Identity and Political Participation among First-Generation Immigrants from Mainland China in the UK

This thesis interrogates how first-generation migrants from Mainland China in the UK construct identity and navigate participation with a particular focus on the complex legacies of ‘authoritarian socialisation’. Departing from assimilationist and behavioural models, it reconceptualises political participation not as a checklist of visible actions, but as a strategic form of identity regulation shaped by various contexts: authoritarian residues, institutional constraints, and digital infrastructures.
Methodologically, drawing on auto-photography, political photo elicitation and semi-structured interviews, the study adopts a multi-modal qualitative methodology rooted in the constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology. The analytical process is guided by Reflexive Thematic Analysis, which can provide thick and in-depth interpretation of complicated contents.
The thesis advances four identity strategies and two identity-political participation co-construction frameworks: the Networked Political Model, which explains how participation adjusts rather than transforms pre-existing identity structures; and the Dialectical–Emergence Model, which captures moments of rupture, reconstitution, and ideological recalibration. These are further elaborated through six sub-models that illuminate the diverse strategies migrants employ when negotiating identity shifts and political engagements.
The thesis culminates in the articulation of the Modular Identity–Participation Configuration (MIPC)—a synthetic framework that reframes political participation not as an extension or result of stable identity formation or evolution, but as an assemblage of strategically deployed identity modules. It theorises migrants not as subjects progressing toward political legibility, but as strategic actors configuring visibility across conflicting contexts and engaging with political activities selectively and wisely.
This research is one of the first systematic studies that reveals political participation and identity among the first-generation mainland Chinese immigrants. Although the finding may not be representative of the political activities of the entire Chinese community in the UK, it contributes to the theorisation of diasporic political participation in a transnational context. The MIPC framework shows that first-generation migrants from mainland China integrate into society neither through complete assimilation nor through complete rejection, but rather through dynamic adjustments of silence, expression, and selective visibility in overlapping contexts—including the Chinese political system, British multiculturalism, and transnational digital space.