Proving “Race” Identity of Chinese Indonesian Asylum Seekers
Special Issue: Cultural Expert Witnessing
ISBN: 978-1-78743-764-7, eISBN: 978-1-78743-763-0
Publication date: 29 January 2018
Abstract
This chapter documents the process of conducting research as an anthropological expert witness to provide evidentiary proof of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of “race” among Chinese Indonesian asylum seekers in the United States. The research employed detailed oral history interviews supplemented by ethnographic information on names, kinship terminologies, and rituals honoring the dead to reconcile the dilemma of verifying cultural identity without essentializing Chinese culture. It also employed the theory of racialization to account for persecution based on “race” according to the 1951 Refugee Convention while recognizing the social science convention of viewing “race” as socially constructed.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the sabbatical support from the Provost’s Office at California State University, Los Angeles, to work on my book on Identities on Trial: Asylum Seekers from Asia and to complete this chapter; to the many asylum seekers who have shared their stories with me; to Joann Yeh and Alix Politanoff for reading an early draft of this chapter; to my family, friends, and colleagues who have supported me on this project; and to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Citation
Ngin, C. (2018), "Proving “Race” Identity of Chinese Indonesian Asylum Seekers", Sarat, A. and Rodriguez, L. (Ed.) Special Issue: Cultural Expert Witnessing (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 74), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 133-164. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720180000074007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited