2026 International Forum on: Social Organization, Connection and Care in a Migration Context

MA Student

Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia

Title: Opting Out: Interactional Dimensions of Ethnic Identity and ‘Non-joining’

Abstract: Currently, ethnic communities are characterized in a way that creates hard boundaries between insiders and outsiders. These boundaries are incompatible with trends among successive generations that indicate less community participation, more residential dispersion, but high co-ethnic sense of belonging. I ask, why do individuals opt out of community organizations but retain high sense of co-ethnic belonging? I find that the co-ethnic encounter is fraught. Individuals are highly self conscious of implicit expectations from co-ethnics in encounters and react negatively. They eventually surrender to their repeated inability to fulfil them and opt out entirely. These experiences drive them away from social activities common in immigrant organizations. I argue that these two dimensions of identification, self-concept and interpersonal interaction, are independent of each other. Rather, interpersonal dimensions of identification demand signals of cultural membership that are more difficult to acquire. This interactional dimension is what motivates or de-motivates future community engagement.

Bio: Gabrielle is a second year masters student at UBC’s Department of Sociology. Her research bridges between ethnic community narrative and formal organization and how individuals understand their sense of identity and belonging

Associate Professor

University of British Columbia, School of Social Work

Title: Stateless and Forgotten: Lived Experiences of Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal as Humanitarian Assistance Diminishes

Abstract: More than three decades after their displacement from Bhutan, an estimated eight to ten thousand Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees remain in camps in Nepal, as humanitarian assistance continues to decline and global attention wanes. While much scholarship has focused on third-country resettlement, far less is known about those who remain in protracted exile. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews (n=20), this paper examines how long-term family separation, advancing age, economic precarity, and the gradual withdrawal of aid shape everyday experiences of uncertainty and marginalization. Engaging insights from ageing, gerontology, and social work, the study foregrounds the embodied and relational dimensions of growing old in displacement. Five themes emerge – the camp’s afterlife, distress from separation, bodily fragility, bureaucratic statelessness, and fragile hope – revealing a population suspended in time: neither repatriated, locally integrated, nor fully supported. The paper calls for renewed international attention and age-sensitive humanitarian and social work interventions that prioritize dignity, continuity of care, and sustainable psychosocial support for stateless populations ageing in exile.

Bio: Dr. Karki is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, University of British Columbia. His research seeks to promote social justice by examining how systems of power and inequality—such as racism, caste discrimination, colonialism, and other forms of oppression—affect people’s lives and opportunities. Using interdisciplinary approaches, his academic work investigates the social and economic factors that impact health, well-being, and a sense of belonging among racialized and minoritized communities, including immigrants, refugees, and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals.

Associate Professor

University of British Columbia, School of Social Work

Title: “Here and all over the world”: Transnationalisms embedded in experiences of peer support among racialized transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in Canada

Abstract: A body of emerging scholarship has taken up questions of migration and transnationalism in the lives of racialized transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. This literature has, in many cases, pointed to transnational expressions of community-building among this group, often against contexts of intersectional precarity. In this study, I draw on the findings of a qualitative study, which was originally designed to examine peer support experiences among TGD people in Vancouver and Toronto, to consider transnationalisms embedded in the peer connections of racialized participants. Relying on translocational intersectionality as a conceptual framework, I specifically highlight the promises and tensions that transnationalisms appear to represent in the peer support narratives of TGD people involved in this study. Based on this analysis, I conclude with implications of this work for the development of systems of support that address the dynamic priorities of racialized TGD people in the Canadian context.

Bio: Hannah Kia is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Social Work. Her program of research broadly addresses health equity issues among sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. In recent years, she has led critical qualitative studies that primarily address the health and well-being of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people.

PhD. Student

University of British Columbia, Department of Sociology

Title: Divergence Without Detachment: Value Discrepancy, Everyday Nationhood, and National Pride Across Immigrant Generations in Canada

Abstract: This study examines how value discrepancy—the gap between individuals' values and those of average Canadians—shapes national pride across immigrant generations. Building on boundary work and social identity theory, I ask whether perceived value distance from average citizens undermines national membership and pride. Using Canada's 2020 General Social Survey (N=34,044), I construct a 12-item national pride index and operationalise value discrepancy across six civic domains. Hierarchical linear regression with interaction terms analyses this relationship across first-, second-, and third-plus generations. Respondents consistently rate their own values higher than those attributed to average Canadians, with discrepancies widening across generations. Larger discrepancies predict lower pride among first-generation immigrants, but this association is attenuated—and sometimes reversed—among subsequent generations. I theorise a generational shift from boundary softening to boundary monitoring, arguing that perceived value discrepancy can function as a claim to national ownership rather than an assimilation deficit.

Bio: Capri Kong is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research examines social networks, transnational ties, and intergenerational integration among immigrants in Canada, focusing on how relational dynamics shape belonging, identity formation, and community cohesion.

Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of British Columbia

Director, Centre for the Study of Services to Children and Families, University of British Columbia

Title: Exploring Asian Families’ Perspectives on Child Welfare Systems: Insights from a

Grounded Theory Study

Abstract: This presentation shares emerging insights from a grounded theory study examining Asian children and families’ perspectives the child welfare system in Canada. The study draws on qualitative interviews with 79 participants, including parents, former children in care, child welfare workers, and community service providers in Vancouver and Toronto. This presentation focuses on how participants described their understanding of child welfare systems, including perceptions of risk, intervention, and support. Qualitative findings suggests that limited information and misconceptions about child welfare systems may shape how families interpret and engage with services. Participants also reflected on the model minority myth and cultural expectations in shaping help-seeking decisions. While the broader project is not limited to newcomer populations, many participants’ experiences intersect with migration and settlement with implications supporting culturally competent practices with Asian families across diverse migration contexts.

Bio: Dr. Barbara Lee is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia. Her research uses community-engaged, mixed methods approaches to advance evidence-informed practice with children, youth, and families from diverse communities, and to advance simulation-based learning in social work education.

Assistant Professor

Hong Kong Baptist University, Academy of Wellness and Human Development

Title: Health Disparity and Digital Divide of the Older South Asian Residents in Hong Kong

Abstract: Hong Kong’s population is ageing and becoming more diverse. Ethnic minorities now make up over 4% of residents, with South Asians increasing significantly from 2011 to 2021, and the proportion aged 55+ rising to 11.6%. Recent research shows that the daily lives of older South Asians mainly depend on family support. They face multiple barriers in social integration, language and cultural mismatches in services, and limited health and digital literacy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, structural stigmas and segregation further hindered their access to timely information and care. Amid the rapid digitisation of healthcare, equitable access to local platforms like “HA GO”, “eHealth”, and “iAM Smart” becomes essential for healthy and positive ageing. However, these apps mainly operate in Chinese and English, with complex terminology and workflows that are largely difficult for older users who are not fluent in Chinese to understand. Interpreter support remains insufficient, and low socioeconomic status limits device ownership and access to skills training, thereby widening the digital divide. This research examines health knowledge and explores issues related to the use of online health service platforms among older South Asian residents in Hong Kong. Using the Modified Resources and Appropriation Theory (RAT), it discusses digital inequalities at different levels and explores how language accessibility, cultural norms, and social capital intersect to influence engagement and health outcomes. It especially highlights future research directions, such as usability audits of “HA GO” and "eHealth" with older South Asian users and their access to social capital, while evaluating policy options, including the inclusion of major ethnic languages in health services and proactive measures to reduce structural barriers.

Bio: Vincent Wan-ping Lee is currently an Assistant Professor at the Academy of Wellness and Human Development, Hong Kong Baptist University. Recently, he has been engaged in research projects concerning family caregiving, social service evaluations, the use of information technology by older adults, employment among older adults, and the livelihoods of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. He has also authored a number of articles published in international academic journals and edited books.

Assistant Professor

Hong Kong Baptist University, Academy of Chinese, History, Religion and Philosophy

Title: From Shanghai to Athens: state intervention, consular services and transnational connections in Greek resettlement

Abstract: Economic hardship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries propelled Greeks into global mobility, yet their settlements in China and Hong Kong are overlooked. In concessions, Greek families built livelihoods through merchant houses, shipping links, community committees, and consular services that provided care and protection. War and regime change turned settlers into refugees as violence, legal uncertainty, and nationalization closed businesses and threatened residents. Drawing on archival material, this paper reconstructs how state intervention, consular services, and transnational ties organized care, connection, and exit through documents, visas, passage, commercial brokers, and diaspora mutual aid pooling funds and navigating checkpoints. It examines reception in Athens, where authorities and civic groups converted maritime and kin networks into pathways for reintegration. Examining both historical and contemporary experiences enables us to understand the mechanisms of change and continuity within diasporic communities. This contribution traces needs (loss of income, documentation problems, housing on arrival) and the hybrid mix of formal and informal support that met them. In Athens, Greek authorities and civic organizations processed returnees and converted maritime and kinship networks into pathways for reintegration. Renewed links between Greece and China, including Belt and Road logistics around Piraeus and shipping ties, show how commercial and diplomatic relations shape migrant care and mobility today. By foregrounding integration, inequality, and identity, the paper counters xenophobic and nationalist rhetoric, stimulates diaspora research, and clarifies change and continuity in diasporic communities. It advances an inclusive understanding of difference that moves beyond ethnic boundaries in a world still marked by division.

Bio: Dr. Mavropoulos earned a BA in Balkan studies and a MA in European History in Greece, received Sapienza University's PhD fellowship in 2014, completed his doctorate in Rome in 2019 and held roles in Europe and Asia, becoming Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2024.

Doctoral Student

Hong Kong Baptist University, Department of Geography

Title: Extreme Temperatures and Transit Use in Immigrant-Concentrated Neighborhoods: Evidence from New York City

Abstract: Public transit is especially important for people who depend on it for daily travel and access to essential services, serving as a vital link to social inclusion. Existing studies have found that new immigrants are often more dependent on public transportation. At the same time, climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme heat and cold, which may disrupt transit use in unequal ways. However, there is still limited evidence on whether temperature affects transit use differently across neighborhoods with different immigrant compositions, and whether flexible transit services are more resilient than fixed-route modes. This study combines bus and subway smart card data, paratransit ridership records, high-resolution weather data, and neighborhood demographic information for New York City in 2023. Using hourly panel data and high-dimensional fixed-effects models, we estimate the effects of temperature on transit use and examine whether these effects vary across neighborhoods with different shares of immigrants. The results show that both hot and cold temperatures reduce transit use. The negative effect of extreme heat is larger in neighborhoods with higher immigrant shares. In contrast, declines in paratransit ridership are smaller than those in bus and subway ridership, suggesting that paratransit is less sensitive to adverse temperature conditions. These findings suggest that immigrant-concentrated neighborhoods may face greater mobility disruption under extreme heat and that flexible transit services can play an important role in supporting more inclusive climate adaptation.

Bio: Rong Zheng is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University. His research focuses on the resilience and equity implications of emerging transport modes, with a particular interest in their role in shaping more sustainable and inclusive transport systems.

Associate Professor

Hong Kong Baptist University, Academy of Geography, Sociology and International Studies

PhD Candidate

Hong Kong Baptist University, Academy of Geography, Sociology and International Studies

Title: Rural urban Circuits of Reactive Coupling: Workers’ Precarity, Mobility Tactics, and Coupled Governance in Cambodia’s Garment Economy

Abstracts: urban circuit governed by coupled governance—an interlocked regime in which shop‑floor efficiency governance and off‑factory social governance mutually reinforce each other across city and countryside. At the macro level, Cambodia’s strategic coupling to buyer‑driven apparel global production networks—and episodic decoupling via the pandemic, EU’s partial suspension of Everything But Arms (EBA) trade preferences for Cambodia, and U.S. tariff cycles—injects order and price volatility into this circuit. At the meso level, coupled governance manages and transmits that volatility through two intertwined subsystems: efficiency governance on the factory side subsistence‑anchored base pay, routinized overtime, short‑term contract cycling, age‑selective non‑renewal, rotational suspensions with nominal retainers) and social governance spanning the rural–urban divide (tripartite minimum‑wage setting and paper‑oriented audits, thin social protection with weak portability, land‑collateralized microfinance, and kin‑based childcare and food support). At the micro/household level, workers exercise agency by practicing reactive coupling from below along the circuit: They anchor in Phnom Penh when overtime sustains subsistence and retreat to villages during suspensions to cut costs and tap reverse remittances. They switch factories to chase bonuses and hours across seasons, rotate care between city and village, stack side gigs and informal finance, renegotiate debts and collateral, bid for supervisory roles, and shift sectors or destinations when possible. These mobility tactics are patterned by life stage, gendered care responsibilities, debt clocks, and the erosion of rural fallback through land sales and collateralization. Drawing on a 2023–25 mixed‑methods study in Phnom Penh and its peripheries (86 worker surveys; 46 interviews with workers, unionists, and NGOs), we specify cross‑level mechanisms and measures: tempo risk transfer (order shocks mapped to contracts, hours, suspensions), reproduction externalization across the rural–urban circuit (who bears food, care, schooling, downtime), and micro‑coupling (mobility and household reconfiguration strategies). Centering coupled governance within the rural–urban circuit explains why incremental wage adjustments and compliance audits—absent downtime insurance, portable benefits, debt forbearance, and childcare supports—normalize precarity and restrict intergenerational mobility. Policy levers should be circuit‑aware and governance‑attuned, with audits capturing pace and suspension practices, living‑cost‑based urban wages, suspension‑linked income support, protections for small landholdings from predatory collateralization, portable social insurance across factories and provinces, and mobility supports that enable rather than penalize circular migration.

Bio: Kaxton Siu is an associate professor at The Hong Kong Baptist University. He researches comparative labor migration studies, urban sociology, and youth studies, specializing in Chinese society, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Japan, and Cambodia. He has published two books: Chinese Migrant Workers and Employer Domination (2020), and Hong Kong Society (2022).

Tsz Chung Lai is a PhD candidate at The Hong Kong Baptist University. He researches urban sociology, labor migration studies, development studies, and community governance, specializing in Hong Kong, Chinese society, and Southeast Asia.

PhD Candidate

Hong Kong Baptist University, Department of Social Work

Title: From Migrant Worker to Migrant Grandmother: A Gendered Life Course Perspective

Abstract:  Existing migration research often examines women’s labour migration and later-life caregiving separately. Drawing on a gendered life course framework, this study explores how women who migrated for work during their mothering stage later become migrant grandmothers.

This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 36 migrant grandmothers in Chongqing, China, all of whom had prior labour migration experience during their mothering stage. Preliminary analysis of several transcripts was conducted using thematic analysis guided by a gendered life course perspective. Preliminary findings reveal that women’s transitions are shaped by structural pressures, including rural economic transformation and urban dual-earner family needs, and persistent gendered norms positioning women as primary caregivers. Across the life course, participants’ caregiving shifted from “survival-driven economic provision” during the mothering stage to “intensive, science-informed caregiving” during the grandmothering stage. Despite this shift, women remained bound by gendered care expectations: mothering was marked by guilt over physical absence, while grandmothering involved navigating physical exhaustion, spousal separation, and intergenerational tension. Women exercised agency through strategies such as remote mothering, emotional adaptation, and selective compromise, yet these practices operated within, rather than challenged, traditional gender divisions. This study illuminates the continuity of care responsibilities across women’s life stages. Findings suggest that policies and services should recognize the cumulative care burdens faced by migrant grandmothers and address gendered assumptions shaping family care arrangements in contemporary China.

Bio: Jia Tang is a third-year PhD candidate in Social Work at Hong Kong Baptist University. My research focuses on intergenerational relationships, family care dynamics and older adults in China, particularly 'floating grandmothers' who migrate from rural to urban areas to provide care for their grandchildren while their adult children work.

Assistant Professor

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Social Work

Title: Transnational Family Care and Dementia: Experiences of Hong Kong Canadian Immigrant Carers in Vancouver

Abstract: Older immigrants with dementia have unique care needs, particularly within transnational contexts. This paper examines the experiences of 13 Hong Kong Canadian immigrant carers in Vancouver, a city with one of the largest Hong Kong diasporas in Canada. Using a transnational lens, the study highlights how flexible migration patterns shape caregiving practices, while dementia constrains mobility for both older adults and carers. Participants navigate formal care systems by drawing on dual frames of reference—Hong Kong and Canada—and negotiate between cultural preferences and pragmatic reliance on mainstream services. Information and communication technology (ICT) emerges as a vital tool, enabling families to sustain culturally meaningful care and involve relatives abroad in decision-making. Findings underscore the need for practitioners to recognize migration trajectories and for policymakers to expand ethnocultural services and ICT access. This study extends transnational family care literature by foregrounding dementia-specific experiences.

Bio: Karen Lok Yi Wong (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She earned her PhD at UBC. Her research examines dementia, transnational caregiving, and cultural diversity in aging. A registered social worker, she has extensive experience in elder care in Canada.

Assistant Professor

Hong Kong Baptist University, Academy of Chinese, History, Religion and Philosophy

Title: Algorithmic Care: Evaluating AI in Supporting Newcomer Settlement from a Human-Centric Approach in Hong Kong

Abstract: Digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly incorporated into migration governance and social service delivery, reshaping how care, connection, and settlement support are organised for newcomers. While AI-enabled systems promise efficiency, accessibility, and personalised assistance, their implications for social care relationships and migrant wellbeing remain insufficiently examined from a human-centred perspective. This presentation investigates how algorithmic tools are emerging within Hong Kong’s newcomer settlement ecosystem and evaluates their capacity to support — or potentially constrain — meaningful forms of social connection and care. Drawing on interdisciplinary research combining migration studies, social policy analysis, and human-centred AI frameworks, the study analyses case examples of AI-assisted information services, digital platforms used by community organisations, and automated decision-support systems relevant to newcomer integration. The research examines three key questions: (1) how AI mediates access to settlement resources; (2) how algorithmic systems reshape the roles of social organisations and care providers; and (3) whether digital forms of assistance enhance or weaken relational dimensions of care essential for inclusion. Findings suggest that while AI can reduce informational barriers and extend service reach, effective settlement support depends on hybrid models that integrate technological efficiency with community-based and relational care practices. The presentation proposes a framework of “algorithmic care” that foregrounds accountability, cultural sensitivity, and human oversight in AI-supported migration services. By situating technological innovation within broader social organisation processes, the study contributes to ongoing discussions about equitable and ethical care infrastructures in migration contexts.

Bio: Yao Song is an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. His expertise lies at the intersection of Digital Humanities and Human-Computer Interaction, with a focus on social analysis. He investigates how algorithmic interventions reshape migration governance, exploring the human-centric implications of AI on social care, connectivity, and newcomer settlement.