比利時臺灣移民餐館經營者與家庭主婦日常生活的交友實踐與友好互動經驗

Practices of Making Friends and Convivial Experiences Living in a Foreign Land: Taiwanese Immigrant Restaurateurs and Housewives in Belgium

林顯明(Hsien-Ming LIN)

《香港社會科學學報》 58期 (2022/06) Pp. 63-101

摘要

本文為第一篇針對居住於海外之臺灣移民在日常生活中交友實踐與友好互動經驗（convivial experiences）之研究成果；研究者以比利時臺灣移民社群為研究對象，而資料來源則是奠基在研究者於比利時所進行為期三年（2017-2020）田野調查的基礎而來，研究者順利招募了共計24位臺灣移民參與本文的研究與訪談過程。研究者發現，食物分享（food sharing）對於本文受訪者在結交新朋友和拓展人際關係上扮演着重要的角色，且透過與其他具有相似移民背景之成員共同分享和食用富有家鄉意象的餐點，進一步提供了他們在接待國社會中尋求歸屬感、認同感和情感支持等功能。除了食物分享外，社群媒體和網站的使用在比利時臺灣移民之日常生活和交友實踐上亦扮演着重要的角色，但移民群體使用社群媒體來結交新朋友和拓展人際關係網絡存在着年齡世代和性別的使用差異；總體而言，年輕世代（35歲以下）相較於年長世代（50歲以上）以及男性移民相較於女性移民對於使用社群媒體在接待國社會中結交新朋友和拓展人際關係抱持着更為開放的態度。另外，友好互動經驗方面，在新冠肺炎（Covid-19）出現前，本文大多數的受訪者皆擁有在接待國社會之公共空間，例如：公園、人行道、博物館、超商等與他人正向和美好的互動經驗。而這樣的友好互動經驗，也進一步地促使了擁有此類型經驗之受訪者建構出具有世界主義特質的自我認同感（Cosmopolitan identity）並據此增進了他們的跨文化溝通與互動能力（inter-cultural competence）。然而，這樣的經驗，隨着新冠肺炎在比利時疫情的發展，臺灣移民與本地居民或接待國社會其他人的美好互動經驗有了明顯地減少，且亦有超過半數的受訪者表示，受到新冠肺炎疫情的影響，他們在日常生活中經歷到歧視的頻率與情況提高了。另外，本文也發現，雖然個別的餐館經營者與移民家庭主婦容或擁有不一樣的交友和友好互動經驗，但這兩類移民群體所展現出來的人際關係網絡特徵卻是類似的，亦即他們所擁有的人際關係網絡展現出了較高的同質性與異質性較低的特徵。最後，有關本文的研究限制，以及對於未來研究的建議與展望也都會在文中進行討論。

關鍵字

比利時 ； 友好經驗 ； 交友實踐 ； 新冠肺炎 ； 臺灣移民

並列摘要

This seminal study examines how Taiwanese immigrants make friends and their convivial experiences interacting with social others in the host society in Belgium. In this study, the author successfully recruited 24 Taiwanese immigrant restaurateurs and housewives to participate in semi-structured interviews during the author's three years of fieldwork as the Chinese language and cultural courses teacher at the Ecole Sun Yat Sen Brussels. The study finds that sharing foods with others is one of the important friendship-making strategies in migrants' everyday life. In so doing, food does not only provide its material and nutrition functions, but it also makes many social meanings and functions for people who participate in activities and assist them to obtain sense of belonging, group identity and emotional support. In addition to food sharing, social media use is another vital tool for Taiwanese immigrants to make friends and cultivate their social networks living in a foreign country. However, a significant difference in using social media in making friends exists between different genders and age generations. With regard to convivial experiences, most of the research participants had positive experiences interacting with locals and social others before the COVID-19 pandemic. As they successfully accumulated such convivial experiences, these experiences, in turn, helped them construct a cosmopolitan identity and improve their personal inter-cultural competences. However, after the pandemic has worsened, Taiwanese immigrants have faced discriminations due to their race and migrant backgrounds more frequently. On the contrary, the frequencies of convivial interactions between Taiwanese immigrants with locals and social others have obviously decreased because of the pandemic. Notably, although Taiwanese immigrant restaurateurs and housewives may have different experiences and practices in making friends, they have similar social network characteristics as they have more intra-ethnic than interethnic friends and social ties. In addition, the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further research will also be discussed in the article.

並列關鍵字

Belgium ； Convivial experiences ； Covid-19 ； Making friends ； Taiwanese immigrants

參考文獻

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