Emotions matter in home-making, and this is particularly true in migration. Drawing upon qualitative research with 35 first generation new Chinese migrants in New Zealand, this article explores how emotions intersect with home-making and its role in generating “cosmopolitan sociability.” Migrants invest in “emotional labor” to engage in cosmopolitan sociability in order to form new relationship networks, rebuild comfort points and generate a sense of home. For the Chinese migrants in this research, emotional dissonance generated from the early settlement period and everyday encounters have disrupted their opportunities for performing cosmopolitan sociability and feeling at home in a transnational setting.
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