacio global contemporáneo. Este artículo, (1) presenta el contexto que configuró el nacimiento de esta sección de Focus, incluyendo la coyuntura de eventos, los efectos encarnados y el pasado disciplinario; (2) discute su reverberación en la erudición de la geografía antirracista y feminista, y la erudición sobre raza y etnicidad ( primariamente por mujeres de color), y su contribución creativa, como colección, a conectar el tema conceptual de “las geografías ocultas” con el pensamiento epistemológico de “la geografía contemporánea”; y (3) destaca la herramienta analítica de la interseccionalidad y compendia todos los seis artículos y sus contribuciones a los temas de la sección de Focus a medida que el proyecto de las “geografías ocultas” globales continúa su empoderamiento.

Key Words:

• contemporaneous geography
• hidden geographies
• intersectionality
• migration
• social justice

关键词：:

• 当代地理学
• 隐蔽地理
• 交叉性
• 移民
• 社会正义。

Palabras clave::

• geografía contemporánea
• geografías ocultas
• interseccionalidad
• justicia social
• migración

Acknowledgments

Our deepest gratitude goes to Dr. Heejun Chang, the editor of The Professional Geographer, for his vision, support, and patience for this Focus section, and to Robin Maier and other staff for their wonderful assistance. Profound thanks to all the reviewers of the six articles and the reviewer of the introductory article, as well as friends, colleagues, and attendants at our AAG panels in 2021, for their fervent interest and generous comments. Special thanks to the Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University (MSU); the APA Studies Program at MSU; and Dr. Siddharth Chandra, Dr. Naoko Wake, Dr. Anna Pegler-Gordon, and many other colleagues from both programs, for their collegial support over the years. Finally, thanks to all the contributing authors for each article and everyone’s unflagging enthusiasm, dedication to social justice, and long-term work with great empathy and creativity, which have collectively inspired the birth of this Focus section.

Additional information

Funding

The guest editor received the Dr. Delia Koo Endowment Awards from the Asian Studies Center at MSU, which directly funded our AAG panels in 2021 and the production of this Focus section.

Notes on contributors

Guo Chen

GUO CHEN is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences and the Global Urban Studies Program at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include poverty, inequality, housing, slums, migration, urbanization, and social and environmental justice.