Retheorizing Intersectional Identities with the Study of Chinese LGBTQ+ Migrants

Abstract

Intersectionality has transformed our understanding of how multiple axes of power mutually shape social inequalities. However, significant questions arise when applying the theory’s macro-level structural insights to identities on experiential, interactional, and situational levels. In this article, we retheorize intersectionality as a processual outcome. Drawing on in-depth interviews with skilled Chinese LGBTQ+ migrants in North America (n = 50), we detail three challenges that arise when individuals negotiate multiple identities across shifting interactions in national contexts: conflicts, disidentification, and indetermination. Each theme captures how individuals actively reconfigure identities while maintaining a continuous experience of mutual constitution. Instead of cohering into a unity, even one that is greater than the sum of its parts, our findings suggest that intersectionality is in an ongoing process of making, unmaking, and remaking.