Chinese immigrant professionals in the Western workplace: A grounded understanding

Abstract

While progress has been made in increasing workforce diversity, literature shows that systemic and structural injustice persist in the workplace. Among the many dimensions of workplace inequalities, the intersection of race and social class remains understudied. Comprising a literature review and two empirical studies, this thesis examined how Chinese immigrant professionals experienced and navigated the Western workplace concurrently underpinned by a postcolonial racial hierarchy and capitalist value system and ideology. This thesis makes original contributions to theory and practice by articulating the experience and agency of Chinese immigrant professionals, analyzing their workplace strategies amid racial injustice and class privileges, and providing critical and alternative frames of understanding workplace diversity. This thesis is comprised of three sub-studies. First, it reviews how social class has been studied in workplace diversity literature and draws on the broad disciplines of political economy and sociology to develop alternative ways of conceptualization and theorization. Informed by the literature interrogating systemic and institutional racism, the first empirical study investigates how Chinese immigrant professionals navigate the Western workplace in which they are deemed disadvantaged racially but privileged from a class perspective. The second empirical study, informed by the postcolonial understanding of culture, investigates how Chinese immigrant professionals negotiate their workplace experience in the West. The findings problematize the persistent Othering imposed on people of color in Western workplaces and provide alternative frames of understanding. Beyond advancing theory, the thesis presents numerous recommendations for individuals and organizations on addressing and challenging systemic and structural injustice in the workplace.