Transnational StudiesSOC 783

B. Nadya JaworskyRoom 3.59

Mondays 16.00 – 17.00Tuesdays 14.00 – 15.00

Final Research Essay Timeline• November 12, 2012 - One-paragraph statement

explaining your choice of topic is due via e-mail.• December 12, 2012 - A short (1-2 pp.) preliminary

summary of your work is due via e-mail. • January 4, 2012 - FINAL ESSAY IS DUE FOR

MASTER’S STUDENT SITTING FOR THE STATE EXAM.• January 22, 2012 - FINAL ESSAY IS DUE VIA E-MAIL

by 23:59.

TQS shorthand:

• I am working on the TOPIC of…

• …because I want to find out how or why... (QUESTION)

• …so that I can help others understand how or why.... (Significance/SO WHAT)

Use the parts of an argument to guide your research:

• What’s the answer to your research question? (CLAIM)

• Why should I believe that? • (REASONS)• How do you know that reason to be true?

(EVIDENCE)• But have you considered this view?

(ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & RESPONSE)

What your research paper should look like:

• Introduction

• Literature/Theory Review

• Method/methodology

• Findings/Data

• Discussion (YOUR ARGUMENT!)

• Conclusion

• References (use ASA Style Guide)

Definitions of migrant transnationalism

• Basch et al (1994): the processes by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement.

• More recent scholarship: More recent scholarship: Transnational migration as taking place within fluid social spaces constantly reworked by migrants embedded in more than one society at a time.

Critiques of a transnational perspective

• Ambiguity of definition• Too easily seen as incompatible with assimilation• Nothing new• Only applicable for first generation• Only applicable to certain areas (Latin America)• Dismissing national border premature

Approaches to studying Approaches to studying transnational migrationtransnational migration

• Production of different transnational topographies – A. dispersion and assimilation; – B. transnational exchange and reciprocity; – C. transnational networks; – D. transnational communities) [Faist]

• “Social fields” as multiple interlocking networks of social relationships [Levitt & Glick Schiller]

Approaches to studying Approaches to studying transnational migration (con’t)transnational migration (con’t)

• Transnationalism ‘from above’ and ‘from below’

[Smith and Guarnizo] • Narrow and broad transnationalism

[Itzigsohn]• Core and expanded transnationalism

[Guarnizo]

Approaches to studying Approaches to studying transnational migration (con’t)transnational migration (con’t)

• Much greater diversification of form and content within present-day transnationalism [Morawska]

• ‘Ways of being’ and ‘ways of belonging’ [Glick Schiller]

• Newness vs. differences in recent transnational migration (dependency on remittances, being pushed into transnational lifestyles, adapting transnational livelihood strategies, highly developed communication and transport)

• Question of the second generation• Still, focus on significance & durability of borders

Transnationalism: the ECONOMIC realm

• Transnational migration as a by-product of late capitalism

• “High points of globalization”

• The effect of remittances (in some countries exceeding the private and official capital inflows)

• Economic transnationalism varies by class

• Subregional context matters

Transnationalism: the POLITICAL realm

• Three domains of action (Østergaard-Nielsen):– Homeland politics (in host countries around

homeland issues; lobbying)– Immigrant politics (to improve social status in

the host country)– Translocal politics (includes activities migrants

undertake to support specific localities in the home country)

• Forms of transnational citizenship [Fox]: parallel; simultaneous; integrated

Transnationalism: the SOCIAL realm

• Family/Kinship Relations• Gendered experiences• ‘Feminization of migration’• Circulating between places of settlement

and origin; gaining social capital• Intrinsic asymmetries in relations between

migrants and nonmigrants• Class and race: differentiated nature of

labor migration

Transnationalism: the CULTURAL realm

• Globalization as equal (or not!) to Westernization

• Borderlands as a “transnational unit” (Paredes)

• Transculturation – when foreign material enters a new social context (Ortiz)

• “Migration mélange” – mixing cultural traits crates a hybridity continuum (Nederveen Pieterse)

Transnationalism: the RELIGIOUS realm

• Religion is the ultimate boundary crosser

• Is often combined with culture

• Supports and is transformed by all aspects of the migration experience

• Function of building social capital

• Socialization into politics

• May help with access to government assistance and information

Transnationalism: Arenas for future research

• Space, place and the nature of embeddedness

• The variable consequences of transnationalism (both negative as well as positive outcomes)

• Comparative studies of international migration and internal migration

Future Directions for Transnational Migration Studies

• the need to include nonmigrants as well as migrants

• consider the multiple sites and levels of transnational social fields beyond just the sending and receiving country,

• rethink assumptions about belonging, • and trace the historical continuity of these

processes

Methodological Implications: Space, Place, Embededness

• Multi-sited, or cosmopolitan ethnographies• “Extended case” method and “reflexive ethnography”• Examining the “scale shifts” within social movements• But! We should be careful with nationally defined

categories; and also keep in mind addressing gender, race and class in the research.

• Spatial scales, cultural-historical particularity of places, and the global nature of the flows produce different kinds of transnational social fields

Methodological Implications: Variable Consequences

• More studies show positive than negative• BUT sending states become dependent on migrants• Receiving country’s migration policies• Under which conditions does migration have positive or

negative consequences?• Are remittances spent effectively?• How are race and gender hierarchies affected?• What is the role of collective resources (HTAs, etc)?

Miraflores, D.R.

What are “Transnational Villages?”

• Actual migration is not necessary to be a member

• They emerge at least partially because of social remittances (the ideas behaviors and social capital that flow from receiving to sending communities)

• They create and are created by organizations that themselves come to act across borders

• They are studies in contrast

SOCIAL REMITTANCES

Patterns of interaction with the host society:

• Recipient observers• Instrumental adapters• Purposeful innovators (sponges)

SOCIAL REMITTANCESPatterns of social remittance evolution• Migrants abandon some of social/cultural

tools they arrive with• Migrants’ social/cultural tools unchanged

(recipient observers)• Migrants add new items that do not change

existing tools (instrumental adapters)• Migrants ideas and practice combine with

host-country norms (purposeful innovators)

SOCIAL REMITTANCES

Types of social remittances:

• Normative structures – ideas, values and beliefs – pp. 59-60

• Systems of practice – the actions shaped by normative structures

• Social capital

CULTURAL DIFFUSION AND SOCIAL REMITTANCES

How social remittances are transmitted differently from other types of global cultural dissemination:•It is possible to specify how social remittances flow•they are transmitted systematically and intentionally•they are transmitted between individuals that know one another or have mutual social ties• the timing can be multi-staged – macro-level material can come first and ease the way

What determines the nature and the magnitude of the impact of social remittances?

• The nature of the remittance itself• The nature of the transnational system• The characteristics of the messenger• The target audience• Differences in sending & receiving

countries• Features of the transmission process

Re-shaping stages of the life cycle

• Childrearing; what is it like to be brought up between borders?

• School • Earning a living• Adult family life• Feasibility of return

Making values from two worlds fit

• Gender• Race• Right and wrong

Transnational Politics – Miraflores in the 1990s

• Structure• Articulating a discourse that was more

transnational in tone• Policy• Executing campaign strategies across borders • Leadership• Financing

What about RACE?

Core themes

• Transnational Villages• Social Remittances• Cultural Diffusion• Migration and Gender• Migration and Race• Values between two worlds• Transnational Politics• Transnational Religion