MIGRATION AND TRANSNATIONALISM-MIGRATING PEOPLE, MIGRATING CULTURE: OPTICS, METHODS, AND IMPACTS Lecturers: Prof. Peggy LEVITT and Mgr. Radka KLVAŇOVÁ, M.A. Student: Goran VUJNOVIC Brno, 24 January 25, 2014 3. DISCUSS IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION USING THE CONCEPTS OF ‘CULTURAL ARMATURE’ AND ‘CITY SCALE’. Most of the Migrant population lives in big and diverse cities. Since migrant are part of these cities, they are more globally connected, because of the flow of the people and their money from cities to their countries of origin. In these cities migrants are connected also between themselves through various processes and institutions such as political, economical or social. Today we have more and more cities that are functioning beyond national boundaries and real time space that they are located. Cities are becoming more global and with that they are putting themselves on global market and they are competing to get investors, customers and workers from all over the world. They are doing this to provide growth and better living standards for their citizens that are including migrants. Competition among cities has brought to an even greater struggle for global and domestic capital and different forms of support. Migrants are also part of that competition and city scaling in their own ways. They produce, they consume, they raise their families and create social and other institutions with these activities they are affecting city’s image and position on national and global level. Cultural diversity can contribute to better positioning of the cities, and migrants may become marketable asset. Migrants are bringing new ideas and transnational ties that could be useful in global market. With their ideas, activities, and cultural diversity they are influencing city’s policy, institutions and flows. They are indeed changing urban governance, movements and further developments of cities. Cultural armature is consisted of history and cultural geography, urban-self presentation, cultural responses to demography and prevailing ethos towards immigrants. All these aspects and attitude towards migrants is usually best visible in municipal responses to migrants themselves. Cultural armatures could be developed in different ways and have different impacts, and all of this will be reflected towards migrants. Racial and ethnic relations, government policies, migrant policies are part of global world and also part of everyday migrants. Policies and attitudes towards migrants are visible on example of Portland and Danbury. Both of the cities have had policies that provided many migrants with new place to live, but also with difficulties of their everyday lives. They made policies and actions that helped migrants to adapt, but they didn’t have same attitudes when it comes to an opinion considering migrants. Portland and its city governance made greater effort to help migrants, with help of many non-governmental organizations. Danbury as a city made less contribution to migrant status and better life, but non-governmental organizations were present to help. Both cities trough their history showed that they are indeed global and diverse; migrants have different ways of living in those cities. Portland for example have place where migrants and native citizens mix, but Danbury citizens are spatially more segregated. Portland have created atmosphere where migrants can feel safe and secure, but Danbury saw migrants as threat to their jobs or some other vital positions in the city, so voices that are against diversity prevailed over those who are still for the diverse city. More positive attitude towards migrants in Portland can be seen in programs that are helping migrants to adapt better such as school services, health services or Refugees Services. Number of groups and organization increased so migrant’s ca better and fully adapt to their new home. Literature: JAWORSKI, N. B, New Perspectives on Immigrant Contexts of Reception: The Cultural Armature of Cities, Nordic Journal of Migration Studies 2 (1), 2012, p. 78-88. SCHILLER Glick, N. and CAGLAR, A, Towards a Comparative Theory of Locality in Migration Studies: Migrant Incorporation and City Scale. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35 (2), 2012, p. 177-202. 4. WHAT STATE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION OF THE MIGRANTS? ANSWER THIS QUESTION USING AT LEAST 2 READINGS FROM THE SYLLABUS. Migrants often find themselves without clear relationship between them and the country they arrived to, and they also have problems with social rights. Since access is usually dependent on political decisions, migrants can often find themselves without social rights. Sometimes if they don’t accept conditions that they are offered to, they might search for alternative solutions such as different groups or organizations. If we take UK for an example it is not that hard for migrants to put their children to school even if their migrant status is not clear or confirmed, but it will be hard for them to receive free health care system. These problems may occur on various other issues, but they are sometimes faced with no access to basic or minimum of state welfare systems. If we look at the host state as a one that is responsible for the migrants it can develop a set of measures to provide migrants with the most basic human rights, but the question of responsibility isn’t always simple. When host state and the state of origin are not well organized it can cause many problems, for example labor market and migrants that are searching for jobs could be exploited by employers who use gaps in regulations and laws. Host countries are usually using strict regulations when it comes to migrant social rights, because they have witnessed different ways of abuse of the social systems, so sometimes group of migrants can force state to produce these strict laws. Responsibility for the migrants is mutual, because migrants are often in between host country and country of origin. Problems and migrant statuses could be solved through some sort of bilateral or multilateral agreements that will provide certain level of cooperation between social security institutions of the signatory countries. These agreement will can provide migrants with enough amount of social security. European Union has developed successful bilateral and multilateral agreements. When it comes to European Union it is easier to sign and accomplish these agreements because countries that are inside European Union have much more similar and well developed social systems, for example when it comes to old age pension. It is easier to connect similar systems and to organize them and their functioning. Solution to the responsibility towards migrants may not be between states themselves or states separately, rather it can be found in organization that work outside of state parameters. States can of course contribute and fund establishing these programs and associations or non-governmental organizations that can help migrants to achieve their social rights and goals, or at least they should not obstruct these groups. Literature: SABATES-WHEELER, R. and FELDMAN, R, Introduction: Mapping Migrant Welfareonto Social Provisioning, In Migration and Social Protection. Claiming Social RightsBeyondBorders. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p. 3-35 SABATES-WHEELER, R. and FELDMAN, R, Social Security for Migrants: A Global overview of Portability Arrangements In Migration and Social Protection. Claiming Social Rights Beyond Borders. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p. 91-116 7. DISCUSS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATIONALISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM USING THE EXAMPLE OF ARTS AND MUSEUMS. Examples of how great impact museums have on making our views and attitudes about our culture and culture outside of our world are museums in Boston and New York. These museums are providing visitors with cosmopolitan teachings and new images of what they are seeing. They are presenting influences of how other parts of the world had influence on national art and artists. Brooklyn Museum is showing image of immigrant influence on American culture but also an image of nation on global level. Changes in America during 19^th century showed how culture and presentation of art could be used for expressing their thoughts on current situation and further development. Period that followed after the War in 1812, supported cultural nationalism and many Americans thought that they should reject European cultural supremacy and find new ways of expressing themselves. At the end of 1870s wanted to show and educate public and discover the real truths that were connected to certain forms of art. If we look at the example of Liberty Bowl that represents important national treasure of American society, very few people actually know the real story behind that very same bowl. Liberty bowl carries within itself a portion of Chinese culture and creativity. Second half of the 18^th century was marked with an increased number of rich colonists in North America that were eager to find and acquire art and various different types of artistic expressions for themselves. This included Chinese art such as silk, porcelains and wallpapers, and these objects represented status symbol for those wealthy colonists. Even Benjamin Franklin was presented on some paintings with dressing that was influenced by other parts of the world such as Persian and Arabic, and they were part of an image presentation that expressed intelligence and gentility that are supposed to impress viewers. There are many objects that are presented and are parts of national treasures, but in reality they are truly global and inspired by other nations and their cultural expression and point of view. It is not that easy to find and object or form of art that is purely American, because all of these objects are telling a complex story. These stories are proving to us that usually treasures that are important to certain nation and are considered as national treasures are indeed telling a global stories, rather than stories that are strictly connected to specific nation. Also there is an example of the Peabody Essex Museum were many objects are part of American evolution in art, but a lot of these objects are made elsewhere. There are objects that are made even before America existed. Stories that these objects are telling us are not here just to promote America, rather than to tell a story to a visitors about people that are far away and to connect them without national boundaries. Literature: The Lawyer and the Priest, (text doesn’t have resource), text was used on 16^th of October.