SOC585/SOC585E MIGRATION AND TRASNATIONALISM – MIGRATING PEOPLE, MIGRATING CULTURE: OPTICS, METHODS, AND IMPACTS Fall 2013 Peggy Levitt (Wellesley College and Harvard University) Radka Klvaňová (Faculty of Social Studies) Office hours: by appointment Contact person: Radka Klvaňová: radka.klvanova@gmail.com Migration studies at FSS •Courses (Sociology and Social Anthropology) •Research: identities, ethnicization, ethnic economies, inclusion/exclusion, transnationalism, gender •Publications –Transnational Migration (in Czech) –Boundaries in Motion –Social Studies – Transnationalism (in Czech) Course sessions •Session 1 (26.9.) Introduction to the course (RK) •Session 2 (14.10.) Transnational Studies and Transnational Approaches to Migration/Studying Culture in Motion (PL) • Group project: Design a research methodology for studying culture in motion. Redesign your own research project using a transnational optic •Session 3 (15.10.) The Cultural Armature of Cities (PL) • Group Project: What is the nature of the cultural armature in the city where you live? What would you do to make it more conducive to immigration integration? •Session 4 (16.10.) Using Culture to Create Diverse Communities (PL) • Group Project: Curate your own museum exhibit on immigration and/or cosmopolitanism •Session 5 (17.10.) Global Social Protection Regimes (PL) • Group Project: Design a new kind of education, health, pension, or social welfare program that responds to transnational migration •Session 6 (18.10.) Lecture by Peggy Levitt at Identities in Conflict, Conflict in Identities conference •Session 7 (14.11.) Migration and Transnationalism in CEE (RK) •Session 8 (5.12.) Conclusion (RK) • Conditions for Passing the Course •1. Participation in class (discussions, group projects) (20%) •2. Peer-to-peer feedback on the outline of the final paper (20%) •3. Final paper (3,000 – 5,000 words) (35%) •4. Written final exam (25%) • •Total: 100 points •90-100 = A; 80-89 = B; 70-79 = C; 60-69 = D; 50-59 = E; 0-49 = F Study Materials and Instructions •IS Learning Materials – in electronic form •Instructions for the final essay as well as written final exam will be available in the IS Study Materials folder. •Please, check the study materials folder regularly for actual readings and study instructions. • • Final paper •Length: 3,000 – 5,000 words •Group or individual •Based on group projects from class with PL or a topic of individual choice based on literature, interesting case study etc. •Form: academic paper –more information will follow… •Draft of the paper will be discussed by colleagues on the last session (5.12.) – to be delivered by 24.11. (to IS Homework Vaults) •Deadline: 12.1.2014 Written exam •Take-home exam •Orientation in the literature and main concepts •Date: to be specified Introduction •Your background (where have you lived, studied, background in migration study) •Field of interest in social science/sociology •Motivation, hopes, expectations towards the course… • Brainstorming on transnationalism •What is transnationalism? •What social groups come to your mind? •Your life in a transnational perspective? • •Plurality of definitions of transnationalism • Today not lecturing but rather discussions and excercise to focus on the topic, make you think about migration and transnationalism before the week with PL. Anthropologists‘ discovery of a new phenomena? •1990s – new form of migration: transnational migration –Critical to conventional theories of immigration –Focus on cross-border processes and identities •Basch, Glick Schiller, Szanton Blanc (1994): –Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-States –-“By living their lives across borders, transmigrants find themselves confronted with and engaged in the nation building processes of two or more nation-states. Their identities and practices are configured by hegemonic categories, such as race and ethnicity, that are deeply embedded in the nation building processes of these nation states.“ (p. 22) –Transnationalism as a form of resistance • Since the nineties, critical anthropologists and sociologists (U.S., GB) proposed that a new form of migration has emerged – transnational migration, transmigrants. These theories were from the beginning radically critical towards what they call conventional or hegemonic migration theories of immigration (next slide) Theories of assimilation, acculturation etc. were based on an assumption of migration as unidirectional movement from the country of origin to the receiving country and focused on the problems migrants face in the so-called host societies, theories of transnational migration shifted attention to crossborder processes and organization of social life of migrants who live their lives in connection to more than one nation state, predominantly the country of origin and the country of immigration. Nations Unbound – long term anthropological research of Carribean and Filipino migrants living in NY. (one of the first books, important in developing the project of transnational migration studies) They link transnational migration to: 1.changing context of global capitalism – current mode of production (low pay, job insecurity) requires maintaing homeland ties, they are economically and politically vurnerable and it foster migrants‘ transnational links 2.processes of decolonization and nation-building processes in former colonies. -“By living their lives across borders, transmigrants find themselves confronted with and engaged in the nation building processes of two or more nation-states. Their identities and practices are configured by hegemonic categories, such as race and ethnicity, that are deeply embedded in the nation building processes of these nation states.“ (p. 22) - Deterritorialization and nationalization processes – a new form of nation state: deterritorialized nation state that encourages migrants‘ continuing relations to their homeland. Migrants are encouraged to work abroad and send remittances - These authors conceptualized transnationalism of migrants as a form of resistance against their racial and class subordination in US. Conventional immigration theories •The problem of assimilation (Americanization) •Chicago School of Sociology –„Problem of maintaining political order…in a community that has no common culture“ –Migrants: „peoples who have abandoned the political allegiance of the old country, and are gradually acquiring the culture of the new (Park and Burgess 1969) •Melting pot, cultural pluralism (Glazer, Moynihan) –ethnic groups and their culture (=roots, not vital links) – •Critique: Social sciences participate in nation-building projects (lack of reflexivity) United States as a nation of immigrants have been concerned with the issues of loyalty and patriotism, fear of political commitments of immigrants towards their states of origin, emphasis on assimilation and creation of united American people. U.S. Social science (Chicago school) has played an important role in shaping the manner in which immigrant populations were understood to relate to the U.S. nation. Social scientists took the social and political problem of assimilation (what was politically desirable) as description of processes immigrants were going through and this was described as an inevitable historical process. Chicago school defined their problematic as „Problem of maintaining political order…in a community that has no common culture“ Migrants: „peoples who have abandoned the political allegiance of the old country, and are gradually acquiring the culture of the new (Park and Burgess 1969) The later model of cultural pluralism – construction of immigrants as bounded ethnic groups with distinct cultures (competing, culture as a explanation fro inequality). Culture was viewed in terms of a metaphor of roots that were transplated rather than vital links. Multiculturalism – efforts to incorporate the previously subaltern people into representation of the American nation – but the conception is still bounded by the image of American nation, do not look accross borders. Nation-building social science – lack of reflexivity the uprooted.jpg transplanted-history-immigrants-in-urban-america-john-bodnar-paperback-cover-art.jpg Americanization project •“There can be no divided allegiance here. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1919) melting pot.jpg The critique of methodological nationalism •Methodological nationalism – the tendency to accept nation state as a given unit of social analysis, society = nation state •Critique of bounded concepts of ethnicity, race, culture – social constructs that reflect power relations •BOTH/AND instead of EITHER/OR logic •New phenomena requires new conceptual tools: transmigrant, transnational migration, deterritorialized nation state, transnational social field •Wimmer, Glick Schiller. 2002. Methodological nationalism and beyond: nation state building, migration and the social sciences. • An important part of transnational theories is their critique of conventional anthropological categories of ethnicity, culture and identity that equate culture and nation-state society and limit the ability of researchers to perceive and analyze the phenomenon of transnationalism. This critique has been later elaborated as a critique of methodological nationalism so often found in social science: a tendency of social science to equate society with nation state. A new phenomena or a new perspective? • A returning question in debates on transnationalism is whether transnationalism is indeed a new phenomena? -The assumed novelty of the phenomenon was criticized by citing examples of transnational involvements dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century and even earlier (e.g. political initiatives of exiles after WWI participating in nation building in CEE) -Wimmer, Glick Schiller – the world in the end of 19th century was very transnational, intensive globalization produced dense labour migration that was not much constrained administratively (compared to postwar conditions). -During the period between two world wars intensive nation-building and national closure. A new phenomena or a new perspective? •Transnationalism in History studies •David Gerber – transnational activity of personal correspondence of 19th century immigrants to America –Letters as sites of construction of identity, reflection of in-betweenes –Negotiation of personal relationships –Exchange of social intelligence – Gerber – Authors of their lives – immigrants and their close people were always interconnected (or their strived for it), they did not loose interest in their homeland – analysis of personal correspondence of European immigrants to America in late ninetieth century as a case of formation of transnational social field through exchange of letters: acts of reading, writing, and organization of the exchange of letters – all contributed to a formation of transnational social field. Immigrants and those left behind used letters to reformulate their relationships, future separation or reunion, letter as a site for ongoing construction of identity, reflection of in-betweeness, exchange of information and images about distant parts of the world, discussion of remittances. In sum, mutual influence of the localities. - The revision of the scholarship of the Chicago school has shown that they have collected lots of evidence about connections of migrants to America to their countries of origin, but they theorized this type of connections as transitional phenomena that will be lost in the natural process of assimilation. „Let us do our American and Czech duty.“ „Fight for our independence.“ (Branch of Czech National Society in Halletsville, Texas, around 1917) North-Moravian emigrants in America (Wallachian region) Over the Sea exhibition about emigration from the Frenštát region in Moravia to America in the second half of the 19th century, museum of emigration, activities supported by Czech national societies in the United States, revival of links after the fall of iron curtain, evidence of long-term persistence of the social networks between places of origin and destination, but also a part of the transnational shift after the Cold War. A transnational turn in migration studies •Critical perspective: critique of methodological nationalism •Shift in the focus on cross-border processes, flows, movement •Social networks, links btn. new homes and original homes •Formation of migrant identities, hybridity •Transnationalism vs. Globalization? • -Wimmer, Glick Schiller: In postwar migration studies migrants were perceived as: -potential security threat (the issue of loyalty) - Radically culturally different (disregard for other characteristics such as class) -Socially marginal - exception from normality of territorial sedentariness -- this conception of duality between migrants and host populations has driven the research on migration (selection of research topics, questions etc.) Critical perspective – against hegemonic discourse in anthropology – methodological nationalism and dualism btn. „modern“ Us and „traditional“ Others – border zones that are the focus of transnational scholarship are opportunities to question these simple binaries Transnationalism vs. Globalization studies: the continuing importance of nation state and nationalism in the age of globalization, nation state do not loose importance but they are transformed Transnational migration studies extended their focus - not only on the working class transnational migrants but also on bussinessmen, high-skilled professionals who live their lives on move, religious transnational communities etc. obr_2.JPG