Second-generation Vietnamese in Russia: who migrates to the ancestral Homeland?

The article examines the influence of transnational engagements during childhood and adolescence on migration plans and desires of second-generation Vietnamese in Russia. The article is based on twenty-two in-depth biographical interviews with individuals of Vietnamese descent, aged 17-35, as well as on more than ten interviews with their family members and participant observation at diasporic events. Field research was conducted between 2015 and 2018 as part of a broader project entitled "Transnational and Translocal Aspects of Migration in Modern Russia" at the European University at Saint-Petersburg, and funded by the Russian Science Foundation. Descendants of migrants live in a transnational social field created by actual transnational movements and symbolic transnational involvement and ties. It generates nostalgic affection towards parents' homeland. Ancestral homeland migration of second-generation immigrants is usually understood as being propelled by this longing and desire to belong. However, my study of biographies and narratives of young adults raised in Russia in Vietnamese and mixed Russian-Vietnamese families showed that, first, their transnational involvement often did not gave rise to positive feelings towards their ethnic heritage, and second, having such sentiments is not sufficient to produce a desire for 'return' migration. Second generation's experience of visiting parents' homeland varies from long-term stays up to 5 years during pre-school or elementary school to short trips for family reasons. Very few Vietnamese families could afford regular (every 2 to 3 years) trips. Therefore, most children did not develop feelings of belonging in Vietnam and usually remember it as a hostile environment. This, in turn, produces resentment towards their parents' ethnicity and a stronger attachment to a familiar Russian setting. Still, life trajectories of the second generation, to a large extent, are affected by the practices of 'symbolic transnationalism' enacted through parental upbringing that differs from mixed to Vietnamese families. In the early post-Soviet period mixed families lived the life of the upper-middle class, and Vietnamese ethnicity was perceived as a source of stigma, so the Vietnamese origin of ethnically mixed children was often concealed. Today these adults have ambivalent attitudes towards their Vietnameseness: they may explore some cultural features, such as cuisine, and those who have emigrated praise their hybrid background for their adaptability to unfamiliar contexts. Children from Vietnamese families feel more pressure either to adhere to the "traditional" Vietnamese value system with its focus on family or to choose a Westernized Russian individualistic life path. In some occasions migration to Vietnam is viewed as a way to increase social status - it is especially true for eldest daughters who may achieve that by having a successful marriage. Only in that case would members of the second generation who have positive feelings towards their Vietnamese heritage actually migrate.

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